Misogynistic “wizards” on 4chan strip women on demand

“Call the wizard Anonymous wrote: “Who can strip her?” 4chan Last week the user posted to the site’s /r/ board, a hub for “adult requests” for specific explicit photos.

She attached to the post a photo of a blonde woman wearing glasses, an open black jacket, a white tank top, and ripped jeans, standing on a low wall with a sweeping view of an old-world city and a river beyond. It’s the photo you see on a friend’s Instagram account while on vacation in Europe. On the left edge of the photo, you can see that another person has been cropped out of the photo.

4chan anon explained what they wanted from a “witch,” a site term that refers to anyone adept at manipulating images of women to provide fake images in which they appear nude, commit sexual acts, or fulfill a particular fetish: “big jugs and a thick body,” the user specified. “Extra bonus if you can leave her jacket.” A few hours later, another person responded with the edited photo, which depicted the same woman, in the same position and location, but without a shirt, with her breasts exposed. (Yes, she was still wearing the jacket.)

“Thank you very much, smartass,” replied an anonymous person — presumably the same person who made the original request. “Awesome edit <3.”

Anyone whose photo appears in public may be subjected to the same invasive exploitation, but the vast majority of victims of these acts of nudity are women. New research confirms that such non-consensual synthetic intimate images (NCII) can be created in a collaborative process that strengthens male online community bonds built on shared misogyny.

Thursday, Institute for Strategic Dialoguea political advocacy group that seeks to combat extremism, hate speech and misinformation, published an article paper On this topic by Leonie Ohmig, a researcher and political activist in Berlin. Oymej has studied the abuse of intimate images in depth; Here she turned her attention to the sordid world of 4chan’s photo-editing “wizards” and their sycophantic followers.

Oehmig found that 4chan threads like the one described above serve as an origin point for spreading NCII across more private platforms, including Telegram and Discord. But what is even more surprising is that they tend to follow a familiar scenario and hierarchical social norms.

Men hoping to humiliate and dehumanize women provide photographic materials and command orders. WIRED reviewed posts from anonymous 4chan users demanding everything from “black bikini” to “pregnant” to “hands tied BDSM style.” Ohmig’s paper describes requests to “depict people in overtly humiliating scenarios, including elements such as spitting, make-up, or placing targets in degrading and symbolic contexts such as crucifixion or circus performance.”

The so-called magician who fulfills one of these illusions is then showered with praise. “Holy hell, you really work miracles,” said the final reply from someone pleased with the magician’s work.

“It was very rewarding,” Ohmig tells WIRED. “It’s like, ‘Do your magic, do your magic.'” These people who were creating this offensive material were referred to as “sir” or “sir.” I think that’s one of the reasons the creators actually do it. (The title “wizard” also has a notable connection to Incel cultureIt refers to a man who is still a virgin after the age of thirty.)

Oymej’s analysis covered thousands of posts from early December 2025 through early March 2026, with this pattern repeated over and over, revealing a power structure where men without the means to digitally strip women worship men who can undress. Omeg notes that this dominance dynamic, in some ways, reflects the “desire for power and control” that leads to sexual assault in the first place.