Beyond the Macrons’ lawsuit against Candace Owens: Why do people accuse powerful women of being men?

Hit with a defamation lawsuit, conservative commentator Candace Owens is not backing away from her baseless claims that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, is a man.

Responding to the lawsuit July 23, Owens said Brigitte Macron "is definitely a man," and called the Macrons’ lawsuit a public relations strategy. 

"They don’t care if they win," Owens said. "This is about running it through the press."

French President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady filed the lawsuit more than a year after Owens initially made headlines for promoting the false claim that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux. (Trogneux is Brigitte’s older brother.) 

The lawsuit alleges that, since March 2024, Owens repeatedly used the false statement "to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money," while disregarding "all credible evidence disproving her claim." The legal complaint said that after the Macrons requested a retraction, Owens retaliated by releasing an eight-part podcast series, "Becoming Brigitte."

The Macrons have experienced "relentless bullying on a worldwide scale," the lawsuit said. 

Owens’ claim is one example of a wider trend of conspiracy theories targeting prominent women in politics and culture, including former first lady Michelle Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Conspiracy theory researchers say that’s because these women are influential, politically left-leaning and break gender stereotypes at a time when the conservative movement favors traditional gender roles.

Conspiracy theories target women seen as their political opposition

For nearly five years, conservative political commentators and social media users have circulated false claims that Michelle Obama was once a man. Despite PolitiFact and others’ repeated reporting about the baseless narrative, the conspiracy theory persists. 

Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami political science professor who has written multiple books about conspiracy theories, said women such as Macron and Obama are targeted  because of their status.

It’s rare for someone to accuse random, lesser-known people of a secret plot. "Conspiracy theories are generally thrown at power, and these are powerful people," Uscinski said.

Other women who’ve been the target of gender-focused conspiracy theories include:  

• WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner: In 2022, Griner was detained in Russia and sentenced to nine years in prison on drug charges. As Biden administration officials worked to return Griner to the U.S., social media users circulated false posts saying she was really a man. 

• Harris: During her 2024 presidential run, X users shared the false claim that Harris was transgender. 

• Queen Camilla: In late 2024, Facebook users circulated a manipulated video showing Camilla, Britain’s queen consort, saying she was "born a man." 

Conspiracy theorists often focus on elites they dislike or view as a member of an opposition coalition, experts told PolitiFact. 

Joel Penney, a Montclair State University communications professor, said these claims have been largely directed at women perceived to be politically left or center-left.

"Asserting that they’re literally disguising their true identity and they’re doing these things behind the scenes is a way of mapping fears and anxieties about broader gender issues in politics and society onto them personally," Penney said. 

Gender-focused conspiracy theories linked to anti-transgender rhetoric

Gender-focused conspiracy theories have proliferated in recent years alongside increasing anti-transgender rhetoric and support for restrictive policies on trans people, experts said. 

The term "transvestigating" describes when conspiracy theorists begin questioning a person’s gender and accusing them of being transgender, Penney said, and it’s become a common attack. GLAAD, a nonprofit advocacy group that works to counter discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the media, describes the practice as an "example of anti-LGBTQ online hate and disinformation."

Throughout 2024, many Republican campaign advertisements focused on transgender people, particularly trans women participating in women’s sports. 

This sort of anti-trans political rhetoric increased newfound suspicion toward women who don’t appear to conform to female gender norms, Penney said. 

Michael Mark Cohen, an ​​American studies and African American studies professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said women such as Macron, Obama, Griner and others were likely targeted because their talents, achievements and ambition break stereotypical gender norms. 

Essentially, they undermine someone’s "‘correct’ or ‘natural’ gender roles," so they must secretly be men, he said.

Aria Halliday, a University of Kentucky women and gender studies professor, said these attacks are rooted in transphobia and, in the cases of women like Griner and Obama, racism. People pushing these narratives strive to perpetuate the "falsehood that women like Obama, Macron, and others are not women, therefore limiting the spectrum of what women can look like, do, and how they participate in society."

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.