‘Antigenderism’ as Russian Soft Power? Comparing Discourse on Sexual and Gender Minorities in Russia and Norway

Abstract

Can Russian antigenderist discourse constitute an illiberal soft-power potential for the Russian government even in a West European state such as Norway? We define ‘antigenderist discourse’ as discourse rejecting equal rights, visibility or the very existence of all or some sexual and gender minorities. Despite some important differences regarding content and actors, both Norwegian and Russian media contain discourses where the freedom to be conservative, children’s safety and identity collectives, such as nation states, are constructed as being under attack from ‘gender ideology’, an umbrella term used by some conservatives for liberal ideas on sexual and gender minorities. This discursive overlap gives Russia some soft-power potential over antigenderist circles in Norway, but this potential appears weakly realised in practice, as the Norwegian texts examined here contain few explicitly positive references to Russian antigenderist policies.