Of tradwives and TradCaths

The anti-genderism register in global nationalist movements

Authors

  • Catherine Tebaldi University of Luxembourg
  • Dominika Baran Duke University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.25635

Keywords:

anti-genderism register, chronopolitics, gender, global right, homonationalism, nationalism, sexuality, traditionalism

Abstract

Building on Borba’s theorisation of the anti-genderism register, the articles in this special issue explore anti-genderism as a political tool for the global right in four cases: online ‘tradwives’ or traditional wives defending national and sexual purity (Tebaldi), homonationalism in the Islamophobic forum r/thedonald (Brotherton), the natalist chronopolitics of Bolsonaro in Brazil (Silva and Dziuba) and the invocation of the spectre of gender to place Poland at the centre of the white West (Baran). Together, they highlight new discursive elements in the nationalist far-right use of the anti-genderism register and the construction of morally marked figures through nationalist discourses of tradition, sexuality, temporality and place. Anti-genderism is not just a call for ‘traditional’ gender or marriage, but the evocation of a gendered nation, an idealised past and a strong future populated with warriors and mothers.

Author Biographies

  • Catherine Tebaldi, University of Luxembourg

    Catherine Tebaldi is currently a fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, Culture and Computation Lab. Previously, she was a researcher at University College London, looking at white nationalist women, and completed her PhD on far-right homeschooling at UMass Amherst.

  • Dominika Baran, Duke University

    Dominika Baran is Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at Duke University, United States. Her 2017 book, Language in Immigrant America, is an interdisciplinary examination of language as the site for the contestation of ‘immigrant’ and ‘American’ identities. Her current work focuses on anti-LGBTQ+ discourses, particularly in Polish nationalist and right-wing media and politics. She is also working on a project on language, memory and belonging in Polish immigrant women’s narratives.

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Published

2023-05-15

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2023): Special Issue: Anti-genderism in Global Nationalist Movements

Section

Editorial

How to Cite

Tebaldi, C., & Baran, D. (2023). Of tradwives and TradCaths: The anti-genderism register in global nationalist movements. Gender and Language, 17(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.25635