This paper seeks to generate knowledge on the affective fictions that inform and
mobilize “anti-gender” and “far-right” movements that oppose emancipatory claims surrounding gender. It focuses in particular on the conception of the “sexed identity,” a vision of sex that essentializes its relationship to the body. I posit that the sexed identity is both unattainable (due to potential differences in hormone levels and sex organs) and uninhabitable (due to potential differences in how gender is performed). This instability produces a constant risk of failure to perform, which leads to violent projections that manifest in the political sphere. In theorizing this conception through the lenses of fetal personhood and the trans body, this piece argues that the gender rhetoric of the far-right ought not be seen as simply another policy preference or aspect of political rhetoric or belief; instead, it should be viewed as a critical cornerstone of the far-right political project in its entirety. This paper offers an important contribution to literatures on affect theory and the modern disciplining of the gendered and sexed body, infusing current conceptualizations of far-right and “anti-gender” campaigns with a greater understanding of their affective motivations.
