Populist Radical Right Frames of Gender and Sexuality in France and Italy: Targeting Feminists and Other Enemies of the People

Drawing on Critical Frame Analysis, and bringing together research on the populist radical right (PRR) and on anti-gender campaigns, this article explores how two main PRR transnational frames—the anti-gender and the “racialization of sexism” frame—are combined and recontextualized, varying over time and across contexts. It focuses on how the Rassemblement national (France) and the Lega (Italy) frame gender/sexuality to target the gendered internal enemies of the people—feminists, LGBTQI+ people, and political élites. The PRR frames its internal and external enemies as cultural and moral relativists in Italy (moral frame), and as “communitarianists” in France (modernist frame). The analysis identifies two PRR discursive strategies overtly attacking and delegitimating, respectively, feminist/LGBTQI+ claims. Gender/sexuality issues connect populist and nativist claims, and nationally specific regimes of gender, ethnicity, and religion as well as party cultures define how PRR frames of gender/sexuality are recontextualized and vary over time.