Fascism with a Feminist Face

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/fascism-feminist-face-1396792824

Western feminism has made some memorable theoretical mistakes; a major one is the frequent assumption that, if women held the decision-making power in society, they would be “kinder and gentler” (a phrase devised for George H.W. Bush in 1988 to appeal to the female vote). Indeed, so-called “second-wave” feminist theory abounds in assertions that war, racism, love of hierarchy, and general repressiveness belong to “patriarchy”; women’s leadership, by contrast, would naturally create a more inclusive, collaborative world.

The problem is that it has never worked out that way, as the rise of women to leadership positions in Western Europe’s far-right parties should remind us. Leaders such as Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front, Pia Kjaersgaard of Denmark’s People’s Party, and Siv Jensen of Norway’s Progress Party reflect the enduring appeal of neofascist movements to many modern women in egalitarian, inclusive liberal democracies.

The past is prologue: Wendy Lower’s recent book Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields adds more data to the long record of women embracing violent right-wing movements. And the rise of far-right movements in Europe – often with women in charge – confronts us with the fact that the heirs to the fascism of the 1930’s have their own gender-based appeal.

[redqueen]

1. Whoever wrote this obviously doesn't understand what patriarchy is.

Putting the word in scare quotes is rather telling. Not sure why this was posted here with no critical commentary.

so-called “second-wave” feminist theory abounds in assertions that war, racism, love of hierarchy, and general repressiveness belong to “patriarchy”; women’s leadership, by contrast, would naturally create a more inclusive, collaborative world

How could anyone write this kind of nonsense?

[DURHAM D]

6. Agree. nt

[redqueen]

4. Whoever wrote this doesn't seem to get that 'patriarchy' is not a synonym for 'men',

and that 'female' is not a synonym for 'feminist'.

This is feminism 101 shit. Pre-requisite material, even.

[eridani]

9. I agree--female, not feminist

I see the piece as an argument against essentialism. Also see

Why Is a Leading Feminist Organization Lending Its Name to Support Escalation in Afghanistan?

http://www.alternet.org/story/141165/why_is_a_leading_feminist_organization_lending_its_name_to_support_escalation_in_afghanistan

Today, eight years after the U.S. entered Kabul, there are still piles of garbage in the streets. There is no running water. There is only intermittent electricity in the cities, and none in the countryside. Afghans live under the constant threat of military violence.

The U.S. invasion has been a failure, and increasing the U.S. troop presence will not undo the destruction the war has brought to the daily lives of Afghans.

As humanitarians and as feminists, it is the welfare of the civilian population in Afghanistan that concerns us most deeply. That is why it was so discouraging to learn that the Feminist Majority Foundation has lent its good name -- and the good name of feminism in general -- to advocate for further troop escalation and war.

On its foundation Web site, the first stated objective of the Feminist Majority Foundation's "Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls" is to "expand peacekeeping forces."

First of all, coalition troops are combat forces and are there to fight a war, not to preserve peace. Not even the Pentagon uses that language to describe U.S. forces there. More importantly, the tired claim that one of the chief objectives of the military occupation of Afghanistan is to liberate Afghan women is not only absurd, it is offensiv

[eridani]

11. Wolf is wrong about confusing women with feminism, but--

--it is an undeniable fact that a couple of feminist organizations backed the invasion of Afghanistan on the grounds of promoting women's rights. That is true even though most feminists oppose militarism.

[ismnotwasm]

13. I believe the state of Afghan women is due in part

From Afghanistan being the stomping grounds for one war or another for centuries. The culture has suffered enormously; with women and children suffering most of all.

Bringing more war because of extremist radical idiots isn't going to improve shit-- rather support for afghan women and encouraging self support as much as possible and education.

The story of Afghanistan is tragically sad for the women and the cultures there.


My daughter was deployed there, she was decorated for going out on multiple search missions, looking for Taliban-- men were not allowed to search the women. She said they couldn't believe a women was in the military, and they'd actually touch her breasts to ensure themselves she was female. Water was a problem--lots of problems.

[seabeyond]

14. i know that clear back to 90's i was aware of what was happening with women in that country.

even when bush was talking invading i still did not see :freeing: the women as a just reason to go into that country, even if u.s. was capable of something like that, which they obviously are not able to do. that being said... at the time bush used it as a reason to go into that country. one of the reasons. i know cause i though what bullshit, that these repugs are using these women as an excuse.

i do not know what feminist org you are talking about. i do not know if the women you heard speaking up were not part of the administration. i do not know if they werent saying, well... we are going in. we might as well do something for the women while you were there.

i am just not sure about the women you say back the invasion for women.

i heard that argument. it was all the rw now championing the cause of women, for the sole purpose of invasion.

[eridani]

15. Feminist Majority is not a RW organization n/t

[ismnotwasm]

5. It's Naomi Wolf

Being Naomi Wolf.


I'm not a fan-- kind of an anti- fan actually, but I think her point is here

As Lower shows, the Nazis reached out with special programs – from organizing homemakers to colonizing the conquered Eastern territories – that gave working-class women things they craved: a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves (fascism’s eternal draw), backed by a complex official iconography in which the traditionally devalued roles of wife and mother held a crucial place in the national drama. Young unmarried women who were sent to administer the neocolonial efforts in conquered Poland and other territories gained adventure, advanced professional training, and opportunity.

And, for all of these women, as for any subordinate group anywhere, fascism appealed to what social scientists call “last-place aversion”: the desire to outrank other groups. Add, finally, the gendered appeal of the strong authority figure and rigid hierarchy, which attracts some women as much as some men, if in different psychodynamic ways. As Sylvia Plath, the daughter of a German father, put it in her poem “Daddy”: “Every woman adores a Fascist/The boot in the face, the brute/Brute heart of a brute like you.”

Certainly, many of the same themes in far-right ideology attract the support of some women in Europe today. And we can add the fact that right-wing movements benefit from the limitations of a postfeminist, post-sexual-revolution society, and the spiritual and emotional void produced by secular materialism.

Many lower-income women in Western Europe today – often single parents working pink-collar ghetto jobs that leave them exhausted and without realistic hope of advancement – can reasonably enough feel a sense of nostalgia for past values and certainties. For them, the idealized vision of an earlier age, one in which social roles were intact and women’s traditional contribution supposedly valued, can be highly compelling.

Thing is-- her articles often do not have enough information to thoroughly make her point, so they don't always make entire sense.
This would be a fascinating book, written by the right person, as it is a complex multicultural concept.

[redqueen]

7. Thanks for slogging through it.

And, for all of these women, as for any subordinate group anywhere, fascism appealed to what social scientists call “last-place aversion”: the desire to outrank other groups. Add, finally, the gendered appeal of the strong authority figure and rigid hierarchy, which attracts some women as much as some men,...

Gee, imagine that, Naomi: When oppressed groups (yes, even women!) internalize the inevitability of the hierarchical structure of the patriarchy, they naturally desire to avoid being at the bottom of the shit pile.

Seriously, how does she get paid for this?

[ismnotwasm]

8. I really don't know.

She started out so promising and then pffffft.

[eridani]

12. See also Andrea Dworkin's "Right Wing Women" for a good analysis

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/377163.Right_Wing_Women

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. ... lol ...

how about you go post in TMG with a link about Right Wing Men and tell them to go read about Right Wing Men.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

18. ha, yeah. Sarah Palin is to women as Karl Rove is to men.

[LanternWaste]

19. As a Roman might have once said to his under-educated neighbor...

As a Roman might have once said to his under-educated neighbor, "After this therefore because of this..."