Welcome to Information Wasteland, a series about the many ways misinformation is worming its way into our algorithms and minds, wreaking havoc on our culture. Here, writer Kat Tenbarge dives into how wellness and beauty influencers can lead people down an alt-right pipeline, examining one of the many ways misinformation can reach teen girls specifically.
Jeffree Star was bleaching the roots of his hot pink hair on TikTok Live when he started making a speech about how the “LGB” (the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community) should be separate from the “T” (the trans community). Then he posted the clip on X (formerly Twitter) and asked for thoughts from his audience. The beauty influencer’s replies quickly filled up with derogatory comments about trans and nonbinary people, which has become a major theme in Star’s viral content as of late — despite his own flamboyantly gay, gender-bending persona.
Less than a decade ago, at the height of Star’s YouTube fame, he released an androgyny-themed eye shadow palette, referred to himself as an “alien” rather than a gender, and said he used “every pronouns.” He still wears dresses and high heels and sells makeup. But now he’s also parroting anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, has said he doesn’t believe in “the they and them [pronouns],” and promoted a post by an extremist, anti-trans hate group.
“About a hundred thousand people have unfollowed me this week,” Star said during a YouTube roundtable hosted by Piers Morgan on September 17. Star was invited onto Morgan’s show for the first time after he defended the late far-right political activist Charlie Kirk, who founded the Turning Point USA organization. Star was surrounded by conservative influencers. “I loved a lot of what he said and it resonates with me,” the beauty guru said about Kirk. “The good news is, hundreds of thousands of more people have followed me [after these comments], and they’re on the exact same page.”
Star is one of many influencers in the beauty and wellness space who is embedded in what some people call an “alt-right pipeline.” His latest pivot may be unsurprising in the context of his racist MySpace past (he has since apologized) and other controversies, but it also mirrors what’s happening on the internet at large. It’s not just Andrew Tate and the “manosphere” radicalizing men and boys. The online beauty and wellness community, which teaches many women, girls, and queer people how to apply eye shadow and blush or what yoga routines to follow, among other things, has also begun pushing some toward the modern conservative party under Donald Trump. But this pipeline hasn’t been taken nearly as seriously.
