Gender and the Far-right in the United States

Female Extremists and the Mainstreaming of Contemporary White Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID12858882
AuthorsAlexandra Minna Stern (0000-0003-1647-1846, University of Michigan, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume20
Issue3
Pages322-334
Publication date2022-07-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Modern European History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1611-8944 • E-ISSN: 2631-9764
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/16118944221110101
OpenAlexW4285801761
LanguageEN
Citations received15

This article explores gender and the far-right in the United States with specific attention to female actors and gendered ideologies in the realms of culture and media. By focusing on several female extremists, I show how traditional and rigid ideas of home, marriage, family and community bolster the xenophobia and racism of white nationalism in the United States. This article includes a historical overview of the concept of metapolitics and emphasizes its centrality to the mainstreaming of the contemporary far-right. I suggest that the internet and social media have become the far-right's premier metapolitical spaces, which can help to explain both the normalization of white nationalism and the unique role of female extremists. Several case studies of far-right women elucidate how gender norms are performed online, and how they reinforce anxious narratives of white erasure and victimhood, while fomenting antagonism towards feminism, globalism and multiculturalism. This article explores how female actors are galvanizing white nationalism in the United States, as they build on earlier eras of far-right activism and amplify the far-right via social media

Globalism · Ideology · Multiculturalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Populism · Racism · Sociology · White (mutation · White supremacy · Xenophobia · Gender Studies · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

Tools

Open DOI