Fascism isn't feminism
Are people waking up to the failures of neoliberal feminism (on the same spectrum as girlboss fascism) yet?
Giorgia Meloni is poised to become the first ever female Prime Minister of Italy.
Hey there New Wave readers,
Honestly, thanks for still slowly subscribing to my apparently mostly inactive newsletter. The new people don’t know yet that I’ve been having writing problems for more than a year! I’m still hoping to get over it honestly. I’ve been focusing more on DJing (probably my 50-75% job) and then my “day” job in the nonprofit world on the side, plus touring as a DJ in the third year of the pandemic has been complicated and hectic and sometimes also touching and fun.
I haven’t given up on this newsletter, I am thankfully in community with just too many amazing feminist artists, writers, activists, thinkers, and do’ers. Today’s edition is a little bit because I was unfortunately (or fortunately?) reminded of why I started this newsletter in the first place.
My interest in feminism and gender justice started squarely at a time where hegemonic capitalism and elite capture of identity politics was already firmly established but perhaps not overly criticized in the public sphere. My 20s were characterized by nonprofit organizations and the UN being interested in “gender equality” and “diversity”. In a way, how I became a journalist is also related to this - the Guardian had a Global Development section sponsored by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and that’s where my very first op-ed was published. It was about feminist pushback to the sexist campaign against Dilma Rousseff and her following impeachment - these kind of stories were perfect for liberal media. It’s simple. Female leaders being ousted, bad! I tried to add more nuance into my article, but I’m not sure if the editor even cared. Feminist movements in Brazil had long been critical of Rousseff and the Workers’ Party’s politics in Brazil - they had widely embraced neoliberalism, austerity, catered to corporate interests, and they didn’t truly create any type of political education or participation in the country.
When I started New Wave, I started very clearly on the topic and issue of neoliberalism and capitalism in feminist movements and organizations and rhetoric, because I considered these the worst and most insiduous dynamics of the 21st century. I wanted this newsletter not only to highlight COLLECTIVIST feminist activists (so feminist activists who are explicitly part of collectives and movement work, and not just spouting catchphrases on social media with a high follower count and no actual political community), but I also wanted to unpack some of the deepest, most engrained, and disturbing dynamics affecting our collective rights and well being. Well, now fascism is here to stay and we have to understand how it all ties together. Because now they’re saying that fascist female leaders is somehow feminist progress for us all. I’m referring to the imminent election of Giorgia Meloni as the first female prime minister of Italy and the simpering coverage of her political ascent by centrist or liberal mainstream media.
You know, I basically started this newsletter to try to kill the whole girl boss thing and talk about collective feminist movements working towards liberation for everybody but now it’s spiralled out of control and now we have girl boss fascism.
In 2020, I wrote, “As long as we continue to write *cis* women into monolithic tropes that they aren’t, and prescribe them as pre-determined feminist victories, such as ‘female leaders’ and ascertain them as being inherently better than men (another monolithic and completely homogenous group, of course), we are going to be subject to both valid and invalid attacks from right-wingers who have put gender on a cross. They are going to rail against feminism and feminist movements when it suits them, and when they have a good argument, but then also use women and social and ethnic minorities as representation and validation of their moral codes when it benefits them. And finally, they are going to continue reinforcing the gender binary, and even defend cis-women’s rights, for specific reasons and at key moments.
That’s why we are vulnerable to how these liberal-sounding catchphrases are used, and in part may not have even realized how dangerous and harmful they were to begin with, especially if we have an inclusive understanding of the term ‘women’, and don’t immediately refer to non-binary persons and trans individuals as well. That’s why a conservative woman who is running in a racist political party, on a wildly neoliberal bed of economic policies, can win her election somewhere around the world, and right-wingers and mainstream media will call it “a win for women and for women’s rights”. If you’re interested in feminism and feminist movements, and you’re still talking about ‘female empowerment’, ‘female leaders’ and women in a cisgender sense, then it’s time to think about the language that you use, the way that language is used in different contexts, and the harm that it engenders.
To quote Ruth Wilson Gilmore, a prison abolitionist and geography professor, “Identity is not consciousness.” And identity also doesn’t necessarily mean that you organize for collective liberation, champion feminism from the margins, and see feminist leadership as an interrogation of power, who has it, how to share it, and how to invert power structures. Let’s remember that the next time that we hear somebody talk about ‘female leaders’.”
I’ve had to do a little bit of digging about neo-fascism. It’s a relatively recent political phenomenon, and I’ve personally lived through the elections of Trump, Modi, and Bolsonaro, all in countries that I’ve lived in, worked in, or am from. I understand some basic tenants of fascism, but it seems that both the formula and the delivery have changed.
Neo-fascism is a contemporary political phenomenon which combines ultra-nationalism with nativism and celebrates racial hierarchy, as well as the desirability of inequality and privilege. It furthermore propagates an anti-intellectualism denouncing facts and expert knowledge, whilst persistently propagating blatant lies. Neofascism also cultivates victimhood vis-à-vis those that dare to critique them, and an anti-enlightenment agenda which actively undermines democratic institutions and values by using democracy against democracy (Cammaerts, 2018a; Stanley, 2018). Bart Cammaerts chose to study these “nodes” of neo-fascism:
1) Ultra-nationalism, religion and nativism
2) Hierarchy, inequality and superiority
3) Anti-intellectualism, lies and conspiracy theories
4) Anti-enlightenment and anti-democratic values
Ultimately, Cammaerts believe that mediators - journalists, social media companies, and communicators - plays a key role in the process of normalizing and spreading neo-fascism. Neo-fascists tell a compelling story full of drama, victimhood (even if they are flat out lies), and emotion - and this works well in the current business model of media, even liberal or centrist media. Even reporting on Meloni’s political ascent and her troubling ties to Italy’s fascist past could be strengthening neo-fascism in the country and around the world.
It’s been difficult for me to digest all of this. Even progressive journalists reporting on neo-fascist leaders and criticizing them are actually amplifying their rhetoric and strengthening their base. What is the solution?
Cammaerts writes, “This observation points to the need to reflect on whether and/or how to avoid taking the bait that is constantly being put out there by neo-fascists to produce an emotive response of moral indignation and consternation. This also suggests that we need to develop ways of raising critical awareness amongst audiences and citizens, through increasing media literacies to detect propaganda and fake news with a view of denaturalising the neo-fascist discourse. However, we cannot just lay the responsibility at the doorstep of citizens and individuals. We also need to question the business models and practices of today's media, both traditional and social, who feed off controversy, drama, and outrage, which tends to lead to more clicks, shares, engagement and content creation. There are differences though between the position and actions of traditional media and news media. Whereas the latter tend to be – by and large – critical of neo-fascism, fact-checking neofascists’ lies in line with their normative roles in a democracy, they still feed off and amplify the neo-fascist discourse. Social media companies, on the contrary, tend to position themselves as neutral conduits of public discourse, claiming to protect free-speech, whilst financially profiting from neo-fascist political actors and parties. What the concept of disintermediation thus masks, is the obvious observation that social media platforms themselves are the new mediators, but with much less accountability and denying the normative responsibilities that many traditional media and journalists tend to adhere to in a democracy. This should urgently change!”
Cammaerts believes that journalists have a moral duty to combat neo-fascism and its normalization, and I agree with them. It is clear that a lack of support for democratic values across different countries around the world is fuelling and justifying a rise of authoritarian rule globally. Rightwing and conservative groups have tilted more and more extremist; they have become more vile and hateful. There are more and more death threats, and people are acting on those threats. “All this shows that the neo-fascist politics of provocation and the incessant racist and nativist discourse propagated by neo-fascist political actors is not without material consequences and that democratic societies urgently need to defend themselves more vigorously ‘against the onslaught of the intolerant’,” Cammaerts concludes.
My responsibility as a journalist, a feminist journalist, is at a very minimum to not prop up and amplify neo-fascist discourse, and most certaintly not to hold it up as a feminist celebration. I won’t utter a word of what Giorgia Meloni says. Neo-fascism is here to stay, and it is thriving under hegemonic capitalist realism, where people can no longer think of any alternative whatsoever to capitalism, and politicians can weave their political speeches based on fear, hatred, and exclusion.
The 21st century has its challenges heavily paved in front of us. We will need to organize better, and smarter, and respond to neo-fascist discourse that is drawing on people’s emotions and desperation. We need to touch hearts and change minds. And we need to be fiercely collectivist, challenging neoliberalism and capitalism at every step, reminding people that they matter to us. We all matter. This earth matters.
I know that feminist movements from the margins are doing this around the world. We are rising to the occasion.
welcome back.