On January 31, podcaster Candace Owens launched a new “investigative series” based on the debunked conspiracy theory that the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, is secretly a transgender woman. Videos about the series, titled “Becoming Brigitte,” have been circulating on TikTok, garnering millions of views on both English-language and French-language content. 

Right-wing personalities and social media users have spread these types of baseless allegations, often called “transvestigations,” for years, frequently targeting powerful women including Taylor Swift and Michelle Obama. And this is not the first time Brigitte Macron has faced the conspiracy theory. Last year, a French court found two women guilty of slander for spreading these same claims. 

Owens has been pushing the conspiracy theory about the French first lady for nearly a year. 

As of the time of writing, she has streamed eight episodes of her “transvestigation” series on YouTube — producing over six hours of conspiracy theory content centered around the Macrons. During the series, Owens questioned whether Brigitte Macron is transgender and also whether she is French President Emmanuel Macron’s biological father. 

Owens has also been increasingly producing content about celebrity culture recently. The podcaster has developed a fixation with Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, for example, producing 16 videos analyzing the celebrity saga since January 8 of this year. She also recently announced her next “investigative series,” centered around Harvey Weinstein. This episodic format and pivot toward more pop cultural subjects like celebrity gossip and true crime appear to be working well for her.

The eight YouTube videos that compose the “Becoming Brigitte” series— some of which are monetized — have garnered more than 16 million cumulative views. In addition to YouTube ads that run before some of her content, Owens has used sponsor breaks in these videos to promote a tax attorney service, a gold and silver dealer, a mortgage lender, a supplement company, a greens powder, a home gym, a wireless phone service, a skincare company, a meat delivery service, an anti-abortion coffee company, and an anti-abortion charity. 

Owens’ “transvestigation” series is spreading on TikTok, earning millions of views on English- and French-language content

The series’ true crime format seems to appeal to TikTok users, who have shared the content along with their thoughts, memes, and theories. Media Matters identified 37 videos referencing Owens’ series on TikTok, which have received more than 62 million cumulative views (more than 42 million views on English-language content and another nearly 20 million views on French-language content).

Appropriating the true crime serialized style

In “Becoming Brigitte,” Owens blends her typical conspiratorial content with true crime flare, using “facial recognition software,” obsessing over family trees, and even interviewing a French journalist who she says “has never before this moment appeared on camera.” 

The episodic nature of Owens’ anti-trans tirade is familiar to audiences that have been consuming episodic investigative true crime since Serial popularized the format in 2014. Like popular true crime shows and podcasts, Owens’ series has been cultivating an “obsessed” fandom, with TikTok users building upon Owens’ grand conspiracy theory narrative and adding their own theories into the mix as though they were speculating about a TV show and not the genitalia of a global geopolitical figure. 

In one video with more than 756,000 views, posted alongside the hashtags “womenoftiktok” and “momsoftiktok,” a woman says:

The video has thousands of comments from users, many of them adding their own speculations. 

The conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron is Emmanuel Macron’s father also seems to be performing well in TikTok’s system of algorithmic amplification, which rewards inflammatory and sensationalist content. In a video with 4.9 million views, a woman speaks to the camera, covering her mouth in apparent shock: 

Users are also making memes about the series. 

One video with more than 539,000 views is set to the Law & Order theme, with text that reads, “Me getting ready to watch candace owen’s prove bridgette macron is a man & ryan reynolds is insane all in one episode while she’s pregnant.” 

In another video, with more than 478,000 views, a woman sits looking puzzled in her car behind text reading, “My brain trying to process that Candace Owen’s blasted the President of France for being married to his transgender father.”

One claim making the rounds asserts that the Macrons have tried to purchase Owens’ silence. 

In a video with more than 480,000 views, one TikTok user alleges that the Macrons “made an offer to Candace Owens” that “in exchange for Candace Owen not publishing this documentary about Brigitte Macron being a man,” they “will pay Candace Owen $4 million plus $50,000 a month for life.”

Another video, with 1.7 million views, reads: “If she’s not a ‘man’ why are they offering Candace Owens 4 Million or 50,000 a month for the rest of her life?” 

Media Matters could not verify this claim or its origins.

French-language transvestigation content about Brigitte Macron has also been garnering millions of views on TikTok. Media Matters identified 12 French-language TikTok videos about “Becoming Brigitte” with more than 19.6 million cumulative views. 

A French-language video with 4.2 million views from an African-focused news account highlights Owens’ claims. Another French-language video, with 629,000 views, directs viewers to videos providing French translations of Owens’ original content. 

Media Matters also identified other French-language content analyzing Brigitte Macron’s body and voice. One video with 3.1 million views opens with an image zooming in on the first lady’s pelvic area while she appears in a bathing suit.

Transvestigations and dehumanization

The series has prompted the spread of dehumanizing transvestigation content that analyzes and dissects Brigitte Macron’s physical features in an attempt to prove her body is deviant. This content is frequently accompanied by explicitly dehumanizing language, with some users referring to Brigitte Macron as “it.”

A video with 3.1 million views compares pictures of Brigitte Macron with pictures of a man with a similar face. 

Another video, with 727,000 views, compiles dozens of images and videos of the French first lady, seemingly attempting to highlight masculine features. 

TikTok users responded by scrutinizing Macron’s body in the comments, saying, “Those are not female legs or hips”; “A man and a groomer and what is scary he is the puput master. it’s 100% male”; and “The way it sits in the jeans at the start is definitely a male.” 

Another video, with 2.4 million views, shows U.S. Vice President JD Vance meeting the Macrons above a skeptical-looking Candace Owens. The text reads, “JD VANCE doesn’t KISS BRIDGET…Becayse JD knows its a male PDF File.” (“PDF File” is TikTok-speak for “pedophile.”) 

Transvestigation content is not new but rather a component of the broader hysteria fixated on the bodies of trans people. These conspiracy theories serve as tools for identifying certain bodies and minds as deviant and dangerous. They normalize subjecting trans people, gender-nonconforming people, and anyone perceived as existing outside a strict gender binary to invasions of privacy, mockery, and degradation.

The mainstreaming of Owens’ “transvestigation”

Through “Becoming Brigitte,” Owens has seemingly found a way to make right-wing, anti-trans propaganda palatable to new viewers. For instance, one TikTok user described how the TikTok content about “Becoming Brigitte” was pushing her to go directly to Owens’ channel and consume her content directly:

Owens’ framing is also seemingly attracting a key demographic: women who enjoy true crime content. In one video, a woman speaks directly to other true crime fans:

In another video, shared alongside the hashtags “truecrime,” “truecrimetok,” “truecrimecommunity,” “truecrimetiktok,” and “truecrimestory,” a TikTok user speaks to the camera about her fascination with “Becoming Brigitte”: 

The strategy seems to be working for Owens, who went independent last year after parting ways with The Daily Wire. This true crime approach, along with her recent focus on celebrity culture, may be helping Owens to soften right-wing extremism, making it more palatable to new viewers otherwise uninterested in overtly bigoted content.

Owens has claimed she’s achieved record levels of engagement in recent weeks, and according to publicly available data from the social media metric tracking service VidIQ, Owens has gained more than 300,000 YouTube subscribers since she started the series on January 31.