Anti-gender as lifestyle, identity and selfcare? Mapping anti-gender mobilization networks across the Czech digital sphere

Anti-gender mobilisations have recently been observed and studied across Europe and, more generally, western liberal democracies as a political strategy of the far-right against liberal democratic status quo (Bracewell, 2021; Lewis, 2018; Mancini & Palazzo, 2022; Smrdelj & Kuhar, 2025). Anti-feminist or anti-gender discourses represent an integral part of conservative right-wing political visions and identity. As communication and media studies scholars, we are particularly interested in perspectives that perceive anti-gender not only as a political tool of extreme political actors, but consider it a general “anti-discourse” or “a metalanguage” serving as a form of identity protection and self-legitimisation in the online sphere (Barla & Bjork-James, 2021; Kováts & Pőim, 2015). According to this perspective, anti-gender discourse connects online users who may feel isolated or marginalised and helps them recognize each other in a process of ideological mobilisation in which imagined collective identities are formed on the Internet. Thus, the participatory culture of internet platforms has created an environment where anti-gender mobilisations, misinformation and disinformation can thrive (Marwick & Lewis, 2017) and where women, LGBTQ+ people, and members of various minorities are disproportionately targeted by hate actors and harassed (Eckert, 2018). In our research, we focus on how anti-gender serves as a symbolic glue (Kováts & Pőim, 2015) in a discursive community formation in various online forums and around various actors. By using a mixed-method approach, we created an overview of anti-gender mobilisations across the Czech online sphere, revealing that it is not limited to extreme right-wing politics, but also spreads in conservative identity movements linked with religious groups, as well as in content produced by lifestyle and personal development coaches and other influencers, both male and female. By combining an AI-powered tool (Gerulata) detecting anti-gender discourse across social media platforms and accounts and a qualitative evaluation of profile/actor type, their target audience, professional focus (topic) and anti-gender agenda, we provide a scheme revealing which agendas these anti-gender mobilisations connect with and which type of actors spread them across the digital realm of a post-socialist Central European country facing democratic backsliding in the neighbouring states and in its recent political development.