In both the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the field of extremism research as a whole, analyses of the far right have often neglected to fully account for the innumerable ways gender, misogyny and gender-based violence manifest within and operate alongside other forms of racially and religiously motivated hate. Organizations like the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism have done pioneering work monitoring and defining misogynistic hate ideologies, but this area of extremism is still not widely recognized or accurately understood. The SPLC has been adapting how we monitor hate and extremism to more accurately reflect ideological distinctions. Our efforts to better capture organized misogyny began in 2018, when we started monitoring male supremacist hate groups. Male supremacist groups vilify women along paradoxes: manipulative yet incompetent; genetically inferior, yet the progenitors of the white race; and deserving of violent punishment both for having sex and denying sex to men. Many of these narratives about the inferiority and subjugation of women underpin the beliefs of nearly all extremist groups. The manifestations and rhetoric can be different across ideologies, however the resultant verbal, psychological and physical violence that such views motivate against women and trans people remains steadfast. In order to effectively and thoroughly research gender in extremism, we must examine each intersection of these issues. While the ubiquity of misogyny and gender-based violence is hard to overstate in the far right, and our broader society, we began this research by examining domestic violence—an issue that surfaces regularly in the lives, actions and discussions of far-right adherents—and extremism.
Anecdotes of abuse abound, from white nationalist Richard Spencer being accused of emotional and physical abuse in 2018 divorce filings to allegations that Stewart Rhodes—founder of the antigovernment Oath Keepers—engaged in emotional and manipulative abuse aimed at limiting his family’s freedoms, a type of behavior Dr. Evan Stark calls coercive control. These harmful acts, if true, are the physical embodiment of violent rhetoric and narratives from groups like the Proud Boys, who claim, “leftist women are more third-wave feminist and less feminine than ever and now, you’re not even women anymore… either your [sic] women, and if you are, please stop fighting men, or you’re not women and your face is now punchable.” Domestic violence has been reported and alleged across a spectrum of hate and antigovernment groups. However, misogyny and rigid gender roles are a common ideological pillar for most groups, and harm not only cisgender women, but trans people as well, along with LGBTQ identified people more broadly. To better understand these issues with an eye towards more effectively confronting and interrupting violence, the SPLC convened a group of researchers, practitioners, academics and activists in far-right extremism, male supremacism, domestic violence, grassroots organizing and journalism earlier this fall. Across the six 90-minute panel discussions, speakers addressed the intersection of issues including gun violence, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, the continuing impact of colonization, discriminatory immigration policy and comprehensive interventions as they pertain to violent extremism and domestic violence. Consistent throughout these discussions was a need to move away from criminal justice solutions to build upon victim-centered approaches grounded in education and in restorative and transformative justice.
via splcenter: Patriarchal Violence: Misogyny from the Far Right to the Mainstream