Behind The Floral Aesthetic …
Extremism, particulary violent extremism, is often viewed as a male domain, overshadowing the diverse and significant roles women can have. Women in extreme ideological movements are effective at repackaging traditional values, crafting language and imaginary to normalise their worldview. While the concept of 'TradWives' has become widely discussed in relation to white power ideologies, not all roles can be classified under this label. Despite the often toxic masculinity in these circles, women may not gain true leadership but they can obtain power and influence, whether it is participating in violent actions or cultivating the soft romanticised veneer.
The 'be feminine, not feminist' rhetoric can be a loud siren call that uses family, relationships and children in emotionally mantipulative ways. It's crucial to understand that a traditional lifestyle can coexist with tolerance and inclusivity. However, if the content consumed primarily focuses on narratives centered around “white” families, roles and children, it may indicate underlying discrimination to outright racial intolerance. Women involved in any extremist group can sometimes garner significant support before their underlying ideologies and agendas are apparent. Clouding the landscape even more is the ‘culture war’ fraction who welcome non-whites for various reasons. Similar tactics can be used in any movement and generalizations about any ideological group or demographic are extremely problematic.
But don’t let social justice diatribes or deflections shut you down, take the time to consider what are the true beliefs at the centre of this.
Former Prime Minister John Key’s use of the reductive term 'Jihadi Brides' at the annual NZ Intelligence and Security meeting in late 2015 highlights the dangers and the harm of stereotyping. This typecasting wrongly depicted & stigmatised an entire demographic as a security concern and caused harm/hurt to many people. Potentially it was a catch-22 situation for the NZSIS, having to be transparent to Government in reporting the spectrum of potential security concerns relevant to the global and local context of that time. In hindsight, the agency proactively obtaining prior permission from Australia* to share details at the meeting may have minimized the damage of Key’s remark. The agency may have thought making it a short narrative would prevent such a outcome. Regardless, having a Prime Minister retort such a label potentially gave it more influence and power , especially when the media that, naively or not, chose to headline it and increased the volume. I hope many lessons were learned but the hurt from this is long-lasting for those communities.
While my earlier research looked at women in both these movements, the 2023 link below focused on introducing gender and extreme right wing (RWE). My current work, encompassing a broader spectrum of anti-government extremism and target diffusion to include scientists, academics, and journalists is certainly gender diverse/inclusive. Recent research I have been exploring emphasizes the importance of considering populism (not just fascism) in understanding contemporary extremism in western contexts.
Read Here : Behind the Floral Aesthetic ….
* When an another agency ‘owns’ the intelligence, permission has to be gained to share details beyond the agency.
26 July 2024. DoC.