THE BOOM IN MASCULINITY

Andrea Roedig in conversation with Birgit Sauer and Otto Penz

THE BOOM IN MASCULINITY
Affective strategies of the authoritarian right

The politicisation strategies of the authoritarian right in Germany and Austria are characterised by sexual and gender politics as well as male appeals. These mobilise a specific affect structure of threat, fear, anger and hope. In her book The boom in masculinity Birgit Sauer and Otto Penz explain the rise and success of authoritarian right-wing parties and movements in Germany and Austria against the backdrop of changing gender and sexuality relations - in the context of neoliberal transformations and major crises of the last 20 years. It becomes clear that the right is striving for a new boom in masculinity and an anti-democratic social model of inequality and exclusion. To this end, it polemicises against the political elite, quality journalism, migrants, Muslims, LGBTIQ people and feminists.

Birgit Sauer is a retired professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna
Otto Penz taught sociology at the University of Calgary and the University of Vienna, among others

Moderation Andrea Roedig, freelance journalist, co-editor of „Wespennest“

In co-operation with Campus Verlag

Birgit Sauer, Otto Penz:
The boom in masculinity. Affective strategies of the authoritarian right
Campus Verlag, April 2023, 198 pages, ISBN 9783593516042