Paper short abstract:

During the last years the discourse around feminism and women rights has changed in Germany and is increasingly entangled with nationalist and antiimmigrant rhetoric. This paper analyzes these current struggles in Germany by focusing on the language and images used by different actors in this field.

Paper long abstract:

In January 2018 a video of the group 120 Dezibel went viral in German speaking countries. With the slogan "The true outcry" a collective of women has started a new movement that takes up the feminist campaign #Metoo and fights "imported violence" and "foreign infiltration". At latest since the "event Cologne" (Dietze 2016) at New Year's Eve 2015/16 the discourse around feminism and the engagement for womens' rights has changed in Germany and is increasingly entangled with nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. New actors like rightwing populist groups and conservative policy makers act now as defenders of women's rights while criticizing emancipatory diversity politics as "gender madness". Likewise, "old" actors like long existing feminist groups also use nationalist logics, request a critique of "Islam" and mobilize thereby a specific gender knowledge about "the others". These current struggles around feminism and women rights are accompanied by an ambivalent simultaneity since 2015: On the one side the reform of the law governing sexual offences and at the same time massive restrictions in asylum and migration law. This paper analyzes these current struggles around women's rights and feminism in Germany by focusing on the gendered and racialized language and images used by different actors in this field - across the political spectrum.

Paper short abstract:

We present three strategies used to denounce feminist/gender studies knowledge in Czech public discourse. We aim to highlight both local specificities and commonalities with the global "alliance in spirit" and point out some local repercussions of the novel "antigenderism discourse" in CEE region.

Paper long abstract:

Feminist sociological research is well institutionalised in the Czech Republic with two major departments at the Institute of Sociology (Czech Academy of Sciences). However, it would be wrong to believe that the knowledge produced by them goes uncontested. In this paper, we analyse the de-legitimizing strategies used to discredit and denounce such knowledge in two particular cases that entered the media in 2015 and 2017. In the first case, feminist sociologists criticized an exhibition of photographs of nudes presented as part of an event aimed at attracting schoolchildren and youth to science. In the latter case, a Czech documentary director criticized a rhyme, which strictly delineates roles for boys and girls and appears in a Czech reading book. Both the cases were followed by several analyses and comments by Czech gender studies scholars, and articles employing different strategies to specifically denounce feminist knowledge and expertise. Using thematic analysis, we present three strategies used to denounce feminist/gender studies knowledge: 1) Link to the past and totalitarian practices, 2) Defense of the "traditional" and "natural" gender order, 3) Claims to truth. Our aim is to highlight local specificities and commonalities with the global and pan-European "alliance in spirit" (Hark 2017) that is connected to far right and/or traditionalist groups. We pay attention also to the role played by academics coming from different disciplines. We conclude by pointing out some local repercussions of the novel "antigenderism discourse", its links to other critiques typically found in CEE and to the pan-European trends.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses the role of gender knowledge in the critique of Gender Studies by academics in Germany. It shows that such argumentations are received by religious, conservative and right-wing publics and have an impact on discourses on the liberalization of gender relations and migration.

Paper long abstract:

In Germany, the academic subject of Gender Studies has been attacked recently not only by right-wing parties and movements, but also by fellow-members of the scientific community. In my contribution, based on a discourse analysis (Jaeger 2009), theme-centred interviews (Schorn 2000) and participant observation, I analyse the role of gender knowledge in such academic anti-Gender Studies discourses. It can be shown that the main point of critique are the (de)-constructivist conceptualizations of gender and accordant kinds of knowledge production by Gender Studies scientists while the "gender-critic" scientists themselves proceed from a two-sex and gender system starting from two different epistemological standpoints: a biologistic positivism vs. a referral to C.G. Jungs archetypes based on Christian faith. Gender knowledge is put into position to support argumentations which aim to discredit Gender Studies. The 'gender' critic scientists mainly act on public and media discourse levels; they are received and are ascribed high authority above all in religious, conservative and right-wing publics. They also have an impact on contested socio-political theme complexes such as the liberalization of gender relations (e.g., discussions on marriage for all or sexual education) and intervene in discourses on migration, backing up argumentatively the anti-emancipatory and nationalist discourses of right-wing parties and movements like the Alternative für Deutschland or the Demo für Alle. The academic gender knowledge produced by the 'gender' critic scientists thus still works as an instance of final justification, like Arnold Gehlen (1957) has formulated it referring to scientific knowledge in general.

Paper short abstract:

It is common sense within members of the far-right group Generation Identity that women "naturally" sympathize with leftist parties. The symbol of The Red Pill refers to the process of how members overcame leftist strategies and recognized that the only way to happiness leads through patriotism.

Paper long abstract:

The majority of members in Generation Identity (GI) are young men. As in many other neo-nationalist and right-wing groups, women only play a tangential and subordinate role in numbers and positions within GI. However, the few women who are engaged in their political work are very often displayed and presented in the most visible and noticeable manners.

It's seems to be common sense within GI members that women "naturally" sympathize with leftist and green parties, as those know how to address "female empathy" with measures of pity and maternal instincts when it comes to "for example, refugees". When women finally overcome the tendencies of being fooled by the strategies of "leftist mainstream media and their propaganda" just once - so the common narrative - they will notice that the only way to fulfill "natural female instincts" leads into patriotism: Almost all GI members (men and women) refer to the symbol of The Red Pill that was originally invented by misogynist men's rights movements in the US derived from a pill that appears as the motif of the fruit of knowledge in the popular dystopian movie Matrix.

I will present:

• how GI naturalizes voters profiles according to gender,

• how the common right-wing narrative of The Red Pill appears in GI's online/social media presentation, and

• how GI justifies 'the way to (female) happiness' through patriotism only

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores nationalist opposition to public healthcare support of gender affirming procedures in Montenegro. It focuses on how nationalist actors use the politics of innocence to differentiate between those deserving and those undeserving of care and support.

Paper long abstract:

Two Montenegrin citizens so far have been granted full financial support for gender affirming interventions from the Public Healthcare Fund. Gender affirming was added to the list of publicly insured medical procedures in Montenegro in 2012. This paper explores rising nationalist opposition to this move. The most vocal opponents of the public financing of gender affirming evoke genderless and innocent figures of "sick children" and "the elderly" as those more deserving of public support. How come the Fund has money for trans people, but cancer treatment abroad for a child needs to be financed by charitable and humanitarian SMS donations, the nationalist actors ask. As in many other cases, nationalist actors use the politics of innocence to establish an opposition between those deserving and those undeserving of care and support. In doing so, they direct criticism of the conditions caused by the shrinking healthcare insurance and worsening healthcare system away from capitalist economic transformation (and the responsible politicians) to trans people. Exploring this process, the paper focuses on narrative strategies of nationalist actors tentatively called "crisis-making", "depoliticization", and "scapegoating".