THE (AGAINST) “GENDER” IDEOLOGY IN GREECE: THE CASE OF THE MOM DAD AND CHILDREN CAMPAIGN
In the late 1990s, anti-gender mobilizations and campaigns emerged in countries of the Western world. This new social movement observed on a global scale expounds gender as a homogeneous set of principles, concepts, laws, and policies of a new ‘ideological dictatorship.’ The purpose of the movement is to oppose activism for the rights of women, children, and LGBTQI+ people, alongside Gender Studies. This research examines how an anti-gender movement is emerging in Greece by analyzing the actions, the discourse repertoires, and synergies of the “Mum, Dad & Kids” campaign with other organizations, far-right groups, etc. Through the discourse-historical approach, the main arguments ‘topoi’ were identified, according to which ‘gender ideology’ – even if not explicitly accentuated – threatens national sovereignty and sometimes racial purity. This research has indicated that this campaign aims to re-politicize issues, such as reproductive rights, new reproductive technologies, LGBTQI+ rights, sex education, and immigration. Thus, the campaign uses the discursive strategies that belong to the ‘toolbox’ of right-wing populist rhetoric in order to appear as the real defender and ‘savior’ of ‘the people’/’the majority’ and stand against the ‘corrupt minority,’ which is constructed as the dangerous ‘internal’ and ‘external’ Others. Finally, since 2019, the “Mum, Dad & Kids” campaign has mobilized into some collective actions, yet it has not achieved a series of changes at a sociopolitical level.