20.500.12556/RUL-175464 Simulating agonism how anti-gender actors represent themselves as legitimate participants in debates on equality politics This study examines how anti-gender actors represent themselves as legitimate participants in debates on equality politics. Drawing on Mouffe’s distinction between agonism and antagonism, we argue that anti-gender actors foster conflict and exclusion through “moral panic” and the “politics of fear” regarding the issues related to equality politics, while at the same time presenting themselves as neutral, rational, and pluralistic. This dual strategy allows them to insert themselves into democratic debate and present themselves as legitimate “adversaries” rather than “enemies” to those who genuinely advocate for equality politics. We contend that such efforts to simulate agonism are particularly evident in Slovenia, where anti-gender organisations operate as covert allies of the Roman Catholic Church. In a context where public trust in the Church is low and the separation of church and state is strongly valued, efforts to re-Catholicise society rely on secularised means. We argue that this renders strategies of simulating agonism and conforming to secular–democratic values especially salient in the Slovenian context. To identify these strategies, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Slovenian anti-gender actors. Our analysis revealed four interrelated tactics: “self-victimisation”, portraying themselves as excluded and marginalised; “call for dialogue,” stressing a purported willingness to engage with opponents; “depoliticisation”, framing their role as neutral and non-ideological; and “claim of public support”, invoking a “silenced majority” allegedly constrained by a prevailing climate of “leftist” fear and censorship. The significance of this study lies in the fact that, despite extensive scholarly work on anti-gender mobilisations, analyses drawing on interviews with anti-gender actors themselves remain rare. anti-gender mobilizations equality politics de-democratization agonism self-victimization secularism ideologija spola antigenderska gibanja družbena gibanja populizem politike strahu nestrpnost neokonzervatizem de-demokratizacija agonizem samoviktimizacija sekularizem true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2025-10-28 13:34:41 2025-10-28 13:34:47 2025-12-11 03:51:23 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Str. 1-17 iss. 10, 1323 Vol. 16 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2025-10-20 316.4:[316.367.7:316.647.82] 2077-1444 10.3390/rel16101323 255087619 RAZ_Smrdelj_Rok_2025.pdf RAZ_Smrdelj_Rok_2025.pdf 1 0816F05631F698C5331EA132403EFD1D df20e05611b047df35becf9b292c877791e15005e4b0c492a576c30aacff1857 b2b57bbd-b3fa-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=221039 https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/10/1323 1 3139f60f-b3fa-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=221038 Filozofska fakulteta 0 0 0