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In:Conspiracy Theory Discourses
Edited by Massimiliano Demata, Virginia Zorzi and Angela Zottola
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 98] 2022
► pp. 465–488

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Chapter 20
“Gender ideology” and the discursive infrastructure of a transnational conspiracy theory

ORCiD logo with link | University of Turin
ORCiD logo with link | Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Published online: 1 December 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.98.20zot
Abstract
The formula “gender ideology” has recently gained political traction in several countries. This chapter investigates its conspiracist discursive infrastructure by probing two corpora of far-right media from Brazil and the US. Analysis indicates that “gender ideology” is framed within semantic realms of manipulation, puppeteering, falseness, and danger. It also suggests that anti-gender rhetoric acts as an all-encompassing narrative whereby a cohort of inchoate but ideologically interlinked conspiracy theories are lumped together in a seemingly coherent whole. Comparing datasets from two countries empirically illustrates how anti-gender rhetoric crosses transnational borders and adapts to local specifics along the way.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Anti-gender conspiracy narratives
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
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