“seÑoras De Bien” Performing Reactionary Hyperfeminine Subjectivities

The article argues that “gender ideology” is a constellation of performative and affective propaganda weapons that take the form of ALL CAPS WhatsApp chain messages, YouTube Videos, collective prayers, protests, and performances. It is a gear of a larger [fascist] propaganda machine that is crucial to unpack if we want to stop the rise and consolidation of the far right. This propaganda machine is a decentralised network of transmedia and multi-platform content, media, and performances that are deployed to stop progressive changes and simultaneously produce and reproduce gendered reactionary subjectivities built around traditional family roles. The article is divided into three parts. First, I present 2016 as a key year in the appearance of “gender ideology” in Latin America. Second, I comment on the “concerned mother” as a key figure in the production of gendered reactionary subjectivities. Third, I discuss how the right-wing description of “gender ideology” reveals a cultural understanding of politics that it is urgent to dissect in order to fight fascism.