This thesis represents an investigative critique of ethics in mass media representation of trans people. It advances its respective set of ethics regarding trans representation by critically examining how contemporary capitalist media produces a more "sanitized" trans representation that fails to reflect the material living conditions of the immense majority of trans people underneath the regime of capitalism. This study also advocates a black feminist-positive transfeminism that critiques the assimilationist trans narratives reproduced across mass media and social media. This thesis thereby constitutes a case study of trans representation in media. It specifically implements critical discourse analysis and comparative case studies as its research methods, with critical media studies as its methodological discipline. This approach critically engages with the material in unison with trans studies, transfeminism, and media studies theoretical frameworks. This study thereby builds on and contributes to the research field of transgender media studies. Core findings in this thesis involve that neoliberal media integrates a preoccupation with predominantly white, "passing," and indifferent trans women who firmly rejects critical self-reflection. That is, a media fixation with trans women who essentially "blend in" among cisgender people as if these women allegedly represent the "exemplary" trans people distinguished from "undesirables." This thesis discerns this capitalist arrangement as a prejudiced groundwork that ultimately engenders conflict rather than cooperation between the academic labor of Black feminism and transfeminism.

There is an increasing global anti-rights movement—the child of marriage of the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements—that affects the rights of not only women and LGBTQIs but also refugees, asylum seekers, and various minorities. Although this research only focuses on the event of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, it provides valuable perspective to understand and prevent the further spread of anti-gender and right-wing populist tactics and rhetoric. Despite the limitations, by offering and adapting various concepts such as political diffusion, absence in the media, and exiting treaties, the research revealed meaningful connections and insight while attempting to identify the possible effects of the event. While the influence and role of the Polish and Hungarian governments and other opposition actors on the right-wing populist and anti-gender movements between 2021 and March 2023 are exposed, the possible impacts of encouragement and an increase in anti-rights tendencies are presented. In this way, this research contributes to the literature by offering a current assessment and developments regarding the anti-rights movement in Eastern Europe while filling the gap within by considering the approach of political diffusion and the withdrawal's resonance in the movement.

Through the lens of analyses of populist mobilizations informed by political sociology, this study offers a new perspective on tactics used by anti-gender campaigns. Specifically examining the Education Curriculum and the Enfoque de Igualdad de Género [Gender Equality Approach] in congressional debates in Peru in 2018 and 2019, this study uses a qualitative content analysis to identify central themes. The themes reveal tactics that sabotage feminist gains in educational reforms, spearheaded by Christian political actors. The argument is thus that Christian political actors use tactics such as coopting feminist concepts such as “gender” and re-framing it as “gender ideology”. This is an example of using “emotional epistemic loops” of information to achieve political goals, in this case advancing patriarchal Christian values and undermining feminist and gender equality gains.

In July 2018, Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court rejected the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (better known as the Istanbul Convention). This rejection came following a wave of civic activism, which scholars characterized as the first anti-gender campaign in Bulgaria. Three years after the Constitutional Court’s decision, the Istanbul Convention continues to occupy online and offline public space, still provoking controversy and sparking heated debates. Employing critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis analyzes comments under Facebook posts mentioning the Istanbul Convention between 2017 and 2021. The posts appear on the Facebook pages of two ideologically opposing civil organizations that actively participated in the debate around the Convention’s ratification. Using Reyes’ (2011) concept of de/legitimization discourse, this paper analyses the online discussion around the Convention, exploring how de/legitimization discourses are utilized by the two ideologically opposing communities. To account for the role of Facebook as a discursive practice, the study further explores how the architectures and affordances of Facebook as a platform contribute to the polarization of the IC discussion. The analysis reveals the instrumentality of de/legitimization discourses for constructing pro- and anti-IC activist groups, for redefining the meaning of ‘gender’ in Bulgarian society, and later for transforming the meaning of the phrase ‘the Istanbul Convention’ to outgrow a reference to one document and become a signifier of values. Additionally, the study highlights three types of Facebook affordances that were found to affect the discussion’s polarization: identity, social, and functional.

Depuis l’essor d’Internet, et particulièrement des réseaux sociaux, les espaces en ligne sont devenus des canaux de communication privilégiés pour diffuser un discours s’opposant au « genre », à la « propagande LGBT », et plus récemment au « wokisme ». Dans ce mémoire, je m’inspire des pistes méthodologiques ouvertes par la littérature francophone sur les campagnes anti-genre numériques, pour proposer une actualisation des connaissances sur ces discours, à partir d’un corpus de tweets original collecté entre novembre 2022 et février 2023. En suivant une méthodologie mixte, combinant analyse quantitative et qualitative, je décris un corpus de 345 413 tweets à l’aide d’outils issus de la lexicométrie, pour mener une analyse critique de 70 micro-discours sélectionnés dans ce corpus. En croisant l’approche historique du discours (DHA) aux études critiques des discours issus des réseaux sociaux (SM-CDS), j’expose les vecteurs de diffusion des discours anti-genre, anti-lgbt et anti-wokisme, les thèmes qui les composent et les stratégies discursives qui les construisent, ainsi que les stratégies collectives à l’œuvre derrière la diffusion de ces types de discours. En me concentrant sur la « protection des enfants » comme thématique centrale, je montre un déplacement des discours anti-genre et anti-lgbt vers un rejet affirmé de la transidentité, et l’intégration de ces discours dans un discours contre le « wokisme » - soulignant, ce faisant, l’intérêt de privilégier une approche émique pour étudier ces campagnes. Je montre ensuite que le discours anti-wokisme passe par l’articulation d’un discours populiste – nationaliste, qui permet de formuler un appel à la protection de l’identité française contre les menaces supposées de l’Islam et du « wokisme ». Finalement, j’expose la circulation internationale des discours analysés, suggérant l’intégration de ce phénomène dans l’« ordre de désinformation », et dans une montée globale des discours populistes de droite radicale. / Since the rise of the Internet, and particularly social medias, online spaces have become privileged communication channels to express a discourse opposing "gender", "LGBT propaganda", and more recently "wokism". In this thesis, I draw on methodological approaches opened up by the francophone literature on digital anti-gender campaigns, to propose an update of knowledge on these discourses, based on an original corpus of tweets collected between november 2022 and february 2023. Following a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, I describe a corpus of 345 413 tweets using tools derived from lexicometrics, to conduct a critical analysis of 70 micro-discourses selected from this corpus. Crossing the discourse historical approach (DHA) with social media critical discourse studies (SM-CDS), I expose the vectors of diffusion of anti-gender, anti-lgbt and anti-wokism discourses, the themes that compose them and the discursive strategies that construct them, as well as the collective strategies at work behind the diffusion of these types of discourses. Focusing on "child protection" as a central theme, I show a shift in anti-gender and anti-lgbt discourses towards an assertive rejection of trans-identity, and the integration of these discourses into a discourse against "wokism" – underlining the value of privileging an emic approach in the study of "unpleasant movements". I then show that the anti-wokism discourse enables the articulation of a populist-nationalist discourse, which allows to formulate a call to protect the French identity against the supposed threats of Islam and "wokism". Finally, I outline the international circulation of the analyzed discourses, suggesting the integration of this phenomenon into the "disinformation order", and into a global rise of radical right-wing populist discourses.