Queer feminist theory and social movements from the 1990s on have transformed the discourse about women’s rights, lesbianism, and sexuality. By disassociating gender from anatomical determinism, or a scientific notion of sex, critical queer feminists in academia and on-the-street activists opened up a space for the recognition of non-binary and trans* persons. Ironically, the possibility of deconstructing the binary between sex and gender has fueled a gender panic. For instance, the deeply anti-feminist movement against ‘gender ideology reproduced through institutionalized, modern-day forms of ecclesiastical power and the rise of far-right populism - professes that women should not work, children should not be taught about queerness and gender fluidity, and transgender subjectivity is purely pathological. Around the world, this anti-queer and transphobic political force has established itself in political regimes and neofascist mobs, violently attacking and harassing queer activists and feminist intellectuals.
We now find ourselves in a historical moment, where queer, lesbian, and feminist scholarship must begin to respond in alliance with activists who are currently mobilizing in opposition to the “anti-gender movement” and other forms of gendered and sexualized neoconservative movements. We invite cross-disciplinary empirical and theoretical scholarly and activist essays, reviews, interviews, and art on the topics of, but not limited to:
- Theory: What is the relationship between neoliberal policies, religious institutions, authoritarian governance, and the formation of the neo-fascist anti-gender movements in different parts of the globe? How has the term ‘ideology’ been deployed and appropriated in the anti-gender movement? What is the role of “the child” in mobilizing these movements?
- Impact: What is the impact of anti-gender, anti-queer, and transphobic ideology on politics and education, including national elections, the rise of autocratic regimes, pedagogy, educational debates, and censorship? Additionally, what are the impacts of neofascists and anti-gender attacks on feminist and lesbian communities, cultural production, and scholarship in different parts of the globe?
- Resistance: How are lesbian, queer, and feminist activists, artists, and scholars resisting the rise of neo-fascist anti-gender ideology? How do responses to anti-gender ideology create new intersectional coalitions across sexualities, genders, classes, nations, and races?
- Art and cultural production: How are feminist, queer, and transgender utopic and dystopic visions of the future imagined in the time of rising neo-fascism?
