- Greta Jasser, University of Göttingen & Katherine Kondor, Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies: Fascism of the future: The far right, gendered aesthetics, and AI
- Sadik Qaka, University of Oslo: Europa rises: Masculinity, territory and race in extreme right manifestos
- Sigrid G. Lund Moe, University of Oslo: Masculine identity building in the digital age
- Iris B. Segers, C-REX, University of Oslo & Ov Cristian Norocel, Lund University: Far-right researchers as intersectional subjects: Three arenas for emotional labour
Abstracts
Fascism of the future: The far right, gendered aesthetics, and AI
Greta Jasser, University of Göttingen & Katherine Kondor, Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies
Aesthetics are gendered: this applies to the aesthetics of the far right just as much as, if not more so, than to non-far-right artefacts of cultural production. The decidedly prominent attribution of hegemonic femininity and masculinity are striking – from Nazi and neo-nazi art to the Fashwave-trends of the 2010s – masculinity and militarism, as well as a völkisch ideal of femininity, beauty, family, and child-rearing feature heavily in the cultural production of the far-right. The aim of the paper is two-fold: firstly, it traces the historic contingencies and fractions in gendered far-right cultural artefacts – from Nazi-Germany to the use of Norse- and Viking-imagery of the Nordic Resistance Movement (Kølvraa 2019) with a focus on the distribution in and adaptation to the digital space. Secondly, this paper examines the far-right’s use of AI-image generators, as these programs offer the opportunity to generate any configuration of gendered art. AI offers a low-effort and low-cost option to produce far-right cultural artefacts en masse and, we argue, the familiar style of AI images generally facilitates the subtle addition of far-right messaging into images. We set out to analyse how AI-generated ‘art’ produced by far-right actors incorporates gendered far-right aesthetics from the past, and how the bright and artificial looking AI-‘art’-style is used to make far-right culture more palatable - potentially aid in normalizing far-right cultural artefacts, and their attitudes to gender to a wider audience.
Europa Rises: Masculinity, territory and race in extreme right manifestos
Sadik Qaka, University of Oslo
In recent years, terrorist manifestos have followed extreme right terrorist attacks. In these manifestos, perpetrators share their ideology, beliefs and justifications of their acts. The significance of these manifestos, however, extend beyond far providing insight into the minds of terrorists. Previous literature has pointed out that these manifestos are thematically and ideologically connected and as such they play a vital role in the dissemination of extreme right ideology. The scholarly interest in extreme right manifestos has also overlapped with an increased scholarly attention on the role of gender in the extreme right, particularly the role of masculinity. This paper aims to combine the study of manifestos and masculinity by analyzing the intersections between gender, geography, race and religion in the manifestos of Anders Breivik (“2083: A European Declaration of Independence”) and Brenton Tarrant (“The Great Replacement”). Drawing from post-structuralist understandings of masculinity, it uses Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory to analyze the construction of masculinity in these manifestos. Citing Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the paper aims to identify significant elements or characteristics which stage extreme right masculinity. The paper argues that masculinity is evoked through constructing the territory of “Europe”, a homeland in danger. This linguistic construction of antagonism along racial, religious and geographic lines stages and enables a white Crusader masculinity needed to restore a decaying Western civilization. Bound by anxieties concerning reproduction and demography, masculinity and gender relations emerge as some of the central themes through which to understand these manifestos and their significance.
Masculine identity building in the digital age
Sigrid G. Lund Moe, University of Oslo
The Men's Committee [“Mannsutvalget”] was established by the Norwegian government in August 2022 and can be understood as a response to what some call the "boy crisis": Boys are underperforming in primary and secondary school, women are increasingly overrepresented in higher education, and boys and men are described as being at risk of becoming "losers" in society. The consequences are uncertain – and whether related or not – there is a strong need for an investigation into important contemporary voices of masculine identity building. To be sure, questions about what kind of masculine identities are on offer as well as how they are negotiated and enforced are deeply imbricated in the current climate of polarized ideas of gender and gender roles. Two key voices, known for their gender-conservative solutions to these issues, are Canadian psychology professor emeritus Jordan Peterson and British former kickboxer Andrew Tate.
The present paper, inspired by literature on Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities, including theories of hegemonic masculinity as well as theories of antifeminism/masculinism from a social movement perspective, targets these two characters in the context of the internet manosphere. It mobilizes methods from the fields of "digital methods" and "controversy mapping" to investigate both the content left by the two characters and their followers in their online interaction as well as the platform infrastructure inside of which this interaction takes place. Extracting actual data from the internet through digital means, the paper investigates and compares the community centered around Peterson's channel(s) on YouTube with the Tate's-centered community on the platform Reddit. The paper is structured as follows. First, I investigate who these followers are, how they interact with each other and with the shared content posted by Tate and Peterson respectively. I then analyze what kinds of gender and masculinity constructions are on offer. I seek to understand how these identities are enforced – but maybe also negotiated or even dissented in the two manospheres. I then contextualize my findings by drawing the respective platform's algorithmic design into the analysis, seeking to highlight how platform design affects, structures or even enforce identity construction work.
Far-right researchers as intersectional subjects: Three arenas for emotional labour
Iris Beau Segers, STK and C-REX, University of Oslo, and Ov Cristian Norocel, Lund University
This paper reflects on methodological and ethical challenges in researching the far right, responding to the relatively limited focus on the impact of researching illiberal, or even hostile forms of mobilization on individual scholars. In this conceptual contribution, we engage critically with the emotional labour that is inherent to conducting research on the far-right ecosystem. We draw on Arlie Russel Hochschild’s seminal work to highlight the ways in which researching the far-right demands different types of emotional performance of the individual scholar, both in terms of performing emotion that is incongruent with the internal experience of the researcher, as well as the strategic suppression of emotions in different contexts. In doing so, we explore how the expectations and experiences of emotion work are inherently shaped by the researcher’s intersectional positionality. Overall, we provide a theoretical contribution that combines the rich body of literature on emotional labour with the growing volume of methodological and ethical reflections on research on the far-right continuum, through an understanding of researchers themselves as intersectional subjects. First, we map the emotional labour related to engagement with the field of study, in terms of gaining access to certain actors and environments, navigating issue of personal safety of the researcher, and in terms of interacting with illiberal, hostile, and violent actors and content. Second, we explore the emotional labour required in interactions with the professional environment of academia, in terms of norms and expectations with regards to (emotionless and detached) researcher professionalism, navigating the financial precarity and insecurity of early-career academia, and in receiving limited support from institutions in the face of threats and harassment. Finally, we engage with issues related to navigating emotional performance in the private sphere, responding both to the need to share emotions and experiences, whilst maintaining a boundary between work and life.