Extending the lens: how feminist anti-prostitution campaigning in Europe contributes to ‘anti-gender’ de-democratisation

In this article, we examine contemporary feminist anti-prostitution campaigning in Europe to trouble the dichotomous distinction between anti-gender and feminist actors, interrogating the representation of the latter as inherently democratic. Our theoretical framework systematises key de-democratising tactics and effects associated with anti-gender politics to analyse the tactics of feminist anti-prostitution campaigning and its effects on sex worker movements. Focusing on Germany and the European Union as emblematic sites of feminist anti-prostitution campaigning since the mid-1990s, we triangulate qualitative data through policy and media texts, interviews, and ethnographic field notes. We find that feminist anti-prostitution campaigning in Europe, while differing ideologically from anti-gender politics, displays equivalent de-democratising tactics and effects, thus contributing to gendered democratic backsliding. We highlight the need to extend the lens to feminist projects themselves to better understand and respond to the gendered de-democratisation currently observed in Europe.