The radical right is disproportionately supported by men, yet there is little research on masculinity’s role in creating this discrepancy. This article breaks new ground in using masculinity as an analytical construct to explain the gender gap in one of the UK’s most significant radical right organisations: the English Defence League. Drawing on original qualitative data and interviews with past and present English Defence League activists, this article argues that English Defence League beliefs and practices were distinctly masculine. In promoting an ideology that subordinated Muslim men and women, and in providing a forum for displaying and enacting manhood, the English Defence League facilitated the supply of masculinity and therefore attracted far more men than women. The approach used in this article shows how theoretical analyses of masculinity can be incorporated within political science and offers a powerful new lens through which to understand radical right parties and movements.
AnandD (2008) ‘Porno-Nationalism’ and the Male Subject. In: ParpartJLZalewskiM (eds) Rethinking the Man Question: Sex, Gender and Violence in International Relations. New York: Zed Books, pp.163–189.
2.
ArzheimerKCarterE (2006) Political Opportunity Structures and Right-Wing Extremist Party Success. European Journal of Political Research45 (3): 419–443.
3.
AsencioM (2011) ‘Locas’, Respect, and Masculinity: Gender Conformity in Migrant Puerto Rican Gay Masculinities. Gender and Society25 (3): 335–354.
4.
BartlettJLittlerM (2011) Inside the EDL: Populist Politics in a Digital Age. New York: Demos.
BelkinA (2012) Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Facade of American Empire 1898-2001. London: Hurst and Company.
7.
BenaquistoL (2008) Codes and Coding. In: GivenLM (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. London: SAGE Publishing, pp.85–88.
8.
BetzHG (1993) The New Politics of Resentment: Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe. Comparative Politics25 (4): 413–427.
9.
BetzHG (1994) Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe. London: Macmillan.
10.
BleeK (2002) Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
11.
BrayZ (2008) Ethnographic Approaches. In: Della PortaDKeatingM (eds) Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences: A Pluralist Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.296–391.
12.
BrittonJ (2020) Being an Insider and Outsider: Whiteness as a Key Dimension of Difference. Qualitative Research20: 340–354.
13.
BusherJ (2016) The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest: Grassroots Activism in the English Defence League. Oxon: Routledge.
14.
ButlerJ (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
15.
CarriganTConnellBLeeJ (1985) Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity. Theory and Society14 (5): 551–604.
16.
CarverT (2014) Being a Man. Government and Opposition41 (3): 450–468.
17.
CockbainETufailW (2020) Failing Victims, Fuelling Hate: Challenging the Harms of the ‘Muslim Grooming Gangs’ Narrative. Race & Class61 (3): 3–32.
18.
CofféH (2018a) Gender and the Radical Right. In: RydgrenJ (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.200–211.
19.
CofféH (2018b) Gender, Gendered Personality Traits and Radical Right Populist Voting. Politics39 (2): 170–185.
20.
CollinsPH (2004) Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism. New York: Routledge.
21.
CollinsonDL (1988) ‘Engineering Humour’: Masculinity, Joking and Conflict in Shop-Floor Relations. Organization Studies9 (2): 181–199.
22.
ConnellC (2010) Doing, Undoing, or Redoing Gender?: Learning from the Workplace Experiences of Transpeople. Gender & Society24 (1): 31–55.
23.
ConnellRW (1995) Masculinities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
24.
ConnellRW (2015) An Iron Man: The Body and Some Contradictions of Hegemonic Masculinity. In: KarenDWashingtonRE (ed.) Sociological Perspectives on Sport: The Games Outside the Games. New York: Routledge, pp.141–149.
25.
ConnellRWMesserschmidtJW (2005) Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender and Society19 (6): 829–859.
26.
DaddowOHertnerI (2019) Interpreting Toxic Masculinity in Political Parties: A Framework for Analysis. Party Politics. Epub ahead of print 26November. DOI: 10.1177/1354068819887591.
27.
DayK (2001) Constructing Masculinity and Women’s Fear in Public Space in Irvine, California. Gender, Place and Culture8 (2): 109–127.
EzzyD (2002) Qualitative Analysis: Practice and Innovation. London: Routledge.
35.
FeredayJMuir-CochraneE (2006) Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis: A Hybrid Approach of Inductive and Deductive Coding and Theme Development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods5 (1): 80–92.
36.
GestJRenyTMayerJ (2018) Roots of the Radical Right: Nostalgic Deprivation in the United States and Britain. Comparative Political Studies51 (13): 1694–1719.
37.
GivensTE (2004) The Radical Right Gender Gap. Comparative Political Studies37 (1): 30–54.
38.
GoodwinMJ (2011) New British Fascism: Rise of the British National Party. Oxon: Routledge.
39.
GoodwinMJCuttsDJanta-LipinskiL (2014) Economic Losers, Protestors, Islamophobes or Xenophobes? Predicting Public Support for a Counter-Jihad Movement. Political Studies64 (1): 4–26.
40.
HarteveldEIvarsflatenE (2016) Why Women Avoid the Radical Right: Internalized Norms and Party Reputations. British Journal of Political Science48 (2): 369–384.
41.
InglehartRNorrisP (2000) The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women’s and Men’s Voting Behavior in Global Perspective. International Political Science Review21 (4): 441–463.
42.
JacksonS (1999) Heterosexuality in Question. London: SAGE Publishing.
43.
KaneEW (2006) ‘No Way My Boys Are Going to Be Like That!’: Parents’ Responses to Children’s Gender Nonconformity. Gender & Society20 (2): 149–176.
44.
KassimerisGJacksonL (2015) The Ideology and Discourse of the English Defence League:‘Not Racist, Not Violent, Just No Longer Silent’. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations17 (1): 171–188.
KimmelM (2007) Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity. In: RothenbergPS (ed.) Race, Class and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study. New York: Worth Publishers, pp.58–70.
47.
KimmelM (2018) Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get into and Out of Violent Extremism. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
48.
KimmelMFerberAL (2000) ‘White Men Are This Nation’:Right-Wing Militias and the Restoration of Rural American Masculinity. Rural Sociology65 (4): 582–604.
49.
KitscheltH (1997) The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
50.
KlandermansBMayerN (eds) (2006) Extreme Right Activists in Europe: Through the Magnifying Glass. Abingdon: Routledge.
51.
LamontM (2000) The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. New York: Russell SAGE Foundation.
52.
LumsdenK (2009) ‘Don’t Ask a Woman to Do Another Woman’s Job’: Gendered Interactions and the Emotional Ethnographer. Sociology43 (3): 497–513.
53.
ManneK (2018) Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. New York: Oxford University Press.
54.
MartinPY (1998) Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman? Reflections on Connell’s Masculinities. Gender and Society12 (4): 472–474.
55.
MayerN (2013) From Jean-Marie to Marine Le Pen: Electoral Change on the Far Right. Parliamentary Affairs66 (1): 160–178.
56.
MayerN (2015) The Closing of the Radical Right Gender Gap in France?French Politics13 (4): 391–414.
57.
MeadowcroftJMorrowEA (2017) Violence, Self-Worth, Solidarity and Stigma: How a Dissident, Far-Right Group Solves the Collective Action Problem. Political Studies65 (2): 373–390.
58.
MorrowEAMeadowcroftJ (2019) The Rise and Fall of the English Defence League: Self-Governance, Marginal Members and the Far Right. Political Studies67 (3): 539–556.
59.
MorseJMMitchamC (2002) Exploring Qualitatively-Derived Concepts: Inductive – Deductive Pitfalls. International Journal of Qualitative Methods1 (4): 28–35.
60.
MuddeC (2007) Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
61.
NagelJ (1998) Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations. Ethnic and Racial Studies21 (2): 242–269.
62.
NorocelOC (2010) Constructing Radical Right Populist Resistance: Metaphors of Heterosexist Masculinities and the Family Question in Sweden. NORMA: Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies5 (2): 169–183.
63.
NorocelOC (2013) ‘Give Us Back Sweden!’ A Feminist Reading of the (Re)Interpretations of the Folkhem Conceptual Metaphor in Swedish Radical Right Populist Discourse. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research21 (1): 4–20.
64.
PascoeCJ (2005) ‘Dude, You’re a Fag’: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse. Sexualities8 (3): 329–346.
65.
PhillipsCEarleR (2010) Reading Difference Differently? Identity, Epistemology and Prison Ethnography. The British Journal of Criminology50 (2): 360–378.
66.
PilkingtonH (2016) Loud and Proud: Passion and Politics in the English Defence League. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
67.
PilkingtonH (2017) ‘EDL Angels Stand beside Their Men. . . Not behind Them’: the Politics of Gender and Sexuality in an Anti-Islam (ist) Movement. Gender and Education29 (2): 238–257.
68.
PrattMG (2009) From the Editors: For the Lack of a Boilerplate – Tips on Writing Up (and Reviewing) Qualitative Research. Academy of Management Journal52 (5): 856–862.
69.
RashkovaERZankinaE (2017) Are (populist) Radical Right Parties Männerparteien? Evidence from Bulgaria. West European Politics40 (4): 848–868.
70.
RhodesPJ (1994) Race-Of-Interviewer effects: A Brief Comment. Sociology28 (2): 547–558.
71.
RismanBJ (2009) From Doing to Undoing: Gender and We Know It. Gender and Society23 (1): 81–84.
72.
RitchieJLewisJElamG, et al. (2014) Designing and Selecting Samples. In: RitchieJLewisJNicholsCM, et al. (eds) Qualitative Research Practice. London: SAGE Publishing, pp.111–146.
73.
SaldanaJ (2016) The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. London: SAGE Publishing.
74.
SchaefferNC (1980) Evaluating Race-of-Interviewer Effects In a National Survey. Sociological Methods & Research8 (4): 400–419.
75.
SchrockDSchwalbeM (2009) Men, Masculinity, and Manhood Acts. Annual Review of Sociology35 (1): 277–295.
76.
SchwalbeM (2016) Manhood Acts: Gender and the Practices of Domination. Oxon: Routledge.
77.
ShapiraH (2013) Waiting for Jose: The Minutemen’s Pursuit of America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
78.
ShorrocksR (2018) Cohort Change in Political Gender Gaps in Europe and Canada: The Role of Modernization. Politics & Society46 (2): 135–175.
79.
SirinSRMcCrearyDRMahalikJR (2004) Differential Reactions to Men and Women’s Gender Role Transgressions: Perceptions of Social Status, Sexual Orientation, and Value Dissimilarity. The Journal of Men’s Studies12 (2): 119–132.
80.
SpieringsNZasloveA (2017) Gender, Populist Attitudes, and Voting: Explaining the Gender Gap in Voting for Populist Radical Right and Populist Radical Left Parties. West European Politics40 (4): 821–847.
81.
SumerauJE (2012) ‘That’s What a Man Is Supposed to Do’: Compensatory Manhood Acts in an LGBT Christian Church. Gender and Society26 (3): 461–487.
82.
Tolleson-RinehartSCarrollSJ (2006) ‘Far from Ideal’: The Gender Politics of Political Science. American Political Science Review100 (4): 507–513.
83.
TreadwellJGarlandJ (2011) Masculinity, Marginalization and Violence A Case Study of the English Defence League. British Journal of Criminology51 (4): 621–634.
84.
VandelloJABossonJK (2013) Hard Won and Easily Lost: A Review and Synthesis of Theory and Research on Precarious Manhood. Psychology of Men and Masculinity14 (2): 101–113.
85.
VandelloJABossonJKCohenD, et al. (2008) Precarious Manhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology95 (6): 1325–1339.
86.
VasilopoulouSHalikiopoulouD (2015) The Golden Dawn’s ‘Nationalist Solution’. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
87.
WestCZimmermanDH (1987) Doing Gender. Gender and Society1 (2): 125–151.
88.
WillerRRogalinCLConlonB, et al. (2013) Overdoing Gender: A Test of the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis. American Journal of Sociology118 (4): 980–1022.
89.
WinlowSHallSTreadwellJ (2016) The Rise of the Right: English Nationalism and the Transformation of Working-class Politics. Bristol: Policy Press.
