Normalising populism through femininity: the cases of Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, and Alice Weidel
2025, 2025, No. 4
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Abstract
The article presents the analysis of the role of female leaders of right-wing populist movements in Western Europe as instruments for legitimising anti-liberal political narratives. The aim of the study is to demonstrate how femininity serves to normalise populism in public discourse. A qualitative comparative case study (Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, Alice Weidel) combined with content and political discourse analysis was employed in this research. The findings indicate that femininity performs a legitimising rather than emancipatory function, enabling the transfer of radical right-wing ideas into the language of the political mainstream.
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