Conservative Counter-Movements? Overcoming Culturalising Interpretations of Right-Wing Mobilizations Against ‘Gender Ideology’

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the reasons behind the rise of movements mobilizing against ‘gender ideology’ in Europe. As previously argued by Weronika Grzebalska, Andrea Pető and myself, attacks on ‘gender ideology’ should be seen as part of a broader political shift, characterized by the growing popularity of the populist right all over Europe and beyond, and we need an approach that seeks to understand the root causes of this trend. The paper applies Chantal Mouffe’s critique of the established hegemony of consensus in politics in the last decades (instead of providing spaces for agonistic struggles) and her argument that it is one of the main reasons behind the rise of the populist right in Western Europe. Using her approach, complemented with East-Central European insights, I will base my argument upon one of my earlier papers and analyze two consensuses I identified in relation to gender issues and which are promoted by the so-called progressive (including feminist and LGBT) movements and parties: the neoliberal consensus and the human rights consensus – and the way these claimed and desired consensuses contributed to the rise of movements against ‘gender ideology.’ Based on this theoretical framework and the empirical findings, I will show that the culturalist interpretation of these movements (e.g. framing them as counter-movements/opposition against equality) is insufficient and cooperates to the reproduction of the very same false dichotomy proposed by the movements in question. The paper proposes that presenting this conflict as a value-based dichotomy is itself the result of specific socio-economic processes and obscures power relations occurring at the European and global level, of which feminist and LGBT struggles are a part of.