How does the far-right use women to promote its ideology?

Typically, the radical right is associated with promoting the interests of men and being intentionally exclusionary towards women. Whilst it is true that the far right is dominated by the male influence, viewing it as incompatible with female contribution risks missing the very real links between misogyny and far-right ideology. Women are used in several capacities by the far-right and highlighting these contributions aids in preventing the radicalisation process, as it combats the view that there is a separation between women and the far-right.

The stereotypical view of women as weaker than men and subject to sexual violence is twisted by the far-right to characterise immigrant men as rapists and misogynists. The relationship between these two stereotypes is demonstrated on the website of the British National Party (BNP), a far-right British political party, which frequently publishes articles detailing alleged cases of Muslim men raping underage girls. They report that ‘thousands of young white girls have been raped and abused by scores of Muslim gangs’ (Harris, 2022). In a separate article, the phrase ‘young white girls’ is used twice to describe the victims of these attacks (Storm, 2023). The emphasis of the race of the victims allows the BNP to push the narrative that white women are being threatened specifically by people of colour. The party is able to create a dichotomy between the innocence and fragility of traditional femininity and the violence of sexual crime to perpetuate that Muslim men are animalistic and dangerous. This contrast provides the perfect victim (Ryan, 2023) and the means by which the BNP can stereotype immigrants whilst bypassing the traditional accusations of racism. Men who would not otherwise be vocal about their dislike of immigrants are able to express xenophobic views under the guise of ‘protecting’ women. So, women become central in the justification of the BNP’s anti-immigrant agenda.

But these ideas go further than just trying to protect women from the perceived threat of immigrants. Men on the radical right begin to feel a kind of sexual entitlement to women’s bodies that becomes threatened by women’s free choice to enter interracial relationships. Non-white men are characterised as violent primarily due to the sexual anxieties of far-right men who believe they will be usurped from their perceived ‘rightful place’ as the owners of white women’s bodies (Futrelle, 2019). For example, David Lane in his 88 Precepts states:

‘We must secure a future for white children … the beauty of the white Aryan woman must not perish from the earth.’

The idea peddled by radicals such as Lane is that if women are allowed to have interracial relationships, the white race will be permanently erased. These claims prey on masculine insecurities which then generate a fear of immigration. Consequently, sexual entitlement and misogyny feed into the xenophobic attitudes of the far-right, using the potentiality of losing control over women’s bodies as the motivation for radicalising young white men.

Women are not only used as a tool preying on the sexual anxieties of men, they are also used in the ‘red-pilling’ process - the way in which people are indoctrinated to far-right ways of thinking without being consciously aware of it. According to a 2020 study by Kirsty Campion, women in the right-wing sphere fulfil the roles of thinkers, facilitators, and promoters; they contribute to the public face of the movement to lure in men vulnerable to being radicalised (Campion, 2020). Women provide the ‘networked intimacy’ that specifically targets single men, and this is highly effective because men who feel denied by women are amongst the most likely to display the early signs of radicalisation (Leidig, 2021).

By using women as the social media face of the movement, far-right organisations are able to present themselves as a welcoming and viable option. The soft and submissive nature of stereotypical femininity allows these movements to hide the real violence of their ideologies behind visions of wives and mothers. An example of this in practice is the recent prevalence of videos on social media promoting the ‘tradwife’ lifestyle, in which a woman fulfils traditional gender roles in the home whilst the husband makes a living. These videos will often feature something innocuous, like a woman baking in the home, but this promotion of gender roles is often the first step that a man takes before being drawn into the world of Men’s Rights Activists (Bates, 2021). The ‘tradwife’ lifestyle begins to rely on pseudo-scientific definitions of gender to promote the belief that women were always naturally meant to be submissive, before firmly cementing ideas held within the far-right or by incels (Stokel-Walker, 2023). So, women are once again used to radicalise white men into the far-right ideology.

Ultimately, women play a crucial role in the radicalisation process as a ‘motherly’ face, and also in the perpetuation of xenophobia as the scapegoats for the underlying hatred of immigrants. It is therefore imperative that the far-right is no longer seen only as the domain of men. The roles women can play and the way in which misogyny can be weaponised to support racism should also be considered, in order to more effectively combat this ideology.

Bibliography

Bates, L. (2021). Men Who Hate Women. London: Simon and Schuster UK

Campion, K. (2020). Women in the Extreme and Radical Right: Forms of Participation and Their Implications. Social Science, 9(9). [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/socsci9090149 [Accessed 30 October 2023]

Furtelle, D. (2019). The Alt-Right is Fueled by Toxic Masculinity – and vice-versa [Online]. NBC Think. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/alt-right-fueled-toxic-masculinity-vice-versa-ncna989031 [Accessed 27 October 2023]

Harris, P. (2022). Muslim Grooming Gang Raped 14-Year-Old Girl [Online]. British National Party. Last updated: 20 February 2023. Available at: https://bnp.org.uk/muslim-grooming-gang-raped-14-year-old-girl/ [Accessed 03 November 2023].

Lane, D. (1990). The 88 Precepts. St. Maries: 14 Word Press

Leidig, E. (2021). ‘We are worth fighting for’: Women in Far-Right Extremism [Online]. International Centre for Counter Terrorism. Available at: https://www.icct.nl/publication/we-are-worth-fighting-women-far-right-extremism [Accessed 28 October 2023]

Ryan, M. (2023). ‘Better Martyrs’: the Growing Role of Women in the Far-Right Movement [Online]. The Guardian. Last updated: 12 August 2023. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/12/conservative-women-tradwife-republican [Accessed 29 October 2023]

Stokel-Walker, C. (2023). ‘Behind the Rise of the Online ‘Tradwife’ Movement’ [Online]. VICE. Last updated: 10 March 2023. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ak8p8/online-rise-of-trad-ideology [Accessed 05 November 2023]

Storm, R. (2023). Rochdale Grooming: Five Men Convicted of Historical Child Sex Offences [Online]. British National Party. Last updated: 20 August 2023. Available at: https://bnp.org.uk/rochdale-grooming-five-men-convicted-of-historical-child-sex-offences/ [Accessed 05 November 2023].