Political Masculinities in Contemporary Spain: Tensions, Contradictions, and Resignification after the Fourth Feminist Wave

In the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, the feminist movement experienced an unprecedented transnational rise. In Spain, this surge was first manifested in the massive protests against the court ruling in the case known as “La Manada” and later consolidated in the 2018 Feminist Strike. Since then, feminism has achieved significant progress, particularly in the social and legal redefinition of sexual violence, which has become a central element of the political and cultural agenda during what has been termed the Fourth Wave (Cobo, 2019). Within this context, the issue of masculinity has gained increasing relevance both within and beyond feminist discourse, extending into the political sphere (Ranea & Brandariz, 2024; Ramos, 2024). Among sectors of the left, the self-definition of political parties as feminist implies, at least rhetorically, a commitment to questioning hegemonic masculinity norms among their leaders. Conversely, right-wing parties, and in particular the populist radical right, have capitalised on anti-feminist backlash to consolidate their political identity and electorate appeal. This paper examines, from a theoretical and empirical perspective, the tensions, contradictions, and processes of resignification in contemporary political masculinities in Spain. It proposes a comparative analysis of three political figures and moments: the resignation of Íñigo Errejón, former spokesperson for Sumar in the Spanish Congress, following accusations of sexual violence; the public letter issued by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party - PSOE) in response to attacks on his wife and his subsequent period of political reflection; and the performative politics of Santiago Abascal (VOX) during the debates on the 2022 Comprehensive Law on Sexual Freedom (“Only Yes Means Yes” Law), where he framed his party as the principal defender of (native) women. Despite their ideological differences, this study asks whether these three cases reproduce gendered representations and project forms of political masculinity that ultimately reinforce, rather than challenge, existing structures of inequality. This paper is part of the research project Public Opinion and Gender in the Digital Society: Analysing Gender Differences in Contemporary Socio-Political Attitudes, which investigates the intersections between gender, political leadership, and public discourse in digital societies.