Men’s Rights Activism and Anti-Feminist Resistance in Turkey and Norway

Abstract

AbstractThis article, by addressing the growing anti-feminist activism and mobilization and its consequences for gender equality and women’s rights, sheds light on anti-feminist resistance in Turkey and Norway. Using the concept of counter movement, we study men’s rights mobilization in Turkey and Norway, two countries with different histories and realities of women’s rights and gender equality. We first compare how the respective men’s rights movements emerged in response to, or parallel with, the advances of women’s movements. Investigating mass media and social media content from the most prominent contemporary men’s rights groups in each country provides a qualitative comparative analysis of men’s rights mobilization. Men’s rights groups in Turkey and Norway share many of the same concerns, but while men’s rights activists in Turkey challenge gender equality and defend the traditional family, in Norway, men’s rights activism is a masculinist co-optation of the gender equality discourse.