“The Western Feminists Want to Make Us Gay”: Nationalism, Heteronormativity, and Violence Against Women in Bulgaria in Times of “Anti-gender Campaigns”

The abolishment of women’s and LGBTQ rights has become one of the main goals of the so-called “anti-gender campaigns” emerging on a global scale. This study investigates discourses and notions that reject the concepts of “gender” and “gender-based violence” in times of “anti-gender campaigns” in Bulgaria. Based on discourse analysis and data from social media comments, the study demonstrates how “gender politics of fear” in Bulgaria have been included in the heteronormative, political, religious, nationalistic, and anti-feminist discourses and how gender and LGBTQ equality policies are identified as a threat to the traditional Bulgarian values. Engaging with the concept of hegemonic femininity, the analysis identifies four main types of notions among women opposing women’s rights policies and demonstrates how the socialist past of Bulgaria has strengthened these beliefs. Finally, the analysis discusses some possible directions towards a constructive and evidence-based dialogue in times of “anti-gender campaigns”, taking into account the strategic “delegitimization” of gender studies globally and the potential of the progressive and feminist religious scholarship and “contextual reasoning”.