Owning the Libs: Symbolic Negation of #mybodymychoice as a Conservative Rhetorical Strategy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The anti-vaccine movement’s appropriation of the reproductive rights mantra #MyBodyMyChoice has been remarkably successful despite overwhelming evidence in favor of vaccines and the historical precedent for vaccine requirements. I argue that this appropriation of #MyBodyMyChoice constitutes a symbolic negation which is indicative of a new conservative rhetorical strategy of Owning the Libs. This strategy emphasizes affective resonance over political reason and operates through three rhetorical moves. It first paints liberals as hypocrites while blaming them for conservatives’ own skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine. It then elicits an affective response which manifests via right-wing arrogance and superiority on Twitter. Finally, it reconstitutes conservatives as the “true” patriots who are uniquely able to see through government corruption. This research speaks to a new form of right-wing advocacy that forefronts emotion and personal experience as the basis for group formation and sidesteps traditional political and deliberative norms.