Global Backlash or Fragmented Fears? Global and Local Dynamics of Discourses by Anti-Feminist Movements in Times of a Global Consensus on Women’s Rights

Academic engagement with public antifeminist statements is still rare, largely ignoring a growing public acceptance for discriminatory ideology. Through a critical discourse analysis of online antifeminist movements in India, Russia and the USA, this article investigates the commonalities and differences between antifeminist discourses and identities to understand whether their inherent narratives can be explained as 1) a traditionalist reaction to local societal changes, 2) a local reaction to the effects of globalization, or 3) the result of a global diffusion of antifeminist ideologies with a unified image. I conclude that antifeminism is part of a complex global-local dynamic, combining local grievances and mobilization tactics with global abstract, and often fictitious, societal changes. Globalization plays a contradictory role in antifeminist ideology, as enabler of its growth and the basis of a global antifeminist ideology as well as culprit for the distortion of gender roles. The analysis shows that antifeminism should not simply be disregarded as backward tendency of an insignificant minority, but instead deserves more attention by social movement and feminist studies to uncover and publicize its internal contradictions and develop strategies and policies to effectively counter its growing acceptance.