‘It is that deep.’: Jess Britvich on Alt-Right Pipelines for Women, Cabaret, and Getting Angry

Jess Britvich has eight tattoos.

There’s a cherry blossom branch with the typewriter words “minute by minute” in honor of her sister’s late husband, who died after a battle with Ewing sarcoma. A girl with a flowering head. An aspen tree, which matches her mom’s and her sisters’. A pair of bunny ears, in the style of Louise from Bob’s burgers. A flash piece she got in the Alleghany cemetery, which she swears to me is a perfectly normal hangout spot. A mountain range. A fairy wearing a petal hat. And a carrot — her assigned vegetable in the Britvich family garden of her childhood.

That same eclectic, hyperfeminine brand has helped her amass nearly 75,000 followers on Instagram (@jessbritvich), where she uploads reels discussing leftist politics and internet culture while doing her makeup.

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You're in this really interesting space on the internet. You've been a social worker, you've been a recruiter. What do you consider yourself? Are you an activist, an influencer? Something in between?

Oh, isn't that a good question? Um, I see myself as a... Oh, God.

I do see what I do as an extension of my social work career. Before even going back into social work, I was kind of having like the “I don't know what I want to do with my life, so I'm just going keep going back to school because I love school and I love learning.” Now I'm in a lot of debt, and it might not have been like the most strategic choice, but I do feel my education has led me to where I am today and creating this type of content.

My background is actually in journalism and political science. I would never call myself a journalist because I don't think that what I do is journalism, but I do think it's content creation. I do think it's new media.

I'm also in that process trying to figure out, okay, there's so there's so much going on. There's so much that I want to talk about, but I can't talk about it all. So where's my voice the strongest, and where can I provide the best information and content?

In terms of whether or not I'm an activist, I don't know. I think, like, it's a start to activism. We see so much radicalization happening on the online space, so on one end, I don't want to be like, “No, it's not activism,” because I do think that we really can't discount the impact of the online space, especially when we're seeing how many people have been radicalized to the far right online. And so I do think that there's a way for activism online. I do like to think that's part of what I'm doing, but I also don't want to be — This is the start of activism, but you also need to get out into the community and actually talk to your neighbors and engage in mutual aid and do things that aren't behind the scenes.

You mentioned you're pretty new to all of this. Can you talk about when you started gaining traction?

I'm a Buzzfeed millennial. I've always loved internet culture. So, of course, once TikTok came out, I started creating content around 2021 when I was still working in social work. I was working in child welfare — really heavy work, obviously — and wanted a creative outlet. So I started doing makeup content online, just for fun, to help me self-care a little bit. Then I ended up leaving social work, and I got this role as a recruiter. This was my first role out of the field, and I was like, okay, I'm not talking 24/7 with my colleagues and my clients and advocating for all these things going on politically in our world. I'm in this office with these white-collar guys who are just like…my little liberal bubble I was in burst a little bit, you know?

I need a place to be able to talk about these things that I've always been talking about. At the same time, I was no longer inspired to do the beauty content. I'm not an esthetician. I'm not a makeup artist. Like, I don't have anything to add to the space other than consumerism. That's when I started talking, combining that makeup content with more of the political commentary side of things. I started doing that on TikTok, and I just had a renewed sense of of like, “Oh my God, I love, like, I love this.” It's so funny because obviously with all of my journalism and political science, like social work, this is always kind of what I've wanted to do.

I posted one video on TikTok talking about alt-right pipelines, specifically alt-right pipelines that we see for women because there's been a lot of conversation around men's radicalization and the alt-right pipeline for men, manosphere content, all that kind of stuff. But I feel there's not as much conversation around these alt-right pipelines for women and how women are being convinced to cosign their own oppression. So I made that video, and it really kind of blew up.

From there, I've just expanded and have talked about all these different trends and internet culture through a feminist, progressive lens. I talk about a lot of stuff that I learned in social work school, theories that explain how our world operates, but if you're not tuned into some of these academic spaces, like, you're not going to hear that.

Can you give an example?

I've been doing kind of a mythbusting series. So, talking about things like the myth of the welfare queen and how the history of the welfare queen was basically just racism to try to cut social services. I talk a lot about that and how we're still seeing those effects today, especially around the cutting of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown and how some of the rhetoric we were seeing is the same rhetoric. Even things like theories around gender essentialism, which we're seeing in a lot of these alt-right pipelines, especially for women, like this idea that there is an inherent and fixed gender binary, which we know is not the truth. It's literally a lie. It’s to push this Christian nationalist ideal and this patriarchal society where men are these protectors, and women are submissive.

The alt-right pipeline for men and the alt-right pipeline for women operate very differently, at least in terms of aesthetic. The pipeline for men is angry. It's loud. It's Joe Rogan, very close to the mic, yelling at you about what's wrong with society. I feel like the alt-right pipeline for women is more insidious. Do you see that? 

One hundred percent. The alt-right pipeline for women is sold as self-care. It's soft. It's stepping into your divine feminine. It's soft living. It's almost framed as this rejection of capitalism, which is such… it's like you're almost there, but you're not, you know? It never talks about things like universal childcare or universal healthcare or being paid for your labor of staying at home and working. It never actually talks about policy. It just sells you this ideology of like, “Oh, I married a provider, so I get to go to pilates.” It really is so, so insidious because these women are buying into this idea of, “Why I don't feel fulfilled in life is not because of capitalism. It's because I'm not subscribing to my role as a woman. So I'm going to subscribe to patriarchy instead.”

We know, though, that it really just results in women's oppression. It's like working; you’ve got to make the decision that's right for your family, but at the end of the day, giving up your career is giving up autonomy. It's giving up, even for the family, like, yes, a lot of people decide to stay at home because childcare is so insanely expensive and that's why it's so expensive because it wants to keep people out of the workforce, mainly women. But at the same time, by giving up that career, if you look at income projections, you're actually losing household income down the line. Everyone has to make the decision that's right for their family, but we need to be advocating so that people aren't forced into those decisions.

I kind of went off the rails, but yes, ultimately, it drives me absolutely insane because this women's red-pill content is framed as like the soft, aesthetic, like whatever, but it's the opposite. You can't have the soft aesthetic, “I'm choosing my feminine” without that violent, patriarchal other side of the coin.

And authoritarian regimes always believe that if you can control the home, you can control the nation. So it's always modeling the home after how they want to model the nation. It's the idea of this male patriarchal figure, which is basically like the head of the home and also the head of the state. And then like these submissive women in the home, which is then kind of like the constituents. It's really this idea of enforcing the structure in the home, so then it's easier to enforce this structure on a national scale.

Yeah. I think it's very dangerous in a way, almost in a way that the alt-right content for men isn't. A lot of people will look at Joe Rogan and be like, “Oh, well, that guy's an asshole.” I think you're a lot less likely to feel that way about someone like Nara Smith or Ballerina Farm.

Well, then you see a lot of the choice feminism thing, which, I did a video recently talking about patriarchal bargaining, this idea that we all live in a patriarchal society, so we're all going to make decisions in order to gain power within this society. A lot of times, that's going to be the decisions that align with patriarchy. Part of it is a survival technique, but there's a level of it too, where you can't talk about patriarchy and you can't talk about choice feminism without talking about white supremacy. All of these things go hand-in-hand. And there's so many — These women right now, the Erica Kirks, the Karoline Leavitts, are choosing to align themselves with not only patriarchy, but with their race instead of their gender. Because white supremacy has always been the most violently enforced structure.

It’s the myth of the white woman as like this commodity that needs to be protected at all costs from the other. I mean, I see that a lot in the conservative framing of the “migrant crisis.”

Yes, yes, absolutely! Even ICE, just in general. God, if you look at the White House Instagram page, which I try not to, but sometimes you have to, for knowing what's going on…It's disgusting. The amount of just like overt propaganda about protecting the homeland, about making America safe again. It's absolutely disgusting, and it's so overt. We're so past covert now.

It’s not even dog whistling. It's just whistling.

It's just whistling. We're singin’.

I can't help but notice they're choosing music from these women who make up that white blonde ideal. Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift.

Yeah, you're so right. Besides, RIP, Nicki Minaj, that one really hurts.

There's this aesthetic, and as someone who's been following your content for a bit now, I can't help but notice that you kind of fit the aesthetic. Do you think about that in relation to your content and positioning yourself?

I think about that just in general in how I operate in the world as a white woman who has a lot of privilege. I always joke that I’m Republican-passing.

But in general, yes. That's something that I'm very cognizant of in multiple ways. I'm always trying to use my voice and say these things, even at work. Realizing that I'm given more grace than trans individuals, than Black individuals, who are who I'm learning a lot of this from, and I'm parroting the work — not parroting, but everything that I've learned has been from those more marginalized. I think even my content does well because I'm able to speak to, for better or for worse, a demographic who might not listen to someone who doesn't look like me, which is disgusting and not right, but that’s the truth sometimes.

Sometimes I get shit for doing my makeup while talking about this kind of stuff, and I do try to be cognizant, like when I was talking about Renee Good's murder, I didn't do my makeup during that one because that feels insensitive. But we need content that is entertainment first, especially online. People don't scroll online to go to school. It’s twofold. There's parts where it's just like doing my makeup, and it's the visual hook of it all. You do just have to do that online, it is good for the algorithm. But I think also, I kind of like the idea of talking about these topics, how are we living in this current world with all of these horrible atrocities happening and just having to go about our day. That's what we have to do. The wheels keep turning. We just have to keep going to work. There’s kind of a little bit of symbolism between doing my makeup, like very mundanely, but also talking about these, like getting ready to literally go out into this world. And then I think too, there's the performance aspect of it all. I talk a lot about feminism, patriarchy, whatever. And it's like, look, I'm also playing into it to a degree. I think that there's deeper symbolism to it. But as people like to say in my comments also, maybe it's not that deep. 

But people get mad at me for it sometimes. They're like, why can't you just — why do you have to do your makeup? Why can't you just like, whatever? I'm like, let a girl live, you know? Like, can I at least do a little sparkle as we're talking about…like, let’s have a little fun.

I think that's an advantage of your content in this internet space. The right, in their content, they're having fun. They're laughing, they're making jokes, and they've done a lot of work to characterize the left as very serious and very un-fun. Where like, for me personally, I find a lot of joy in community and finding these spaces with this deep acceptance. So I think it's valuable to kind of have fun! And fascism detests art.

It really does, genuinely. I talk about this in my content, too. A lot of the most influential content on the right doesn't appear overtly political. It is that Nara Smith, trad-wifey, day in my life kind of stuff, but it's pushing. It is more entertainment-focused, and that's what works. My page is more overtly political, but I think that in order to balance it, to get it out there, you need to play the game a little bit. And it makes it more fun for me to create, too, because I like sensory things, you know? Like, I like a little sparkle and a little color, so why not?

And like, the Pantone color of the year is…what is it? Like, white?

Cloud dancer. And I think it is so reflective of the trends right now, this obsession with chicness, neutrals, soft femininity, quiet luxury. It's all so understated. Sanitized. I went through a big hyperfixation with Cabaret earlier this year. At the end, fascism has taken over Berlin. In the most recent rendition, the Kit Kat Klub dancers are super flamboyant. They're playing with gender and sexuality and dress. Then through act two, their outfits become more and more sterilized and more and more subdued. Then in the final scene, they're all in these beige suits. And it is so striking to the trends that we are seeing today.

Even the Abercrombie rebrand, which I love because it's so easy to mix and match neutrals. But I think that's part of it too. You don't have time to explore personal style and expression whenever you're just trying to survive and get to work. So you buy things that you're able to throw together. It's not about expression. It's just about survival. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we're seeing attacks on the trans community, the Black community, on all of these communities that really curate culture at the end of the day. I don't think it's a shock that then, we are seeing in our trends this obsession with cleanness, this obsession with minimalism. It reflects our current political moment, and that's something that I've always tried to communicate. My content is like, it is that deep. Trends and the things that we think are frivolous actually reflect our larger political moment, and we need to be paying attention to all of it.

I love that in your content, if you're just scrolling through your feed, you might not see the political nature of your content. I think about young women online who are vulnerable to this predatory right-wing content, and might be making decisions of, “Well, I don't want to go to college. I just need to find a man.” I kind of see your content as an alternative to that space in some way. Is that something you identify with?

I hope so. I really hope so. And I hope that I'm not just talking to my bubble of leftist thinkers, I hope that it permeates beyond that too. I've heard that it does. People have said that to me, that they've shared it with loved ones in their life to help open up these conversations. At the end of the day, I do think I'm talking about politics and culture. I’m reaching people, or are at least hoping to reach people who are like, “I don't pay attention to politics.” Or just the, “it's not that deep” crowd, you know, like, um, because it is. I can't stand when people say, like, “Why does everything have to be so political these days?” Because everything is political. Every single choice you make, every single thing you interact with from the moment you wake up is because of politics. Like, welcome to life, baby!

Let's talk about being told to be less political. You were fired for your post about Charlie Kirk. 

Yes.

It seems like a lot of people want you to shut up about politics. I find it really interesting from the party that proclaims they detest political correctness, and then people like you and others are being doxxed and fired for speaking your political opinions. What do you make of that?

The hypocrisy is the point at the end of the day. They want to be able to push these kind of [Ben Shapiro impression] facts don't care about your feelings. That's why I get so mad. I'm trying not to talk about the whole firing situation as much because I am ultimately happy I got fired. It was probably good for me personally. I don't think I should be a recruiter for, like, this insurance firm. Like, I don't think that's my calling in life.

But I'm so mad. I'm so mad that it happened because of just, like, I can't believe that I literally got fired for a very mild take. It's like, oh, God, these fascists are all among us, you know? It annoys me because it's those smaller decisions that these fricking people are making, like my boss who decided to fire me, it's these decisions they're making that allow for these larger things to take place.

I want to talk a little about shifting to maybe a more hopeful note. In 2026, we’re seeing the beginnings of movements, whereas 2025 was kind of just getting beaten down in a lot of ways. We’re seeing hope.

I think so too.

Young people are really rising up. Even just millennials. Like, I think about people like you, people like Matt Bernstein, all the way up to like people —

— like Zohran Mamdani!

Like Zohran Mamdani. Exactly. What's giving you hope right now?

I think definitely — sorry, I’m eating this granola bar — definitely, since Zohran Mamdani’s election, there's been a renewed hope, especially among progressives. Even just the whole blue wave. I know electoral politics isn't going to save us, but it helps a little bit. Seeing Zohran’s campaign and even his first week or two he’s been in office.  Seeing him actually put in place all the things we're taking the steps to put in place, all the things that people were like, “Oh, he's saying all this stuff, but it's not actually going to be manageable.” I'm saying like, no, it actually is. That's really been encouraging.

And going to protests! I know there's debate upon what protests are performative. But even these more commercialized protests, they do help you build community, especially if you go with the intent of trying to meet other people there and have conversations.  It's really easy to be in your house, scroll on your phone all day and just feel like this immense despair, but to actually get out and talk to other people in your community and be like, “Wait, no, there is a coalition of people here who are feeling the same way that I'm feeling.  Who are saying this isn't okay.  Who want to fight back against this.”  It takes you out of that paralysis.  

The new cycle is so, so overwhelming, and it's by design because they want to paralyze you into inaction by feeling that it's so overwhelming and that there's so much going on that I can't possibly do anything other than sit here and scroll.  We have to get out and get involved in local efforts.

I do think people are really angry. That's the thing at the end of the day. I made a video saying we all need to be angrier. I think that's what gives me hope. I think seeing people really angry gives me hope.

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