Hatred Also Loves: Gender and Emotions in Today’s Political Landscape

Gender is a relational category, tensed and negotiated in every political configuration. It is fundamental for social structure and for the definition of the self and contemporary subjectivities. Embodied gender has become today the 'map of the moment' (Ahmed 2021) and a potent emotional activator.

Since gender relations are traversed by an unequal circulation of power, they are always political. But we cannot understand gender in relation to politics without considering its emotional activations. Through the activation of emotions, elements such as xenophobia, religious fundamentalism or male supremacy get stuck to (anti) gender positions.

We are now witnessing an enormous political instrumentalization of gender discourses in different ideological positions, and particularly, in the global far-right. Presenting themselves as the victims of a feminist political ‘elite’ that hates the ‘people’ and will destroy families and civilization, the far-right presents itself as the only alternative to save them, love them, and restore the ‘natural’ order of things through a resurgent authoritarianism.

This session aims to discuss and reflect on the assemblages of gender and emotions in the current political landscape. We welcome contributions related (but not limited) to:

- Connections between gender and emotions in the current political polarization

- Emotional strategies for political activation in antifeminism and feminism

- The circulation of emotions in right- and left-wing political mobilizations