Anti-feminist Backlash Research Articles

Education as an arena for anti-feminism: devaluation of femininity in primary education

ABSTRACT In the European context, there have been discussions for many years about how the number of female and male teachers in primary education should be more balanced. This story is also linked to the deteriorating school performance of boys, who are perceived as lacking male role models in schools. Thus, the feminization of primary education is often seen as an undesirable condition that should be rectified. This pejorative perception of feminization of education is related to the broader trends of anti-feminist politics, and this anti-feminist backlash is gradually being introduced into education as well. This article presents two case studies, Germany and Czechia. The analysis is based on data collected in 2015–2020 from ethnographic research in elementary schools, data from analysis of policy documents and media output, data from a systematic literature review, and quantitative research. In conclusion, three re-masculinization strategies used to devalue femininity in education are presented. First, ‘female climate’ as a reason for boys’ failure; second, father figures missing in education; third, promoting ‘gender diversity ‘as pretext to bring back more men and masculinity. All strategies share an antifeminist core because they all devalue women and femininity and reinforce the current gender order.

Moving forward while staying in the middle : Betty Friedan’s feminist narrative of women’s progress

ABSTRACT This article examines Betty Friedan’s political narrative of women’s progress, which I argue to be essential to her liberal feminist politics of gender equality and mainstreaming of women. Through a close reading of The Feminine Mystique, a cultural exposé and work of social movement literature, I draw critical attention to the narrative construction of women’s progress, which Friedan equated with women’s full integration into mainstream American society through productivity, individuality, and growth. At the same time, I note that such a narrative of women’s progress, though enthusiastically embraced by white middle-class suburban housewives in the 1960s, simultaneously marginalized women of colour, working-class women, and lesbians. Furthermore, Friedan’s narrative of women’s progress and mainstreaming, threatened by the rise of the conservative antifeminist backlash and the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s, was reconfigured into a conservative narrative of pro-family and postfeminism while celebrating white middle-class women’s ascendance to neoliberal capitalism. In lieu of a conclusion, I propose a cautionary tale of the rise of the neoliberal discourse of postfeminism to which Friedan’s narrative of women’s progress and mainstreaming has been conducive, if not integral.

Deconstructing Anti-Feminist Backlash: The Lebanese Context

The matrix of deep-rooted social, political, sectarian, and patriarchal structures in Lebanon necessitates the introduction of a nuanced understanding of ‘backlash’ that veers away from definitions of the notion that apply mostly in Western contexts. This article proposes a contextualised definition of backlash for Lebanon and frames it by unpacking the structural flaws found in the very way Lebanese society is constructed, and in power relations within the country’s familial structures. It also discusses the different forms of anti-feminist backlash observed in the country over the past few years, focusing on three axes: systemic violence, tactical backlash, and atomised backlash. Explored through case studies ranging from the hostile sectarian system against women in politics to radical religious groups, this article explores how backlash in this context diverges from the conceptualisations of backlash in existing literature.

Unravelling and Countering Backlash: Uganda’s Sexual Offences Legislation

Considerable progress has been seen in Ugandan women’s collective advocacy for their rights since independence. Notably, women activists’ efforts in the early 1990s culminated in the institutionalisation of gender equality in Uganda’s constitution and a subsequent resurgence of the women’s movement. Despite these efforts, certain egalitarian and inclusive policy reforms have been postponed, stripped of clauses that question patriarchal power, watered down, bureaucratically frustrated, or outrightly rejected. This article draws on ongoing contestations around the stalled Sexual Offences Bill, 2019 to address the following questions: How do we understand the current and recent swell of anti-feminist backlash? What motivates backlash against gender equity reforms? And what will it take to counter these oppositional forces? The article reveals overt and covert forms of backlash in the sexual offences legislative process, the ways in which gender justice actors countered these, and the implications for understanding and countering backlash in Uganda and beyond.

Public University Students’ Experiences of Anti-Feminist Backlash in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Public university campuses in Bangladesh have been historically significant sites of negotiating with social and political orders. Based on in-depth interviews with male and female students from three public universities in Dhaka, conducted between 2022 and 2023, this article identifies the ways in which formal and informal structures of power on campus reproduce patriarchal norms and gendered inequities. The students’ narratives shed light on how the culture of residential halls, and practices of policing and surveillance, interact with patriarchal norms to limit women’s agency and mobility. They also show the ways in which masculine practices which draw from hypersexual views on women and glorify violence become enabled and sustained by institutional power dynamics, wherein harassment and policing become instruments to negotiate power. The article provides new insights into the ways in which patriarchal power dynamics and gender norms promoted and practised within an institutional space create drivers of anti‑feminist backlash.

A GIRL DEFINED BY GOD: BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD, ANTI-FEMINISM, AND WHITE EVANGELICAL MICROCELEBRITIES

Girl Defined is a cross-platform fundamentalist Evangelical Christian ministry started by two sisters, Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal. The goal of their ministry is to encourage women to reject feminism, deny their personal desires, and live out God’s design for their lives: Biblical womanhood, which centers on traditional feminine gender performance, subordinance to one’s husband, and motherhood. This project seeks to understand the ways that white fundamentalist Christian women make sense of and mobilize against the feminist movement in order to augment our understanding of anti-feminist backlash and white Evangelical women’s place in the culture wars. Informed by research on white Evangelical women in the US and microcelebrity practices, I conducted a critical discourse analysis of 67 blog posts (2012-2021) and 14 YouTube videos (2016-2021) tagged “feminism” on the Girl Defined blog. This analysis demonstrates that Girl Defined portrays feminism as fundamentally self-interested and synonymous with mainstream secular culture. Clark and Beal appeal to their audiences by incorporating neoliberal logics of self-improvement while appropriating the language of progressive movements to modernize their presentation of traditional gender norms. Through their expansive construction of feminism as ideologically dominant, Girl Defined simplifies and individualizes women’s experiences to frame Biblical womanhood as a “radical” alternative to feminism. Overall, these findings provide insight into the paradoxical flexibility of hyper-conservative ideologies that center on a rigidly defined “us” vs. an ever-flexible “them” while expanding our understanding of the ways conservative thought leaders modernize old ideas and use digital networks and influencer logics to spread them.

“Die alone, old, and let the cat eat your face”: anti-feminist backlash and academic cyber-harassment

ABSTRACT Anti-feminist backlash has taken on a new form in the past decade with the rise of cyberattacks and the proliferation of Men’s Rights Activist groups, yet scant literature exists on the nature of cyber-harassment against feminist academics. This article uses the authors’ experience of cyber-harassment as a case study to explore the nature of online anti-feminist backlash against academic research. We identify three narrative forms of this backlash, which combines to create a “braided thread” of anti-feminist attacks. The academic setting presents a specific kind of cyber-hate that relies on the notion that progressive, critical researchers are “brainwashing” students. The attacks spread misinformation regarding methodological rigor in an effort to delegitimize and discredit feminist academics. Attackers also rely on tired claims of feminists as man-haters who seek to ruin men’s lives. Finally, anti-feminist backlash often resorts to instances of cyber-hate—ad hominem attacks that objectify women’s bodies and seek to humiliate and shame feminist scholars. These attacks are political and personal in nature, and spread misogynistic, white-supremacist, and heteronormative ideology in a vain attempt to silence feminist scholars.

Rape Culture: Anti-Feminist Backlash Against a Feminist Concept

Background: Since 2012, the feminist term rape culture has been broadly used in Canada and the U.S. to explain the cultural and structural supports that reproduce sexual violence, yet in recent years it has come under attack by anti-feminists. Analysis: This article examines opinion columns written by women published between 2012 and 2019 that target feminist frameworks on sexual violence, the terminology of rape culture, and campus feminism. Conclusion and Implications: Anti-feminist columnists occupy key media positions from which to spread anti-feminist ideologies, connecting the various players of alt-right networks and right-wing movements and mainstreaming anti-feminism in the pages of Canada’s English language legacy press.

The Struggle for Women’s Rights After the Beirut Blast: A Resurgence of Anti-Feminist Backlash?

The Struggle for Women’s Rights After the Beirut Blast: A Resurgence of Anti-Feminist Backlash?

일상화된 혐오와 생존의 페미니즘: 지역 청년여성들의 페미니스트 되기

Recently, Korean society has witnessed a surge of anti-feminist backlash, intensified in particular by mainstream politicians with selfish motives. The oft-cited term “gender conflict” was used as a decoy to instigate fear and anxiety among young Koreans (expecially men) and lure their votes. Against this backdrop, this paper reviews the popularization of feminism in South Korea and seeks to understand its limits and potentials. In doing so, this paper focuses on the experiences of young feminists residing in the Daegu-Kyungpook region. The new wave of digital feminist movements, crystallized in the act of “mirroring,” indicates the rise of new recalcitrant female subjects who defy the norms and ethics of previous feminist movements. However, despite their online aggressiveness, they fear widespread stigma and its concurrent violence, and feel isolated in a region notorious for its misogynist and conservative culture. This leads them to build a “feminist shelter” to seek consolation and empowerment among like-minded women. Lastly, this paper examines the problematic entanglement of feminism and neoliberal meritocracy.

Competitive mimicry: The socialization of antifeminist NGOs into the United Nations

AbstractConservative NGOs contesting women’s rights in the United Nations are on the rise, and their activity is increasingly described as an antifeminist backlash. This article focuses a new theoretical lens on this development: socialization. It argues that conservative NGOs’ socialization into transnational practices and the United Nations has played a significant part in facilitating the antifeminist backlash. To support this claim, the article examines socialization comprehensively, applying several analytical angles: its definition, directionality, mechanism, degree and effects. It also treats conservative NGOs’ socialization as both a process and an outcome. As a process, it unfolds horizontally, by conservative NGOs competitively mimicking feminist NGOs in two domains in particular: their manner of transnational organizing and their skilful use of the UN human rights framework. The article finds that conservative NGOs have socialized into transnational NGO practices and the regulative institutional rules of the United Nations, but not into all its constitutive norms. The chief effect of this kind of socialization is polarization. The article singles out and empirically illustrates three of its manifestations: the struggle for institutional spaces; zero-sum politics based on a sense of existential threat; and the use of a strong moralizing discourse.

“No Seat at the Party”: Mobilizing White Masculinity in the Men’s Rights Movement

ABSTRACT I use the men’s rights movement, an anti-feminist backlash movement consisting largely of straight, white men, to examine how high-status group members develop a collective identity leveraged by right-wing movements. Drawing on 31 interviews with men’s rights activists, I find that masculinity, whiteness, and straightness play crucial roles in motivating identification with the movement. Interviewees believe others see them as privileged and thus immoral because of these identities. This clashes with the way they see themselves, threatens their moral sense of self, and evokes negative emotions. In response, they reconstruct themselves – as straight, white men – as victims, thus developing a sense of “we” and a basis for collective action. In an effort to recoup a sense of moral goodness and build community, they also construct a new collective identity as men’s rights activists, which invests them in organized backlash. This paper develops a theory to explain collective identity formation among high-status group members, and illustrates how the identity work straight, white men undertake in the face of culturally legitimate challenges to their privilege can invest them in organized backlash movements.

Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, Shame and the Anti-Feminist Backlash: Britain, Ireland and Australia, 1890–1920

Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, <i>Shame and the Anti-Feminist Backlash: Britain, Ireland and Australia, 1890–1920</i>

Feminist Digital Counterpublics: Challenging Femicide in Kenya and South Africa

What happens when misogyny leads to increasing murders of women, whose lives are considered not worthy because their respectability is under attack? What do feminists do in a global moment when antifeminist backlash emerges with fervor in politics, policy, and social spaces to reverse and challenge feminist progress? Rage happens. This article explores the role of rage in the development of African feminist digital counterpublics on Twitter. Through two Twitter hashtags, #MenAreTrash and #JusticeForSharon, I illuminate how anger emanating from increasing rates of femicide in Kenya and South Africa catalyzes the evolution of feminist communities of knowledge, solidarity, and resistance on Twitter. The rage illustrated in this article is considered in relation to longer histories of burnout and fatigue with nonresponse from the state and from male allies. Through these digital spaces, a process of building alliances and challenging antifeminist movements emerges. Feminist engagements around these hashtags are a site of concrete resistance against online misogyny as well as its material manifestations through femicide. In a context where antifeminist movements see digital spaces as sites to mobilize antifeminist sentiment, paying attention to digital feminist counterpublics is critical to understanding gender justice and freedom.

Feminist responses to populist politics

ABSTRACT Given our situatedness as political subjects of knowledge — as activists and scholars from Southern Europe — we have mapped out in this issue some feminist responses to populism. This issue discusses diverse transfeminist and feminist political groups and ideas, and talks about feminisms as a constellation of accounts of politics, practices, knowledges, and experiences. Although it is beyond the scope of this issue to discuss the idea of populism, the plurality of definitions and their political implications, this collection of essays reflects our need to analyse modes of self-determination that, within feminism, are taking place in the name of the people and for the people. This Introduction sketches the situatedness of the essays in Southern Europe, the antifeminist backlash and the feminist responses that we have been witnessing in the past few years, and the appropriation of feminism by certain conservative groups.

Addressing Sexual Violence at Ontario Universities in the Context of Rising Anti-Feminist Backlash

In this paper, I argue that anti-feminist backlash at Canadian universities is fuelled by, and has a significant impact on, anti-violence efforts on campus and, in particular, whether and how they engage with male students and normative constructions of masculinity.

The personal is global political: The antifeminist backlash in the United Nations

Antifeminist mobilisation is growing in the United Nations. It is led by a coalition of certain post-Soviet, Catholic, and Islamic states; the United States; the Vatican; conservative nongovernmental organisations, occasionally joined by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, the UN Africa Group, and the G77. Uniting them is the aim of restoring the ‘natural family’ and opposing ‘gender ideology’. The group has become increasingly strategic, and its impact can already be seen in a number of UN fora, including the Security Council. By surveying feminist notions of backlash and comparing them to Alter and Zürn’s definition of ‘backlash politics’, the article gauges whether the group’s activities can be characterised as such politics. The conclusion is that they can, suggesting that we are looking at a group with the potential to alter not only the global course of women’s rights but also how politics is done within the UN.

New approaches to the propagation of the antifeminist backlash on Twitter

A year after the #MeToo movement erupted, antifeminism started to retort. The idea behind the backlash was that ‘the men who have been accused are the heroes’ (Tolentino, 2018). Twitter was one of the public spaces where this confrontation occurred; the #HimToo backlash gathered steam in 2018 (Asimov, 2018) and expanded into 2019. Focussing on the reactions against #Cuéntalo Twitter campaign –the Spanish equivalent to #MeToo—, this article examines how the antifeminist backlash proliferates, offering a view of the dynamics driving it. The authors choose an eclectic and interdisciplinary approach that integrates graph theory and CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), thus connecting social media formulations with offline discourses, and proposing new ways of studying social movements. To examine the backlash’s characteristics, this study utilises Congosto’s typology of Twitter profiles (Congosto, 2018). Findings suggest that both approaches are complementary and necessary, for while graph analysis enables the distinction of antifeminist communities on Twitter and their behaviour and characteristics, CDA allows investigators to uncover their discursive strategies and favoured themes.

Speaking up in the Age of #MeToo and Persistent Patriarchy or what Can we Learn from an Elevator Incident about Anti-Feminist Backlash

Speaking up in the Age of #MeToo and Persistent Patriarchy or what Can we Learn from an Elevator Incident about Anti-Feminist Backlash

Can Feminist Postliberalism Survive the 2016 Election?

Did Hillary Clinton lose the 2016 presidential election because she is a woman? This article entertains plausible alternative explanations, but I argue that sexism was a powerful influence in both that election and her loss of the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008. Enough voters in enough states expected more of women than of men, and they expected different things. Since the nineteenth century, some feminist scholars and activists have reinforced asymmetrical gendered expectations by emphasizing gender differences. Their actions served valid purposes at the time, but their legacy has encouraged antifeminist backlash.