The (Far) Right Men: Nostalgia, Extremism, Fear, and Polarization

Abstract

Across Europe, the far right is gaining popularity, momentum, and access to power. Far right parties and organizations have traditionally been considered "men's parties", but research around and up until the early 2020s showed that the gender gap in voting was steadily closing. This went hand in hand with women gaining more prominent positions within far right parties, including party leadership in some notable cases like France and Italy. Nevertheless, women are still overall less likely to vote for the far right, and men are much more likely to join far right extremist groups and over-represented in far right parties. The most recent research again shows an increasing gender gap in far right affiliation and voting. Particularly among young people, the gender gap is again widening, with young women becoming more progressive and increasingly less likely to vote for far right parties, while young men are increasingly drawn into the far right-especially online. This panel explores the role of masculinity in support for the far right from different perspectives. Looking at nostalgia, affect, sociodemographic and intersectional differences, and online socialization, the papers in this panel together offer novel ways of theorizing and explaining the success of the far right particularly among (young) men.

Title	Details
Masculinity, Occupational Change, and Support for the Radical Right in Europe	View Paper Details
Perceived Masculine Group Threat as an Affective Gendered Narrative Bridge to Far-Right Ideologies	View Paper Details
Purity Politics: Pornography, Masturbation and the Far Rights’ Remasculinization Project	View Paper Details
The Clean-Cut Turn: Aesthetics, Embodiment and Young Masculinities in the Swedish Far-Right	View Paper Details
Masculinity, Economic Insecurity, and Support for the Far-Right	View Paper Details