ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the cultural imaginary of anti-genderism and the ways it appeals to the emotions of parents: the stories it tells about identity, family and sources of personal happiness. This imagery is linked to material realities and social politics. The chapter examines parental mobilizations against “gender” and looks at specific images, narratives and arguments to show how affects and emotions are triggered, especially anger, anxiety, shame and pride. The heart of anti-genderism is the image of the child in danger: “gender” is said to cause loneliness and unhappiness. Parents of young children are mobilized by anti-gender groups and networks through campaigns against the “sexualization” of children allegedly caused by sex education. Men are promised the restoration of paternal authority, while women are addressed by presenting gender and feminism as antithetical to motherhood and the source of a demographic catastrophe. Anti-genderism conflates “gender” with those aspects of capitalism that are most frustrating to members of the lower-middle class, especially to parents: precarity, the crisis of care and inequality.
