Anti-gender and Anti-feminist Politics between Local Mobilizations and Transnational Networks

This Section explores anti-gender and anti-feminist politics as deeply political struggles shaped by complex intersections, multi-scalar mobilizations, and transnational networks. It explicitly invites contributions highlighting marginalized voices, alternative epistemologies, innovative methodologies, and novel conceptual frameworks to critically advance and diversify our understanding of these phenomena. References to the anti-gender movement, its discourses, and mobilizations appeared as early as 2013 in academic articles, conference papers, and the gray literature. More than a decade later, the study of anti-gender politics has evolved into a consolidated field of study with its own established concepts, theoretical frameworks, and methodological approaches. From “gender as symbolic glue” (Grzebalska et al. 2017) and “empty signifier” (Mayer and Sauer 2017) to anti-gender campaigns as a “hydra” or “Dr. Frankenstein’s monster” (Correa, Paternotte, and House 2023), the conceptual vocabulary in the literature is rich and provocative. Scholars have predominantly framed these mobilizations through backlash, de-democratization, and democratic backsliding (Heinrich Böll Stiftung 2013; Krizsán and Roggeband 2021; Lombardo, Kantola, and Rubio-Marin 2021), though these lenses are increasingly challenged for centering Western epistemologies (Almazidi 2024; El Rahi and Antar 2024; Ojeda et al. 2024). Reflecting the field’s diversity and ongoing conceptual, theoretical, and methodological debates, this Section aims to deepen academic conversations and critically examine how anti-gender/anti-feminist politics are increasingly mainstreamed and embedded within democratic institutions and processes. It focuses on five key aspects: • Intersectionality: Attuned to the ways in which gender interacts with other axes of subordination (i.e., race, ethnicity, religion, class, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, legal status, etc.). • Multi-scalar approach: Paying attention to how anti-gender/anti-feminist politics develops at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels, and exploring the interaction between these levels. • Post-coloniality: Interrogating how colonial legacies shape anti-gender politics, centering post-colonial epistemologies that challenge dominant Western understandings, and examining the strategic appropriation of anti-imperialist rhetoric by anti-gender actors. • Agency and actorness: Exploring the agency of actors, including their positionality, motivations, and networked alliances, and how state and non-state actors institutionalize anti-gender discourses and practices. • Resistance: Shedding light on how feminist and LGBTQI+ movements resist anti-gender/anti-feminist politics, including through broad coalitions that go beyond gender. Possible themes include, but are not limited to: • Conceptual, epistemological, and methodological innovations, particularly those decentering Western approaches. • Comparative analyses of anti-gender/anti-feminist movements across different countries, notably cross-regional studies. • The intersection of anti-gender/anti-feminist politics with state authoritarianism, populism, and democratic backsliding. • Mobilizations and coordinated attacks against specific gender-related norms and international frameworks (e.g., the Women, Peace and Security agenda, gender mainstreaming, sexual and reproductive health and rights, LGBTQI+ rights). • Attacks against feminist and LGBTQI+ practices and activism, and feminist and LGBTQI+ resistances to such attacks. • Attacks against gender studies as an academic and intellectual field, emerging across political, institutional, educational, and public spheres. • Transnational networks and local mobilizations, and how they shape each other. • Online anti-gender/anti-feminist mobilizations and activism, particularly the role of digital influencers and platform politics. • Challenges of researching anti-gender/anti-feminist politics (ethical concerns, researcher positionality, emotional/psychological impacts, safety considerations). References: Almazidi, Nour. 2024. “Against Our Fetrah: On the Epistemic and Material Implications of Anti-Gender Politics in the Gulf.” In Transnational Anti-Gender Politics, eds. Aiko Holvikivi, Billy Holzberg, and Tomás Ojeda. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 203–24. Corrêa, Sonia, David Paternotte, and Claire House. 2023. “Dr Frankenstein’s Hydra.” In Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights, London: Routledge, 484–93. El Rahi, Nay, and Fatima Antar. 2024. Deconstructing Anti-Feminist Backlash: The Lebanese Context. Institute of Development Studies. IDS Bulletin. Grzebalska, Weronika, Eszter Kováts, Andrea Pető Weronika Grzebalska, and Eszter Kováts. 2017. “Gender as Symbolic Glue: How ‘Gender’ Became an Umbrella Term for the Rejection of the (Neo)Liberal Order.” Political Critique. https://politicalcritique.org/long-read/2017/gender-as-symbolic-glue-how-gender-became-an-umbrella-term-for-the-rejection-of-the-neoliberal-order/ Heinrich Böll Stiftung. 2013. Overcoming Gender Backlash. Heinrich Böll Stiftung. https://pl.boell.org/sites/default/files/gender_backlash_kyiv_2013.pdf. Krizsán, Andrea, and Conny Roggeband. 2021. Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Lombardo, Emanuela, Johanna Kantola, and Ruth Rubio-Marin. 2021. “De-Democratization and Opposition to Gender Equality Politics in Europe.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 28(3): 521–31. Mayer, Stefanie, and Birgit Sauer. 2017. “Gender Ideology in Austria: Coalitions around an Empty Signifier.” In Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe. Mobilizing against Equality, eds. Roman Kuhar and David Paternotte. London, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 23–40. Ojeda, Tomás, Billy Holzberg, and Aiko Holvikivi. 2024. “A Transnational Feminist Approach to Anti-Gender Politics.” In Transnational Anti-Gender Politics, eds. Aiko Holvikivi, Billy Holzberg, and Tomás Ojeda. 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