Abstract
Marine Le Pen and Riikka Purra are the front-figures of right-wing populist parties in France and Finland. Known for their patriarchal and anti-feminist agendas, these movements remain dominated by men. However, the number of women, including political leaders, in far right and populist movements is growing. Thus, there is a call for research that focuses specifically on female right-wing populist political leadership. This chapter aims to contribute to previous literature right-wing populism and political communication with a multimodal critical discursive psychological study of Marine Le Pen’s and Riikka Purra’s online political mobilisation. More specifically, in this chapter we investigate how the two populist far right leaders deploy identity management strategies in their online communication—official Twitter accounts and political blogs—to construct and negotiate their position as female and right-wing populist political leaders, and how they flexibly rework, negotiate and navigate between these positions to rhetorically appeal to diverse audiences. Our results show three distinct yet in many ways intertwined ways in which these politicians positioned themselves as (female) political leaders. The positions were (1) the strong leader for both men and women, (2) the protector of ‘our’ vulnerable women and (3) the protector of men. In line with previous research demonstrating the paramount importance of social media for the political campaigning and mobilization of populist movements, the present study contributes to the critical social and political psychological study of right-wing populism theoretically, by examining the ways in which gender and political leadership is negotiated in female right-wing populist leaders’ discourse; methodologically, through deploying the analytic tools of CDP in a fine-grained analysis of online political mobilization; and empirically, by providing a novel comparative contribution to research on female populism in Europe.
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Notes
- 1.
This study focuses on a timeframe preceding the name change of Twitter into X in July 2023; therefore, we here use the name ‘Twitter’ when referring to this platform.
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Appendix: Transcripts of the French and Finnish Original Quotes from the Material
Appendix: Transcripts of the French and Finnish Original Quotes from the Material
Extract 1, Le Pen: interview with LCI, posted on Twitter on 24 October 2021: https://twitter.com/mlp_officiel/status/1452330927116464128.
J: MLP je voulais vous garder quelques instants pour parler des femmes. Est-ce que vous voulez être aussi la candidate des femmes, si je comprends bien, sauf erreur de ma part.
MLP: non, je suis pas, je suis la candidate des hommes et des femmes.
J: mais est-ce qu’être une femme, ce que vous dites, est-ce qu’être une femme c’est un argument pour vous d’adhésion de votes pour vous?
MLP: Ce qui est sûr est que, parce que je suis une femme, je suis attentive à un certain nombre de problématiques qui sont celles des femmes en France aujourd’hui. Et c’est pas seulement la sécurité dans la rue dont j’ai beaucoup parlé et dont je continuerai à parler. Parce qu’aujourd’hui, euh, une femme, dans beaucoup de quartier ne peut pas se balader tranquillement la nuit, ou le jour d’ailleurs, comme elle le souhaite, habillée comme elle le veut, avec les bijoux qu’elle souhaite, sans être victime d’un harcèlement qui est inadmissible.
Extract 2, Purra: blog entry August 2019: https://riikkapurra.net/2019/08/31/ylen-henkilokuvasta/.
Perussuomalaisista uutisoidessa kaikki vaivalla saavutetut positiot – kuten se, että naisia ei tavata vähätellä esittämällä, että heidän takanaan olevia miehiä on kiittäminen heidän onnistumisistaan – unohtuvat. On aivan hyväksyttyä väittää henkilökuvassa, että naishenkilö on paitsi vähän seko myös herran armosta asemassaan.
…
Kaikki hyvät tai neutraalit jutussa mainitut ominaisuuteni oli käännetty päälaelleen. Perussuomalaiselle naiselle nämä ominaisuudet eivät ole hyviä.
Se, että olen kasvissyöjä. Outoa perussuomalaiselle. (Ajatelkaa, että vuonna 2019 joku itseään edistyksellisenä pitävä elää tuollaisessa pimeydessä kuin kyseinen toimittaja. Ruoasta! Minulla ei ole mitään tarvetta tehdä ruokavaliostani itselleni identiteettiä.)
Se, että keskityn puhumaan asiaa enkä jaarittele. Olenkin hiljainen ja näkymätön.
Se, että minulla on hyvä itsetunto enkä pelkää toimittajia. Olenkin ylimielinen ja hämmentävä.
…
On ehkä erityisen pelottavaa, että perussuomalaisissa on samaistuttavia naishahmoja. Vain nostamalla naiskannatustamme edes maltillisesti olisimme täysin suvereeneja Suomen poliittisella kartalla, koska mieskannatuksemme on jo niin suurta.
Extract 3, Le Pen: tweet on 5 September 2021: https://twitter.com/mlp_officiel/status/1434564812932100101?lang=zh-Hant.
Tout, dans l’affaire de la jeune Shaïna violée, agressée puis brûlée vive à #Creil, révèle la talibanisation de certains quartiers de notre pays. L’immigration de masse a pour corollaires le communautarisme et le recul terrifiant des droit des femmes. MLP.
Extract 4, Purra: blog entry 5 March 2019: https://riikkapurra.net/2019/03/05/maa-joka-taantui/.
Minulle ei ole ollut koskaan epäselvää, että on olemassa kulttuureja, joissa nainen on vähempiarvoinen. Huomasin tämän jo pienenä lapsena, panin merkille, ihmettelin.
Nykyään ihmettelen, vuosi vuodelta enemmän, miksi kaikki naiset täällä Suomessa eivät ole yhtä huolissaan kuin minä. Eivätkö he oikeasti tiedä, mitä ovat saavuttaneet? Missä on käsitys omasta yhteisöstä, kulttuurista, maasta; missä tieto historiasta?
Eivätkö äärimmäisen helppo tiedonsaatavuus, matkailu ja pallon kutistuminen ole osoittaneet sitä, että kaikki eivät ole kuin me?
Extract 5, Purra: blog entry 22 September 2019: https://riikkapurra.net/2019/09/22/kuinka-kukaan-suomalainen-voi-sanoa-etta-burkini-on-vain-pala-kangasta/.
Kuten olen aiemmin kertonut, en kehtaa enää kutsua itseäni feministiksi, koska koko termi on mädätetty juuri tällaisten burkinin puolustajien toimesta. Mutta naisten oikeudet minua ihan oikeasti kiinnostavat. Yksi tärkeimmistä periaatteistani politiikassa on huolehtia siitä, että maamme säilyy tasa-arvoisena ja ihmisoikeuksia kunnioittavana hyvinvointiyhteiskuntana. Valitettavasti tietyistä maista tuleva maahanmuutto uhmaa tätä monella rintamalla.
Extract 6, Le Pen: tweet and TV interview, 11 March 2021: https://twitter.com/mlp_officiel/status/1370121268884869124?lang=en.
«OUI je suis féministe, mais pas néo-féministe. Je n'exprime pas d'hostilité à l'égard des hommes. Nous devons construire une société du respect. Les hommes sont des partenaires, pas des ennemis.» #FaceÀBFM
Extract 7, Purra: blog entry 5 March 2019: https://riikkapurra.net/2019/03/05/maa-joka-taantui/.
Suomessa on aivan pieniä tyttöjä, jotka joutuvat käyttämään huivia. Päiväkodeissa, kouluissa, kaduilla. Pääkaupunkiseudulla kävelee tunnistamattomia mustia säkkejä, jotka tunnistaa ihmisiksi vain siitä, että ne yleensä vetävät perässään pieniä ihmisiä. Espoolaisessa kirjastossa yksi musta säkki asettelee kirjoja hyllyyn. Kirjastossa – meidän hyvinvoinnin ja tasa-arvon instituutiossamme.
Samaan aikaan meidän feministejämme kiinnostaa se, etteivät minun kaltaiseni ihmiset puhu tällaisista asioista tai se, kuinka humalaisten keskivartalolihavien miesten patriarkaatti läähättää liian kovaäänisesti, ja asialle täytyy tehdä jotakin!
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Pettersson, K., Sakki, I. (2024). Double Bind or Political Advantage? The Negotiation of Womanhood in the Online Discourse of Female Right-Wing Populist Politicians. In: Sensales, G. (eds) Political Psychology Perspectives on Populism. Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44073-1_10
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