Not Your Grandma’s Fascism: Fame, Femininity, and Race in Far-Right Postcolonial India and Brazil

Abstract

Much scholarship on the far right focuses on Europe and North America, whereas case studies outside of these regions are often neglected or not recognized as constituting the same phenomenon. In this article, we compare two democracies in the Global South—India and Brazil—to showcase far-right movements within these countries. We situate the “postcolonial neoliberal nationalism” that has shaped the basis of far-right claims in India and Brazil. To illuminate this, we explore female social media influencers within these far-right milieus, and their role in the reproduction of gender, class, and racial hierarchies. Combined with this are insights from media studies on influencer culture as a means of analyzing the performativity of far-right women to advance exclusionary agendas. Overall, we highlight the inherent contradictions and complexity of how far-right female influencers in the Global South are promoting local expressions of gendered indigeneity while also contributing to global far-right narratives.

Identifying Themes of Right-Wing Extremism in Hindutva Discourse on Twitter

“…Research on RWE online has continued to adopt a Western-centric view and to investigate RWE in countries in North America, Europe, and Australia, a limitation on such research in general that has already been underscored. By contrast, in a recent study, researchers investigated female social media influencers in two major democracies of the Global South -India and Brazil -and identified a form of "postcolonial neoliberal nationalism", in which female influencers not only reinforce gender, class, and racial hierarchies but also contribute to global far-right narratives (Leidig & Bayarri, 2022). Meanwhile, among recent efforts to understand Hindutva narratives on social media, in "Hindu Nationalism Online: Twitter as Discourse and Interface," the author describes the productive associations between Twitter as a technological artifact and the quotidian discourse on Hindu nationalism online (Bhatia, 2022).…”

Estrategias Discursivas en Los Lives De Bolsonaro: Entre La Desintermediación, El Populismo Digital Y La Desinformación

“…Lewis (2018) apunta a la existencia de una red de influencers políticos ejercida a través de las distintas redes sociales, que construyen audiencias y venden una ideología de extrema derecha a través de relaciones íntimas y accesibles con los espectadores. Este tipo de influenciador político, a menudo celebridades, es muy eficaz a la hora de fusionar contenidos políticos con técnicas de marca personal para conseguir audiencia y seguidores (Leidig y Bayarri, 2022). El fenómeno del «Instafame» puede considerarse una «variedad de celebridad» (Marwick, 2015), es decir, una mentalidad y un conjunto de prácticas de autopresentación endémicas en las redes sociales, en las que los influencers políticos formulan estratégicamente un perfil, se dirigen a los seguidores y revelan información personal para aumentar la atención y mejorar así su estatus en línea (Senft, 2013).…”

“We swear to lay down our lives for the fatherland!”: Bolsonaro as influencer and agent of political polarization

“…These users have a high number of followers, are admired, followed by the public, and heard by the crowd (Romero et al, 2011). In the case of political influencers, they are often celebrities who are very effective in fusing political content with personal branding communication techniques to gain audience and followers (Casero-Ripollés, 2020;Berrocal Gonzalo, 2017;Leidig & Bayarri, 2022).…”