“The Western Feminists Want to Make Us Gay”: Nationalism, Heteronormativity, and Violence Against Women in Bulgaria in Times of “Anti-gender Campaigns”

Darakchi, Shaban

doi:10.1007/s12119-019-09611-9

Cited by 41 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Given these challenges, a reconsideration of the resources—financial and cultural—is needed due to the increasing influence of the so-called anti-gender campaigns. Unlike the religious conservative groups participating in the “intimate citizenship” dialogues (Plummer, 2011) on the ground of their beliefs, the anti-gender campaigns are well-organized, and well-financed global movements, often promoted by political parties (Kuhar and Paternotte, 2017) which aim to abolish LGBTQI and women’s rights and these have indeed been very successful in Bulgaria (Darakchi, 2019). Given this, the interrelatedness between the social and the economic resources of the LGBTQI movements will be significantly important for their future development and even survival in certain cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulgarian LGBTQI movement: Generations, identifications, and tendencies

Darakchi

2021

Sexualities

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Based on 27 in-depth interviews, web platforms analysis, and participatory observations this study investigates (a) the emergence and the development of the Bulgarian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) movement; and (b) the activists' motivation for engagement with the movement. Challenging the new social movements’ theories the data from the study suggest that (a) the LGBTQI movement in Bulgaria emerged within the political and the economic transformations marked by anti-communist rhetoric, rather than collective sexual identity; (b) most of the diverse activist communities and the incorporation of “bottom-up” approach did not emerge spontaneously but were established by funded and professionalized project activities; (c) an increasing number of younger activists use left-oriented intersectional approaches in their activism emphasizing on the economic rather than the cultural conditions: (d) the stable financial and social resources of the anti-gender campaigns require reconsideration of the resources and the structure of the LGBTQI movements seen primarily as social entities, often neglecting the economic and the political structures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulgarian LGBTQI movement: Generations, identifications, and tendencies

Darakchi

2021

Sexualities

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“…Conservative discourses underpin abortion policy at the national, regional and global levels (Bloomer et al., 2020). An anti‐gender perspective draws attention to the strategies used by groups opposing gender equality policies (Darakchi, 2019; Korolczuk, 2021; Wilkinson, 2021). Taking abortion in Poland as an example, Korolczuk argues that the anti‐gender movement relies on 'religious, nationalistic perspectives, [and] readily ignoring scientific data that counteracts their claims' (2021, p. 711).…”

Section: Political Geography and Abortion Mobilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abortion mobilities

Engle

2022

Geography Compass

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Abortion mobilities emerged within political geography and the reproductive mobilities scholarship to address extant theoretical and empirical gaps in these fields. This paper seeks to highlight and assess the abortion mobilities scholarship to date. Starting with a working definition of abortion mobilities, this paper argues for the relevance of abortion to political geography and outlines three key themes in political geography that abortion mobilities address: borders, states and anti-genderism, intersectional politics and reproductive justice, and activism and abortion pills.

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“…The 'idea of the sanctity of the family and its traditional values' underpins the three interconnected cases that can be jointly interpreted as an ongoing gendered process of de-democratisation (Gueorguieva & Petrova, 2021). These mobilisations of various political, religious, and civil actors appeared rapidly and-along with their transnational networking-at a national level 'uncovered and catalysed patriarchal, sexist and homophobic attitudes and notions which might have remained passive/invisible for a long time' (Darakchi, 2019(Darakchi, , p. 1212. Due to the strong public protest and the powerful alliance of parties from the whole political spectrum, both ruling and in opposition, and not without media support, the government did not ratify the Istanbul Convention, while the National Strategy for the Child was blocked.…”

Section: Ethnonationalism and Anti-gender Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, this discourse subverted the concept of 'gender' into a deviant 'third sex' and attributed the term itself with a pejorative connotation used (without translation) for a derogatory Othering of LGBT+ people, activists, liberal elites, etc. (ibid., p. 188;Darakchi, 2019).…”

Section: Ethnonationalism and Anti-gender Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 99%

National pride

Strahilov

2021

Intersections

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This article explores the relations between cultural heritage, gender, and national belonging. Using heritage as a perspective to these dynamics in Bulgaria, I examine the interactions between the national-populist actors that challenge the core of liberal democracy, and the LGBT+ movement which counters xenophobic and exclusionary politics. In particular, the study focuses on the tenth edition of Sofia Pride march held in 2017 that instrumentalized elements of traditional masked mumming and fused them with international queer symbolics for its visual identity and communicational campaign. National folklore was thus reclaimed to performatively contest ethnonationalist and heteronormative discourses and assert a more inclusive understanding of heritage and belonging. This strategic reinterpretation of masquerade revealed some persistent societal divides which materialized through the hostile reactions of far-right parties and other conservative circles. Following this opposition, the paper sheds light on the local entanglements with the global illiberal wave and anti-gender mobilizations, while additionally provides a more attuned contextualization of the Bulgarian terrain. It further emphasizes the empirical and epistemological implications of gendered heritage for both the establishment of and the resistance to boundaries.

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“The Western Feminists Want to Make Us Gay”: Nationalism, Heteronormativity, and Violence Against Women in Bulgaria in Times of “Anti-gender Campaigns”

Cited by 41 publications

References 28 publications

Bulgarian LGBTQI movement: Generations, identifications, and tendencies

Bulgarian LGBTQI movement: Generations, identifications, and tendencies

Abortion mobilities

National pride

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