Antifeminism and backlash: A critical criminological imperative

Abstract

Critical criminology is a potentially important location for the study of backlash phenomena, including antifeminism and its implications. Two important directions for critical criminology include examining antifeminist backlash by taking an intersectional approach and integrating the research on antifeminism, radicalization, and right-wing extremism. As critical criminologists have observed, much violence is both produced by and productive of masculinity. Indeed, norms against hitting girls rest closely alongside imperatives for men's capacity to use violence where appropriate. Feminist criminology grew out of the broader women's movement and the voids in early criminology. Critical criminologists share an interest in progressive social change. Yet critical criminology has yet to take on intersectional issues of discrimination and structural inequality in a truly substantive way. Antifeminism is a blind spot for criminological analysis of backlash and other forms of resistance to social change. Attention to antifeminism is essential to understanding backlash and organizing to reverse the rightward slide of politics in the US and abroad.