Digital Discourses of Gender, Crime, and Migration During Giorgia Meloni’s Rise to Power

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 9) Migration, Citizenship, and Displacement

Abstract

The 2010s served as a culmination of the explosion of user-generated content, the height of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, and the rising prominence of now-Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Building on previous research that has documented how Meloni has discursively presented women’s issues through the lens of femonationalism, this research seeks to identify how Meloni’s digital media presence compares to that of her male coalition mates in terms of their approaches to social media and the feedback they receive in comment sections. A qualitative content analysis of Tweets and Instagram posts made during the height of the migrant crisis from 2014–2018 was utilized. Findings indicate that while the coalition collectively politicized the migrant crisis by appealing to enduring crime myths, Meloni’s messaging is the best received. While her male coalition mates more effectively embody the paternalism that is inherent to the right’s associations with essentialist masculinity, Silvio Berlusconi is criticized for his associations with sex crimes and corruption, and Maurizio Lupi is accused of not acting decisively enough in the culture war that the coalition has waged. While Matteo Salvini is applauded for his virility, Meloni receives the least pushback from commenters, who widely praise her for her image. By serving as the face of women who are allegedly being victimized by migrant men through terrorism, street crime, and sexual assault, Meloni’s dual status as a mother to a native-born child and prime minister of the nation becomes a liberatory act—one that the right can use to subvert progressive associations with women’s issues.

Author

• Jenna DePasquale, Mississippi State University