Your Gender is a Battleground: Anti-Gender Issues in Serbia

Our title intentionally alludes to Barbara Kruger’s renowned work, the black and white photograph of a woman’s face split symmetrically along the vertical axis with the words ‘Your Body is a Battleground’ stamped over it. This work was created in support of the United States National March on Washington that took place on April 9, 1989, advocating for abortion rights and the protection of women’s bodily autonomy. The process of women’s empowerment and the emancipation of LGBT + people have been slow and fragile, with successful instances often encountering backlash. For this reason, 35 years later, this powerful slogan retains its relevance globally, and particularly in contexts like the Serbian one, where there is a rapid increase in anti-gender mobilization. This mobilization opposes post-essentialist conceptions of sexuality and gender issues, undermining their scientific basis by labelling them as ‘ideological’. Compared to earlier periods, attacks on reproductive rights, abortion access, sex education, LGBT + rights, and similar issues are now framed as a battle against ‘gender ideology’, ‘gender theory’, or ‘genderism’. These phenomena are regarded as contrary to human nature and the needs of ‘ordinary’ people and portrayed as being ‘externally’ imposed.