Abstract

Global right-wing anti-gender movements have developed a transnational pattern in their uses of language as a means of subjugation and of control, and this article examines manifestations of this pattern in two specific states: Brazil and Russia. By exploring the anti-gender languaging, rhetoric, and legislation advanced by Jair Bolsonaro (President of Brazil 2019–2022) and Vladimir Putin (President of Russia 2000–2008 and 2012 to the present) and their supporters, we find that, in both contexts, anti-gender campaigns are reactions to and also drivers for increasingly dramatic political and social conflicts, and in each case, anti-gender ideologies are embedded in larger right-wing authoritarian aims. The anti-gender discourse advanced by these leaders and their pivotal supporters arises not from simple personal feelings but are, instead, targeted political strategies, similar aims embedded in different languages. Our examination begins by contextualizing Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Putin’s Russia within the larger landscape of anti-gender campaigns and the global growth of right-wing authoritarianism. We then move to the two case studies and their respective enactments of anti-gender languaging and rhetoric within their specific political, social, and discursive landscapes, demonstrating the transnational nature of such projects despite differences in local contexts. Finally, we synthesize these case studies and consider the roles of Feminist Translation Studies and transnational feminist exchange in responding to the rise of such right-wing anti-gender movements in both local and global manifestations.

Recommended Citation

Krafft, Erin K., and Caroline De Souza. 2024. "Shifting Shapes: Transnational Tactics of the Authoritarian Right in Brazil and Russia." Journal of Feminist Scholarship 24 (Spring): 79-96. 10.23860/jfs.2024.24.06.