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The Power, Discourse and Society Research Cluster @UL and CUES present a joint seminar on Tuesday November 18th at 1pm in F0130 Re-framing gender and sexual equality in Finnish online discussion on immigration Dr. Tuuli Lähdesmäki, (Visiting Scholar from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland) Abstract: In recent decades, European societies have faced the rise of extreme right-wing activity, populist movements, and anti-immigrant or 'culturally racist' political parties. In Finland as elsewhere in Europe, the populist discussions on multiculturalism and immigration have become harder as the debates have intensified, particularly in the social media. In these debates, anti-immigration-minded, xenophobic, Islamophobic, heteronormative, homophobic, and misogynist opinions commonly mingle. The populist discourses on gender and sexuality include, however, contradictory elements. On the one hand, the populist discourses are often deeply conservative in fostering the idea of nuclear family, traditional gender roles, and hierarchical gender binarity. On the other hand, gender equality and gay rights can be explicitly supported when the values promoted in the populist discourses are facing 'bigger threats': immigration and Islam. In the paper, the populist articulations of the gender and sexual equality are investigated by focusing on the contradictions in the online debates on gender, sexuality, and immigration. How are sexual and gender equality re-framed in nationalist anti-immigration-minded online debates, and how are the notions of sexuality and gender fixed in order to object immigration? The investigation focuses on an article on Muslim homosexuals, published in the leading Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in March 2013, and the discussion that followed in blogs and online discussion fora. The paper indicates how the subjects of sexual and gender equality are produced, and illustrates the ability of populist rhetoric to adopt topics, agendas, and ideologies from other discourses and re-frame them for promoting its political aims. All are welcome Inquiries to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> All the best Eoin Dr. Eoin Devereux, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, IRELAND. TEL (353) - 61 - 202341 Understanding The Media 3rd edition (Sage: London) (2014) OUT NOW! Twitter Feed: @drdevereux -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. This mailing list is a free service and is not restricted to members. It is an unmoderated list and content reflect the views of those who post to the list and not of MeCCSA as an organisation. MeCCSA recommends that the list be used only for posting of information (for example about events, publications, conferences, lectures) of interest to members or to promote discussion of current issues of wide general interest in the field. Posts to the MeCCSA mailing list are public, indexed by Google, and can be accessed from the JISCMail website (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/meccsa.html). Any messages posted to the list are subject to the JISCMail acceptable use policy, which states that users should avoid “engaging in unreasonable behaviour, or disrupting the general flow of discussion on a list.” For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------