Fascism, nature and communication

A Discursive-Affective Analysis of Cuteness in Ecofascist Propaganda

Bibliographic Data

ID7154266
AuthorsMona Darwish (0000-0003-4233-7835, Örebro University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue2
Pages443-463
Publication date2025-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2024.2313006
OpenAlexW4392086775
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited49

Ecofascism—the union of fascist ideas and ecological notions—is a rising global issue. Ecofascism in the online sphere often encompasses imaginaries of utopia, love and nostalgia in concert with militarism and violence. This article examines cuteness as a strategic tool used to arouse culturally deemed “positive” emotions like joy, love and pleasure. The study draws on findings from an affective-discursive analysis of visual propaganda in the form of ecofascist memes. The analysis shows that cuteness softens fascist ideology and remasculinises and humanises fascism. Cuteness as a rhetorical tool lessens the needs for ideological defence, since cute signifiers condense structures of meaning into binaries of good and evil. Hence, the article argues that cuteness is a powerful affective political communication strategy that serves to reproduce masculine dominance by mobilising gendered and racialised imaginaries of nature, protection, empathy and belonging

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology

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