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On Thursday, June 13, our author Dr. Annette Henninger (University of Marburg) will give the Doing Gender Lecture entitled Anti/Feminism: From blurring boundaries to strategies against the anti-gender ‘Zeitgeist’.
Since the turn of the century, attacks against ‘gender’ are globally on the rise. Many authors point out that mobilizations against issues such as gender studies, same-sex marriage, trans* rights or divorce regulations are part of a broader struggle for political hegemony driven by actors from the political and religious right who strive for an illiberal, regressive vision of (gender) politics. But in these mobilizations, we can also observe alliances with conservative or liberal segments of society and overlaps between the feminist and anti-feminist camp, as in discourses on femo- or homo-nationalism or concerning transphobia. My talk will explore the broader political conjunctures in which this blurring of boundaries takes place. I critically assess three explanations for this phenomenon by asking how social problems are framed in these concepts and which political strategies result from these frames: 1. The rise of populism, 2. the rise of neoliberal (post-)feminism, and 3. the de-thematization of social conflict and power structures for the sake of identity politics and ‘culture wars’. Reformulating a famous quote by Spivak, I propose a new ‘strategic universalism’ that envisions an inclusive version of democracy and social justice as a future-oriented counter-strategy against the current anti-gender ‘Zeitgeist’ and the illiberal tendencies that come with it.
Book presentation
The Doing Gender Lecture will be followed by a short presentation of the book Blurring Boundaries – ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Discourses, co-edited by Dorothee Beck, Adriano José Habed, and Annette Henninger (Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2023).
Chair: Dr. Adriano Habed
About the DOING GENDER Lecture Series
The Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies organises the DOING GENDER Lecture Series in cooperation with their partners. These lectures stress the importance of doing gender work combined with an active involvement in the practice of gender theory and research. The concept of DOING GENDER supports a hands-on approach to gender issues in the sense of social and political engagement with the new forms of gender inequalities that are taking shape in the world today. The lecture series wants to give space to the new generations of gender theorists and practitioners and to perspectives that innovate the field and do gender in new ways. Key is the notion of doing gender: what is the state of the art definition of gender? How do contemporary scholars and activists utilise this definition?
Book discount
We are offering a 30 % discount on the book Blurring Boundaries – ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Discourses (print and eBook) from 10 to 24 June! Don’t miss!