Backlash

Feminist anthropology offers conceptual and methodological clarity to the study of backlash, a phenomenon made salient once more by the global conservative turn of the 2010s. As contemporary crises of social reproduction have, once again, focused majoritarian angst and anger on women, queer people, immigrants, and people of color, scholars have returned (again) to discuss backlash. Critically, feminist anthropology can move past media narratives of backlash, which often emphasize the emotional habits of backlash perpetrators, to understand how backlash operates as a specific mode of power through the experiences of its targets. This keyword entry joins recent retheorizations in conceiving backlash not as a reactive event but rather as an elaboration of the ongoing logics of structural oppression. Critically examining media and scholarly analyses of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's election and rise of the extreme right in Brazil as its case study, this entry examines how fieldwork-based approaches offer expanded theoretical purchase on the backlash concept.