Global Perspectives on Anti-Feminism
Far-Right and Religious Attacks on Equality and Diversity
Edited by Judith Goetz and Stefanie Mayer
Published by Edinburgh University Press; 2023
In recent years, issues of gender and sexuality have become a political battlefield on which far-right, religious and conservative actors wage their war against liberal and left-wing ideas, as well as emancipatory movements. 'Anti-Gender' crusades, which had originally been launched by the Vatican, deeply impacted societies and politics especially as these discourses were adopted by the secular far-right. Campaigns against sexual and reproductive rights, against gender equality and sexual diversity were waged from Russia to the United States and from Latin America to Japan.
Edited by IRMS fellow, Judith Goetz, this new book brings together research and analyses from five continents in order to promote a global perspective on the thoroughly global phenomenon of the current culture wars around sex and gender. The contributions show how transnational networks spread discourses that were developed in the Global North, and how they become re-articulated in different national, political and religious contexts.
10 chapters from five continents (Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, Africa) provide a global perspective on current anti-feminism and anti-gender discourses
Provides an analytical understanding of anti-feminism as an intersectional ideology between continuity and change, with a conceptual framework of analysis and a comparative perspective on common global trends as well as regional/national specifities
Shows how discourses originally developed in the Global North/West are re-articulated in different national (including post-colonial) contexts, promoting an understanding of the entanglements between global and the local
Presents new perspectives and information on different world regions, opening up new angles in research on transnational anti-feminist networks and the global spread of anti-gender discourses
Provides a solid basis for further research in local, national and regional contexts
Read all chapters in open access here.
Table of Contents
Part I: GLOBAL PATTERNS OF CONTEMPORARY ANTI-FEMINISM
1. The Twenty-First-Century Crusade against Democracy in Latin America: ‘Gender Ideology’ at the Frontline
Gabriela Arguedas-Ramírez
2. ‘Comprehensive Sexuality Education is Satanic’: Homosexuality, Politics and Christian Nationalism in Ghana
Regina Fuller
3. The Backlash against Feminist Body Positive Activism in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan: A Transnational Post-Soviet Trend?
Katharina Wiedlack and Iain Zabolotny
4. A European Agenda? The Supra-National Dimension of Anti-Feminism in Europe
Stefanie Mayer and Judith Goetz
5. Weak Men and the Feminisation of Society: Locating the Ideological Glue between the Manosphere and the Far-Right
Simon Copland
Part II: LOCAL ARTICULATIONS OF GLOBAL ANTI-FEMINISM
6. ‘Original Design’ and the Renewal of Patriarchy: Discipleship and Religious Politicisation in an Evangelical Church in Quito (Ecuador)
Cristina Vega
7. The Anti-Feminist Narrative of the Hindu Right in India
Hira Naaz
8. Queers and National Anxiety: Discourses on Gender and Sexuality from Anti-Gender Backlash Movements in Japan since the 2000s
Kazuyoshi Kawasaka
9. Anti-Feminism in the Context of Corona Conspiracy Theories in Germany
Mareike Fenja Bauer
10. South African Anti-Feminism: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Opposition to Feminist Activism
Amber Beeson
Concluding Remarks. Global Articulations of Anti-Feminism
Judith Goetz and Stefanie Mayer