“Gender Ideology” as a Strategic Enemy of the Radical Right in South America: The Cases of Bolsonaro and Milei

Abstract

This paper analyses the construction of “gender ideology” (GI) as a strategic enemy of the radical right in a context of radicalisation of neoliberalism in South America. Drawing on studies on the radical right and anti-gender movements, the paper suggests that the growing influence of feminist and LGBTQI+ struggles have been contested by the cultural backlash of conservative mobilisations and of the radical right. In that framework, the paper shows the confluence between religious and political anti-gender activism, recovering epistemic, moral, ideological and geopolitical dimensions that explain the erection of GI as a strategic and absolute enemy of the radical right. Then, the paper discusses anti-gender movements as a reaction against advances in sexual and reproductive rights and analyses the similarities and differences between discourses, policies and contexts of Milei and Bolsonaro. Hence, the article discusses how GI has enabled a right-wing intersectionality, which defends racial, gendered and class hierarchies against the movements that challenge them. It concludes by posing authoritarian neoliberalism and radical right-wing populism as a threat to liberal democracy and the rule of law.