That Facebook message may be more than a simple request from an old friend pushing you to try a new skincare product. It could be an entry point into far-right radicalization.
From the outburst of Tupperware parties in the 1960s to the widespread sale of supplements and essential oils on antivaccine Facebook groups in the last decade, multi-level marketing (MLM) has become embedded in American culture. These businesses draw upon American principles of personal entrepreneurship, self-reliance, and upward mobility, operating through a top-down structure that hands the responsibility of sales to individuals while offering incentives to recruit others into the business. By promising to reward their members for selling products and recruiting new distributors, multi-level marketing strategies indoctrinate people into a business model of social networking and female entrepreneurship. However, MLM schemes have faced scrutiny for failing to uphold their promises, leaving many participants misled, in debt, and jobless.
Through both relational and ideological recruitment strategies, MLMs have created a framework for modern conservative womanhood and far-right community building. MLMs and political conservatives have a shared desire to uphold free market capitalism and traditional gender roles. Moreover, despite legal and ethical concerns, MLMs continue to thrive in large part due to protection from conservative politicians. President Donald Trump’s previous Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, whose family owns Amway, one of the largest MLMs in the United States, has leveraged her influence to keep MLMs out of the teeth of the Federal Trade Commission.
By offering an illusion of economic freedom through a “side hustle,” MLMs provide a supposed escape from the paternalism that comes with a corporate 9-to-5. The flexible work they offer appeals especially to stay-at-home moms, keeping many locked in traditional gender roles despite offering the illusion of empowerment. Additionally, MLMs promote their sales groups as supportive communities where women can socialize, turning sisterhood and friendship into a tool for recruitment. In doing so, MLMs exploit stereotypical feminine characteristics such as approachability and emotional appeal that are believed to make women better recruiters and salespeople.
Recruitment rarely happens through direct sales pitches but rather through subtle social pressure. “Hey girl!” messages from acquaintances sharing their “life-changing” opportunities flood women’s inboxes.
Offline, pitches frequently take place in familiar, trusted settings such as churches, where people share testimonies about how their business strengthened their relationship with God. This personalization and trust-building can frame MLMs as a community rather than a purely economic venture, making it easier to indoctrinate and recruit others. The sense of intimate community also helps with retention, as women fear losing their friends, not just their income, if they leave.
While the rhetoric of entrepreneurial empowerment may appeal to liberal-leaning feminists, MLMs are often more widespread in religious social circles that have historically upheld more conservative ideals. In American communities that maintain strong traditional roles, such as Mormon and Evangelical circles, MLMs tend to proliferate. Deborah Whitehead, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, stated that “missionary training translates well into direct sales,” and that “[Mormon] communities tend to be tight-knit and close, so when somebody is passionate about a product, it will be easier to go into these circles and sell it.” Similarly, the Christian appeal of MLMs is rooted in the teachings of the Prosperity Gospel, a theological belief that wealth is God’s recognition of faithfulness.
The presentation of an MLM as an alternative to corporate paternalism aligns with the anti-establishment conviction that has gained traction within the populist MAGA movement. During the pandemic, anti-vaccine misinformation was used to promote MLM wellness products. Many wellness influencers took to social media to criticize the Biden administration’s “paternalistic” Covid-19 restrictions while promoting certain MLM products, such as Patriot Wellness Boxes that supposedly offer an alternative to “woke” medicine. By pushing women to engage in political discourse through sales pitches, these frameworks for MLM recruitment allow for the implicit dissemination of far-right beliefs. Sociologist Gina Marie Longo described the phenomenon as “Pastel QAnon Indoctrination,” where radical ideologies are introduced through a softer, feminine-coded approach.
While not all MLMs push extreme conservatism on participants, they do create close-knit networks of women that can be more easily influenced by such narratives. What begins as a friendly sales pitch or an invitation to a product event could be a pipeline to persuasion, using these extensive social networks to sell QAnon beliefs.