Hybrid Event Room 302 International Center 1:00 – 2:30 pm

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Gender politics are one of the core thematic concerns of right-wing ideologies. A trans-European phenomenon known as "anti-genderism" has circulated across Western (Catholic) countries and Eastern (post-Communist/post-Socialist) countries since the massive Catholic Church abuse scandals of the early 2000s. Polish scholars have traced the mobilization of anti-genderism – a political strategy that portrays gender fluidity and the notion of a gender spectrum as nonsense and politically dangerous – as an outgrowth of these scandals beginning with the resignation of former archbishop of Boston John Geoghan in 2002 and the attempt of the Polish (Catholic)) Right to regain issue ownership over gender and sexuality more broadly. I have argued in previous talks that within a broader strategy of anti-genderist politics, right-wing extremists and right-wing politicians make use of a tactic that I call trans*humiliation, which I define as the public humiliation of transpeople as a scapegoat for the perceived absurdity of left-wing feminist politics and a queered gender spectrum. In this presentation, I will look at discussions in the Austrian media about the 1995 case of Hans Hermann Groer. I want to expand on my previous work about gender and trans*humiliation in German far-right politics by female politicians by looking specifically at the interplay between rhetoric about the abuse of children and the way the far-right attempts to limit the agency of gender expressive children.