Lesson 1.2: How Activists Understand 'Anti-Gender' Politics?

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Building on the previous discussion, this topic foregrounds how activists and affected communities across Europe experience, interpret, and make sense of anti-gender dynamics in their own political and social contexts.

2. Perspectives From Across Europe

Belarus Belarusian activists overwhelmingly connect anti-gender politics to state repression. Since 2020, gendered attacks have been experienced as part of the same authoritarian machinery that criminalises dissent and destroys civic space. ‘In a state where even basic human rights are violated with ease daily, anti-gender politics is a part of the same machinery.’ – BLRINT01 (p. 198) Here, anti-gender politics is not a discrete cultural debate but a tactic woven into a broader project of silencing, intimidation, and fear.

 

Spain and Catalonia Spanish and Catalan activists often view ‘anti-gender’ as an academic or Anglo-Saxon term that does not reflect the political violence they encounter. ‘“Anti-gender”? I don’t use it.’ – Deli ‘It sounds very Anglo-Saxon.’ – ESPFG1.5 ‘It’s situated in a theoretical field.’ – Núria ‘It’s the term most used in academic articles.’ – Juliana (p. 161) Their scepticism highlights a key insight: the term is most accessible in academic or institutional spaces and less meaningful for day-to-day organising.

 

Ireland Irish activists are especially critical of the term, seeing it as vague and detached from the real dynamics of anti-LGBTQIA+ politics, particularly around trans rights and sex work. ‘The term was seen as inaccurate and not reflective of the attacks people experienced.’ – RESIST (pp. 167–168) Here, activists emphasise the role of the media, anti-LGBTQIA+ actors, and see an antagonism that is increasingly well organised and gaining traction. 

 

Germany German activists describe the term ‘anti-gender’ as academic and too general. Instead, they speak about anti-trans hostility, anti-feminism, or far-right mobilisation. ‘It’s not the term we use to describe our struggles.’ – Germany interviews (pp. 85–94) This underscores a recurring theme: the disconnect between analytic terms and grassroots realities.

 

Greece A Greek–Egyptian activist living in Germany described a dual struggle: external anti-gender pressure and exclusion within feminist movements. For racialised activists, confronting patriarchy in places of origin and within diaspora spaces can be simultaneous. ‘I have two monsters to face. There is white feminism, and there is patriarchy in the place of my origin.’ – GRCINT09 (p. 112) This illustrates how the term ‘anti-gender’ may obscure intra-movement power relations across national and diasporic settings.

 

Poland In Poland, anti-gender is recognised as a broad, politically charged term that bundles together patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, anti-EU sentiment, and more. The English word ’gender’ itself has been weaponised as a foreign-sounding trigger. ‘Anti-gender, for me, is an ideological offensive… all these various moral panics about imaginary threats to society… a polarised society is better governed… anti-emancipation, anti-liberation offensive.’ – POLFG4.3 (page 150) Here the term captures both local moral panics and a strategic political project.

 

Transnational actors and exiles Activists working across borders often refuse the term intentionally. This practice can be understood as a form of discursive refusal: a deliberate decision not to adopt the language imposed by opponents or dominant institutions, and instead to name struggles on one’s own terms. Their aim is to build alternative vocabularies centred on care, autonomy, and creative world-making. ‘We should not play by their rules... we need to produce our own discourse.’ – Bawer (p. 191) RESIST summarises this as an active strategy of discursive refusal.

Rather than assuming a single definition, the RESIST findings show that meaning emerges from context. Listening to activists reveals why the term resonates in some places, fails in others, and is rejected outright in many.

Reflective prompt

Is the term ‘anti-gender’ meaningful where you are?

Or does something else feel more accurate? 

When reflecting, consider your local context and terminology as well as intersectional dynamics (e.g. race, age, religion, disability etc.)  

 

Glossary: Respectability politics refers to strategies that may emerge in some contexts, in which members of marginalised groups seek acceptance by aligning with dominant social norms, sometimes by distancing themselves from more stigmatised identities or practices within their communities. However, RESIST findings show that this dynamic is uneven and context-specific, and does not characterise all forms of anti-gender or anti-trans mobilisation.

 

Table 1 Short country summary table

    Country/Region

Do Activists Use the Term?

Alternative Terms Used

Key Insight

Greece

Not used

Patriarchy, TERFism, fascism, anti-woke

RESIST translated the term; also critiques exclusionary feminism

Spain/Catalonia

Rarely

Political violence, backlash

Seen as Anglo-academic; activists prefer local terms

Germany

Rarely

Anti-trans, anti-feminist

Term feels academic and abstract

Belarus

Not used

Repression, authoritarianism

Gender rights folded into state violence

Poland

Contextually; where the term has ‘value currency’ (e.g. dealing with the EU institutions); not in the ‘everyday activism’

Patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, anti-EU, anti-abortion

‘Gender’ used as a foreign trigger-word

Switzerland

Uncommon

Anti-woke, technocratic backlash

Appears in civic discourse, not radical movements

France

Not used

Anti-feminist, anti-LGBTIQ+ discourse

Activists frame issues through other lenses

Ireland

Rejected by most

Anti-trans, anti-sex work, anti-LGBTQIA+

Term is vague and irrelevant to direct experiences

Transnational

Refused intentionally

Emphasis on alternative queer discourses

Focus on autonomy and discursive refusal

 

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