Antifeminism or femonationalism? Exploring a case of far-right women appropriating feminism in France

While femonationalism has often been analysed through the lens of conservative and far-right party politics, this paper shifts the focus from political elites to grassroot activists. It draws on a French case of far-right female activists organized as a women-only collective and who identify as ‘identitarian feminists’. The main question guiding this paper is the following: How do these grassroot activists articulate anti-feminist frames while also appropriating selective aspects of feminism? The study relies on threefold empirical data: a long-term digital observation of the collective, a critical analysis of documents, and semi-structured interviews with some of their central members and co-founders (N=10). The paper centrally argues that these female activists’ mobilization diverges from traditional forms of anti-feminism and instead situates it as a femonationalist appropriation of feminism. It identifies three main interconnected frames used by the collective: an opposition to intersectional feminism, the use of postfeminist frames, and a frame that racialises sexism, materialized in the fight against street harassment. In contrast with more mainstream far-right politics instrumentalising gender issues, this case displays more complexity and allows for an analysis of the multiple ways in which feminism is appropriated by far-right women. Through this case, the paper contributes to the study of far-right gender politics at the grassroot level by going beyond the thesis of both instrumentalisation and antifeminism. In doing so, it aims to shed light on the ways in which femonationalism develops at the far-right.