EUROPA RISES: Masculinity, Territory and Race in Extreme Right Manifestos

In recent years, terrorist manifestos have followed extreme right terrorist attacks. In these manifestos, perpetrators share their ideology, beliefs and justifications of their acts. The significance of these manifestos, however, extend beyond far providing insight into the minds of terrorists. Previous literature has pointed out that these manifestos are thematically and ideologically connected and as such they play a vital role in the dissemination of extreme right ideology. The scholarly interest in extreme right manifestos has also overlapped with an increased scholarly attention on the role of gender in the extreme right, particularly the role of masculinity. This paper aims to combine the study of manifestos and masculinity by analyzing the intersections between gender, geography, race and religion in the manifestos of Anders Breivik (“2083: A European Declaration of Independence”) and Brenton Tarrant (“The Great Replacement”). Drawing from post-structuralist understandings of masculinity, it uses Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory to analyze the construction of masculinity in these manifestos. Citing Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the paper aims to identify significant elements or characteristics which stage extreme right masculinity. The paper argues that masculinity is evoked through constructing the territory of “Europe”, a homeland in danger. This linguistic construction of antagonism along racial, religious and geographic lines stages and enables a white Crusader masculinity needed to restore a decaying Western civilization. Bound by anxieties concerning reproduction and demography, masculinity and gender relations emerge as some of the central themes through which to understand these manifestos and their significance.