Language and culture wars

Abstract

The far right has launched its own particular crusade against gender-neutral language (GNL). In this article, I examine how the parties Rassemblement National, in France, and Vox, in Spain, instrumentalise discursively their opposition to GNL as part of their overall political strategy of confronting social change. By using a culture war framework, I critically analyse the connections between the polarised representations of language and those of other fronts of cultural conflict that the far right directs against adversary groups. I show that both political parties have co-opted language into the culture wars they pursue on other fronts, albeit with significant differences. I argue that in addition to the idea of a single overall struggle based on moral differences and cultural cleavages, culture wars are also to be understood as interconnected fronts in different spheres of contention that the far right strategically exploits.