Y a-t-il un « cycle de la violence antiféministe »? Les effets de l'antiféminisme selon les féministes québécoises

Abstract

Résumé S’appuyant sur la recherche Les attaques antiféministes , menée en partenariat avec L’R des centres de femmes du Québec, l’auteure documente les actions antiféministes et analyse leurs effets sur le mouvement féministe québécois. Inspirée par l’hypothèse de L’R des centres de femmes, selon laquelle les féministes réagissent à la violence antiféministe comme les femmes violentées en contexte conjugal et postconjugal, l’auteure se demande s’il existe un « cycle de la violence antiféministe ». À l’aide de la théorie du « cycle de la violence conjugale » et des études féministes sur les violences masculines contre les femmes, elle observe les similitudes entre les effets de la violence conjugale et les effets de la violence antiféministe, mais aussi les limites de l’analogie inhérentes aux dimensions collectives des attaques antiféministes.

State Antifeminism

“…Under 'state masculinism', the state sets up mechanisms as well as organizations meant to respond to the needs of men 'who experience discrimination because they are men'. Yet as our interviewees described it, masculinism does more than simply demand resources for men; it criticizes women in general and feminists in particular, and sometimes directly targets feminists with insults and death threats, women's organizations with administrative complaints and harassment, break-ins and vandalism, and feminist events with threats and disruptions (Blais 2012;Dupuis-Déri 2013;Saint-Pierre 2008). Groups of divorced and separated fathers make up the vanguard of the masculinist movement, which is also the case in Australia (Flood 2010(Flood , 2012, North America (Boyd 2004(Boyd , 2008Crowley 2008;Dragiewicz 2011;Ruth 2008), and various West-European countries (Palma 2008), especially Great Britain (Jordan 2009(Jordan , 2013Mitchell and Goody 1997).…”

“…Other tendencies, including religious antifeminism (especially 'anti-choice') and masculinism, constitute full-fledged social movements or, more specifically, countermovements (several studies on antifeminism take up the notion of 'countermovement' : Blais 2012;Goulet 2010;Staggenborg and Meyer 1996). Antifeminism is in effect a backlash (Mansbridge and Shame 2012); that is, a counter-attack in response to the real or imagined threat that feminists and emancipated women are supposed to represent for the legitimacy and stability of patriarchy, or to men's identity and interest.…”