The “best interest of a child” in anti-gender mobilizations : framing protection, mobilizing fear

Kuhar, Roman (author), Alnıaçık, Ayşe (author), Altan-Olcay, Ozlem (author), Gregersen Beyer, Andreas (author), Fernández-Vázquez, Guillermo (author), Lavizzari, Anna (author), Muszel, Magdalena (author), Smrdelj, Rok (author)

Researchers of anti-gender mobilizations emphasize the central role of child well-being narratives, yet this aspect remains underexplored. This article addresses that gap by focusing on how the “best interest of a child” is strategically used in anti-gender campaigns across Denmark, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. Using framing theory, we analyze how this frame is constructed, emotionally charged, and politically instrumentalized. Based on a critical frame analysis of 128 documents, we show that the “best interest of a child” frame shifts across contexts and is mobilized to serve different ideological aims while retaining a stable rhetorical core: the assertion that children must be protected. A child appears as a rights-bearing subject or passive object, biologically fixed or easily influenced, and at risk of sexualization or brainwashing. Our findings highlight the narrative’s flexibility and internal contradictions, offering a novel lens for understanding the discursive dynamics of anti-gender mobilizations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: anti-gender mobilizations, children, gender ideology, discursive framing, child protection, sex education
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Author Accepted Manuscript
• Publication date: 27.04.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 1-25
• Numbering: Vol. , iss.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182522
• UDC: 305
• ISSN on article: 2515-1096
• DOI: 10.1332/25151088Y2026D000000142
• COBISS.SI-ID: 278203395
• Publication date in RUL: 14.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of politics and gender
• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• ISSN: 2515-1096
• COBISS.SI-ID: 71256674

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: antigenderske mobilizacije, otroci, koristi, ideologija spola, diskurzivno okvirjanje, zaščita otrok, spolna vzgoja

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101061748
• Name: Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe
• Acronym: FIERCE