‘Real’ women are right-wing. Images and ordering in the body politics of the European far right

One of the central arenas of far-right politics and their populist discourse is the ever more explicit attempt to claim dominance over female bodies. Far-right actors both push for often nativist, traditionalist models of society and extend the realm of politics into the private, intimate lives of (mostly) women. Such a far-right approach to body politics erodes individual liberties and closes down political spaces in democratic European societies. This article analyses how images of female bodies are used in political campaigns and far-right social media accounts of parties and youth organisations, which increasingly issue images of women that are not based on representing real women. The AI-generated or even cartoonish drawings that often also push an ableist and particularly racist ideology indicate a disinterest in women beyond ciphers for their re-ordering of societies. Furthermore, the analysis also shows how the visuality of these images pushes racialised claims in the body politics of the European far right.