‘Gender Ideology’: Weak Concepts, Powerful Politics

The articles collected in this volume are an important step in the ongoing effort of social scientists and gender studies scholars to understand the rise of the right wing ‘war against gender’. Initially, the very concept of ‘gender ideology’ left many of us puzzled, having so little to do with our own perception of what our work was about. The right-wing offensive against ‘gender’ is no longer viewed as a polemic against gender studies, or indeed as a misunderstanding, but a new strategy on the right that transcends many divisions and contributes to the rise of illiberal populism. As we work in our various locations and then share and compare our findings concerning the strange career of ‘gender ideology’, it is crucial to keep in view two dimensions of the phenomenon: the theoretical (or theological) and the political (or strategic). On the one hand, ‘gender ideology’ is a concept – a signifier for what conservative Catholics construe as the evils of liberalism in the realm of human sexuality. ‘Gender ideology’ is thus a descendant of John Paul II’s ‘culture of death’ and of the ‘bad feminism’, an idea present in Vatican’s discourse in the post-war era and (see Garbagnoli in this volume). It is also a close companion of ‘natural rights’ and ‘complementarity’. On the other hand, there is ‘gender ideology’ as a political slogan, part of transnational anti-gender mobilization, which may mean slightly different things in different contexts. Now, despite its intellectual weaknesses and internal contradictions as a concept, ‘gender ideology’ has been remarkably effective as a rallying cry. It is simply a great name for all that conservative Catholics despise, much better than ‘liberalism’ or ‘culture of death’. The strength of this volume consists in the fact that most authors strive to examine both dimensions – the theoretical and the political – in their analyses. The papers are most interesting when dwelling on the sometimes paradoxical links between them. Mary Anne Case’s article is exemplary in this regard. It begins as a detailed exploration of the theological roots of ‘complementarity’ (a ‘tale of three popes’ as she calls it) but ends up showing that it is a recent invention with no biblical grounding. As with ‘gender ideology’, so with ‘complementarity’: it is a political development rather than a theological one, an instrumentalization of religion in a struggle for power. Historically, it was not an inevitable development, but part of the conservative turn that followed the Second Vatican Council. In a fascinating digression, Case spells out an alternative scenario that became briefly possible in the late 60s – an alliance between