ABSTRACT
Anti-gender movements—which blame feminism for a “global sexual revolution” that threatens freedom, the family, and the survival of humankind—pose serious challenges to the idea of open society. While the original architects of the concept of open society (such as Henri Bergson or Karl Popper) lamentably did not engage with the notions of feminism or the more recent idea of gender, it is nonetheless easy to perceive that a clear commitment to plurality and diversity drives their conceptions (Bergson 1935; Popper 2020). Open society stands as a powerful idea against xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia—that have all repeatedly served as catalysts for ushering in exclusion, oppression, and genocide. The recent rise of state-sponsored anti-gender movements in post-communist countries is, thus, an important and deeply concerning phenomenon that flies in the face of the very spirit of an open society.
