Abstract
Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment is a timely book that carefully analyzes a crucial topic in contemporary politics – the relationship between anti-gender mobilizations and populism by aptly and skillfully combining different perspectives and analytical approaches, and using the particular case of Poland to examine the different aspects of this relationship. On one hand, Poland offers a paradigmatic case of the rise of the populist right and anti-gender politics, as it epitomizes the broad dynamics involved while also being part of a wider transnational network of ‘anti-gender’ actors. On the other hand, the specific dynamics of the situation in Poland illustrate the flexibility of anti-gender ideology and the way this adapts to fit different contexts. In their book, Agnieszka Graff and Elżbieta Korolczuk examine what they define as ‘an opportunistic synergy’ between right-wing populism and the anti-gender network, through which the former acquires the benefit of electoral support and an articulated ideological approach, and the latter the chance to gain access to decisional power. Yet, the authors also suggest another angle from which to look at this relationship: the feminist movements in Poland that mobilize against ‘anti-gender campaigns’ also adopt a populist approach.
The text is theoretically dense and uses the detailed analysis of its Polish case study, constantly compared to the situation in other countries, to unpack the different elements of the relationship between anti-gender actors and populism, as well as the factors at work within anti-gender narratives themselves, including the role of nativism and the mobilization of an ‘anti-colonial’ frame that, in Eastern Europe, fits particularly well with the right-wing populist narrative. The authors engage in a continual dialogue with a broad range of literature, acknowledging previous research and engaging with its theoretical nodes. In this sense, the book participates in a dense network of intellectual exchange, while at the same time contributing to the creation of a theoretical field and research community.
Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment has many merits, including being open access, and therefore available to a wide audience. Also, Graff and Korolczuk acknowledge their own positionality, while underscoring their commitment to understanding ‘the internal logic of our opponents’ worldview and the sources of its mass appeal’ (p. 8). This is indeed a crucial factor, as the topics discussed in the book relate to us not only as feminist activists – for those readers who are – but also, particularly, as scholars, insofar that both anti-gender campaigns and right-wing populist discourses question the epistemological legitimacy of gender studies. In this sense, engaging with these topics is as relevant as it is complex and requires scholars to be aware of (and critically reflect on) their own social situatedness within epistemological and political power relationships.
Besides the analysis of the Polish case study and the comparisons drawn from this, the main empirical contribution of Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment is a careful reconstruction and examination of the transnational network of anti-gender actors, showing both this network’s ability to adapt to national contexts, and the flexibility of its approach and its narratives. At the theoretical level, Agnieszka Graff and Elżbieta Korolczuk’s remarkable contribution articulates a complex overall framework that convincingly combines three elements: gender as a key aspect of populism; the relevance of the criticism of neoliberalism in European contemporary populism; and the role of emotion in both anti-gender and feminist mobilizations. Each of these three elements has profound theoretical and analytical implications. First, Graff and Korolczuk emphasize that, far from being a supplementary factor, ‘gender’ is in fact fundamental to current populist politics. As they state in the last lines of the book, ‘It is only by taking struggles over “gender” into account that we can understand the affective and epistemological dimensions of the current rise of the populist right’ (p. 170). Second, Graff and Korolczuk examine the correlation between neoliberalism and populism, showing how right-wing populism constructs itself as a criticism of and challenge to neoliberal policies, deploying both pragmatic and moral arguments; and in Eastern Europe at least, populist and anti-gender actors have successfully equated feminism and neoliberalism in their discourse. Third, Graff and Korolczuk adeptly highlight the role of emotions in contemporary populism, examining the way anti-gender and populist actors mobilize both negative and positive emotions in their effort to create ‘the(ir) people’. At the same time, though, the authors show how the (Polish) feminist movement successfully mobilizes emotions too, and they explore the way solidarity and emotional participation function as affective networks.
Overall, Graff and Korolczuk provide an excellent and inspiring contribution, which should stimulate further analysis and reflection. I would like to suggest two theoretical-empirical nodes, stemming from their rich and dense analytical framework, that could merit further attention. The first of these concerns the disconnect between populism and neoliberalism. The authors convincingly argue that contemporary European populism is in fact a challenge to neoliberalism, in that it constructs its political appeal precisely through the promise of providing a correction to what are seen as the economically devastating effects of neoliberalism. It is a profoundly moralizing discourse, which opposes neoliberal individualism with the warmth of familial and social connections. Yet right-wing populists in power do not always deliver on this promise. In this sense, while on the discursive level, European right-wing populism depicts itself as a challenge and a remedy to neoliberalism, at the level of policy, neoliberal approaches sometimes resurface. Graff and Korolczuk’s deconstruction of the ostensible populist criticism of neoliberalism thus opens room for further comparisons and empirical analyses exploring the tensions and national differences that characterize right-wing populism’s actual economic policies.
A second node regards identity as a mobilization resource in populist politics. In their analysis of anti-gender campaigns and networks, Graff and Korolczuk explore the instrumentalization and politicization of the identity of the ‘parent’, arguing that ‘[s]peaking as a parent is a way to authenticate one’s political engagement’ (p. 118). This adoption of the ‘parent’ identity as the basis for political engagement, rather than traditional political ideologies, speaks to the current disaffection and distrust of ‘party politics’, in comparison to which ‘nonpolitical’ identities appear more trustworthy. More than this, as Graff and Korolczuk show, many anti-gender actors also ground their epistemic authority on their ‘parental’ identity. In other words, they are to be seen as credible (and should be trusted) because they speak ‘as parents’ – that is, they have morally irreproachable motives, and a direct and embodied knowledge of what they are talking about. The reference to direct and embodied knowledge here echoes the feminist defence of the legitimacy of epistemic claims that are based on embodied experience. In this connection, Graff and Korolczuk frame contemporary feminist mobilization in Poland as ‘populist feminism’, drawing attention to such factors as the role of emotion and the reference to the experience of ‘ordinary women’ in the movement’s narratives and call for action. Like right-wing populism, therefore, populist feminism opposes neoliberalism, but it proposes ‘a definition of the people that is radically different [. . .]. Instead of highlighting homogeneity, morality and the need for national sovereignty, women’s movements embrace plurality, intersectionality and global solidarity’ (p. 163). Given this situation, it will be crucial for future research to analyse carefully the role of embodied experiences as grounds for claims to political authenticity and epistemic ‘truth’ within these ‘opposing populisms’, and also to engage with the differences and entanglements between the two political practices, exploring the implications of these for feminist theory and practice. It would be particularly relevant here as well to analyse the role of digital media logic, a factor that is touched upon by the authors.
In concluding their excellent book, Graff and Korolczuk remind us of the crucial relevance of contemporary gender-related struggles, which ‘are, in fact, struggles over the definition of democracy, representation and political community’ (p. 163). Hence, the book challenges us feminists as to how we resist and counter anti-gender discourses and policies, urging us to rethink our practices, by critically learning from – and engaging with – the Polish case.
