Defining Fascist Versatility:

The Feminine Figure in Greek Extreme Right

Dimosthenis Nastos
PhD Student
School of Political Sciences
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
 Abstract
Golden Dawn is the main extreme right party in contemporary Greece with clearly neo-
Nazi roots1. Thus, its fascist rhetoric and activities rely heavily on ultra-masculine themes such as
the praise of physical violence. Despite however its ultra-masculine rhetoric and its patriarchal
view of women, it managed over the years to attract a significant number of female members as
well as significant female electoral support. Moreover, another interesting fact is that Golden
Dawn operates a Women‟s Front from 2007, five years before it became part of the Greek
Parliament in 2012. This move shows the party‟s strong desire to appeal to women and create an
image that could allow it to break its de facto men-orientated profile.
The main characteristic of its official discourse about women is that her main enemy is
modern Feminism and its false, sexist role-models. The Greek woman should reject feminism and
embrace her natural role as a mother but also as an active nationalist fighter completely devoted to
the service of her nation. In other words, the nation needs strong women that would return to the
boundaries of their homes but at the same time would be at the first line of the struggle for national
rebirth. This notion however inevitably creates a paradox. Its discourse attempts to solve it by
attacking gender antagonism and adding a third characteristic, that of the obedient wife.
Intoduction
The main questions that this paper attempts to answer are the above two:
I. What is the narrative that Golden Dawn forms in order to appeal to women despite its
patriarchal character?
II. What are the ideological elements that allow Golden Dawn to form its theoretical
structure in a way that it can surpass the discrepancies between its masculinity praise and the
concept of a strong, feminine figure? Does this process include ideological borrowings from
different political dimensions?
The analysis of this paper is relied on interviews by female Golden Dawn members as
presented on websites as well as texts that they have presented on various websites (especially on
the site of Golden Dawn‟s Women‟s Front). Thus it is relied on secondary sources and it mainly
focuses on its official rhetoric about women. Finally, it could be categorized as an exploratory
research.
The initial point of this analysis is the definition of fascism as “a way of political
behavior”2 and not an ideology. Fascism does not constitute a political ideology with a strictly

1
Sofia Tipaldou & Katrin Uba, Movement adaptability in dissimilar settings: the far right in Greece and
Russia, European Societies, DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2018.1494294, 2018, p. 6-7
2
Robert Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism, New York, Vintage Penguin, 2004, p. 218
1
defined core such as liberalism that requires certain actions and institutions in the political field.
Fascism always focuses on action and forms its theoretical structure by taking and incorporating
every ideological element that could be useful in order to form its narratives. These elements are
often derived from different political directions. The process by which it creates its discourse leads
to three main characteristics:
i. Its discourse is extremely versatile to the political and social changes in order to expand
as much as possible into the political field,
ii. It inevitably leads to constant ideological borrowings even from the Left,
iii. It inevitably leads to discrepancies both within its rhetoric and between its rhetoric and
actions.
This lack of a strictly defined ideological core leads fascism to form its narratives based on
negative correlations of identification. Consequently, it appears vaguely as anti-communist, anti-
capitalist, anti-feminist, in some occasions as anti-modernist, in other occasions as anti-
traditionalist etc. Furthermore, the emphasis on action itself makes fascism appear as anti-political.
The common place of fascist narratives is the reinstatement of the sacred element into the political
field. The cornerstone of this sacralization of politics relies on the nationalist myth of national
rebirth from its contemporary decadent state. This decay of course is viewed as an illness caused
by modern forces such as feminism, liberalism, etc. In order to form its narrative effectively it also
needs conspiracy theories that can describe, within an oversimplified context, the face of the
enemy in this holy battle for the nation‟s restoration.
Analysis
I. The narrative that Golden Dawn uses in order to appeal to women is relied on her
depiction as she should be: a) as a mother and b) a fighter in the service of the nation. She should
reject modern Feminism and its false, sexist role-models as imposed by the forces of globalization
and capitalism. She should embrace her primary natural quality, being a mother. However,
simultaneously she should be an active fighter in the first line of the struggle for national rebirth.
This line of thought creates a paradox situation with two conflicting qualities. Golden Dawn
attempts to solve this paradox by introducing a third quality to its discourse. It claims that a
woman should also be her husband‟s best partner. It is the only way to surpass the gender
antagonism and together fight for the nation‟s revival.
II. Golden Dawn incorporates in its narratives a plethora of different arguments. Her
depiction as a mother relies on the attack on modern Feminism. This ‘feminist plague’ is Greek
women‟s main enemy and is imposed on them by the capitalist economy through false sexist role-
models in order to transform them into mindless consumers. The Women‟s Front claims that: „The
2
Greek women of Golden Dawn having a deep understanding of the disastrous effects of
contemporary feminist spirit are fundamentally opposed to every declaration about the equality of
the two sexes’3. Moreover, the member Ms. Maria Sidiropoulou claims that there is ‘an organized
plan of the feminist movement in order to redefine the women’s role. To feel free just because she
votes, works and participates while in reality she is born enslaved within the new social roles that
are imposed on her in order to be just an over-consuming creature’4.
This argument has two distinct dimensions that are typical of the fascist narratives: On one
hand it includes a strong anti-capitalist rhetoric as an obvious ideological borrowing from the Left
and on the other hand it incorporates modern critics of Feminism that claim that the feminist
movement has been deteriorated in only gaining some typical, exterior rights for women but did
not lead to their true liberation.
It is an argument that has been described by authors such as Bell Hooks when she stresses
out that many feminists: „suggested that work would liberate women from male domination. We
know now that work does not liberate women from male domination. Indeed, there are many high-
paid professional women, many rich women, who remain in relationships with men where male
domination is the norm’5. Moreover the capitalist system pushed women to work but with the
hidden aim of making her only a vivid, self-reliable consumer. By the words of Bell Hooks again:
„When women work to make money to consume more rather than to enhance the quality of our
lives on all levels, work does not lead to economic self-sufficiency’6.
Moreover, according to Golden Dawn Greek women should return to the lines of their
home and embrace their traditional quality as a mother. Women hold the sacred role of national
reproduction. This notion is directly correlated with the strong opposition to abortions and the
desire for a general birth control in favor of the nation according to the eugenics inherence of
National Socialism.
The sensitive matter of abortions is however a subject that Golden Dawn, as expected, does
not treat it with many details since the opinions of their members seem to vary significantly. For
example despite its official opposition to abortions, with the argument that if they do not stop
Greeks will soon be a minority in their own country, its European Parliament representative
claimed that abortion is doubtless ‘a woman’s right’7.

3
http://whitewomenfront.blogspot.com/2007/05/blog-post_26.html (accessed: 21 August 2019)
4
http://www.xryshaygh.com/enimerosi/view/oi-ellhnides-sthn-ethnikistikh-koinwnia (accessed: 21 August
2019)
5
Bell Hooks, Feminism is for everybody, Cambridge, Gloria Watkins, 2000, p. 48- 49
6
Op. cit., p. 53
7
http://www.xryshaygh.com/evrovouli/view/strathgos-g.-epithdeios-oi-ektrwseis-apoteloun-egklhma-kai-
dolofonia (accessed: 21 August 2019)
3
 This concept of Motherhood is based on the classic patriarchal concept, as Simon de
Beavoir stresses out, and it represents the privileged field of a woman‟s nature that leads to the
realization of her feminine nature8. In other words, motherhood is the basic inherent characteristic
of women that defines and realizes her as a direct opposite to the heterosexual masculinity.
This notion leads to the inevitable conclusion that the woman‟s body does not belong to
her but more importantly to the nation. Motherhood becomes a holy duty for the rebirth of the
nation and the survival of its civilization. It is „the link between past, present and future
generations’9. Her body becomes a holy vessel for the national reproduction. Thus: „her purity,
her honor and her family’s honor’10 are among the highest values of this ultra-nationalist
narrative.
An outtake of this thought lead to certain activities of the Golden Dawn such as the self-
defense lessons for women. This notion is linked with the xenophobic depiction of the Others (at
this point mainly Muslim refugees and immigrants) as gangsters and rapists and it claims that
every woman should be able to know basic self-defense actions in order to save herself from
possible immigrants‟ attacks. Women should protect their body from immigrants‟ attacks are
correlated with the protection of her body as the vessel for the national reproduction. Moreover,
the instructors are almost in every time male members 11. The message here is simple: The male
nationalist guides the female on how to be self-efficient and his true partner, in a way that they
complete each other. Without the man‟s help the woman would be lost in a world full of violent
threats.
The crime of rape is a basic element of the fascist politics because it creates sexual anxiety
and a consequent need for the defense of the nation‟s manhood which will be realized only by the
implementation of fascism. Moreover, the politics of sexual anxiety is significantly in periods of
economic crisis just like in Greece when traditional male role-models such as the provider of the
family have been questioned12.
What are the other enemies that are created by this narrative? One interesting observation
that stems from the interview of the Women‟s Front leader, Georgia Christou, is her claim that she
joined the ultra-nationalist movement because of the drug culture and the sexual liberation she
witnessed during the school squattings movement. At the early 90‟s a great wave of squattings

8
Αθηνά Αθαναζίος “Φύλο, εξοςζία και ςποκειμενικόηηηα μεηά ηο «δεύηεπο κύμα»” in Αθηνά Αθαναζίος,
(ed.) Φεμινιστική Θεωρία και πολιτισμική κριτική, Athens, Νήζορ, 2006, p. 19
9
http://whitewomenfront.blogspot.com/2007/05/blog-post_26.html (accessed: 21 August 2019)
10
Vesna Kesic, “Μοςζοςλμάνερ, Κποάηιζζερ, Σέπβερ, Αλβανέρ”, in Αθηνά Αθαναζίος (ed.), Φεμινιστική
Θεωρία και πολιτισμική κριτική, Athens, Νήζορ, 2006, p. 581
11
Index, picture 1
12
Jason Stanley, How Fascism works: The politics of us and them, New York, Random House, 2018, p.
148-149
4
took place over many high-schools in Greece mainly by left-wing students that demanded a variety
of reforms.
This correlation of the supposed left-wing sexual liberty draws its source from way back in
Greek History, especially the Greek civil war. More specifically, the mass Left-wing organization
of EAM was the first political institution that allowed women to vote in the elections that took
place in the liberated parts of Greece on April 23,1944, since a lot of women fought massively
against the Axis powers. A few years later a lot of women also fought in the Greek civil war
during 1946-1949 in favor of the Left Democratic Army.
The rising participation of women in political movements led the Right to begin a
propaganda war against the women who fought within the lines of the Left. In other words, this is
an example of the survival of a right wing collective memory and the inclusion of civil war
narratives that depicted the women of the Left as sexually and morally13 depraved in contrast of
course with the good housewives of the Right. The Right in Greece after the civil war incorporated
even the most extreme parts of the extreme Right that acted as a collaboration force during the
Occupation and as paramilitary power during the consequent Civil War. Its post civil war ideology
was based on the exclusion from the national body of all Left-wing elements. Especially the
women that had joined Left were in a very difficult position. Finally, in this interview she also
claims that Golden Dawn must free women from all the ‘prostitution role-models’ of modern
society that of course are correlated not only with feminism but also with the Left.
Woman‟s second depiction as a nationalist fighter relies on a plethora of nationalist myths
about women who fought bravely in the revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1821 such as
Bouboulina, the women of ancient Sparta14 (in an incomparable act of historical reductionism) and
women collaborators with the Nazi occupation such as the notorious Sitsa Karaiskaki as well as
the ariosophy guru, Savitri Devi. However of course there is no mention of the women who joined
the Resistance and fought massively against the Axis Powers. These myths however construct
“realities” that help to create a certain view of the nation nowadays as well as in the future15.
Moreover, this mythical past is also always based on idealized patriarchal concepts16. The
fetishization of a mythical past has a double aim: a) to create a sense of fear for the contemporary
decay of the nation due to ideologies such as liberalism, feminism etc. and b) to create a sense of

13
Index, picture 2
14
https://ethnikismos.net/2014/05/20/%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%
B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B7-
%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%85%CE%BE%CE%B7-
%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83-%CE%BC%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%B1%CE%BA/
(accessed: 21 August 2019)
15
Tamar Mayer, Gender ironies of nationalism, New York, Routledge, 2000, p.9
16
Stanley, op. cit., p. 19-40
5
victimization. In this case, the women of Golden Dawn should feel angry both for the national
decline but also for the fake feminist role-models that have been imposed on them.
In addition to the warlike description of modern woman Golden Dawn claims that every
Greek woman should do her military service just like men and at the age of 18. The readiness of
women to fight if necessary is typical of nationalist discourse 17. Thus a woman should „be
prepared to destroy her image even her femininity’18. Despite this military depiction19 Golden
Dawn claims that women should remain mostly in office jobs20.
The discrepancies within its official rhetoric are more than obvious and lead to creation of
an inevitable paradox: How can a woman be at the same time primarily a mother, acting within the
lines of her home, devoted to the raising of her children that should be brought up to become
strong and healthy parts of the Greek nation and an active nationalist fighter in the first line of the
struggle?
The attempt to surpass this crucial discrepancy within its rhetoric relies heavily on giving
the emphasis on a notion that is also linked directly with conspiracy theories. Within that concept
of thought the gender antagonism is imposed by the globalization and capitalism forces that desire
to enslave nations through the destruction of the institution of family. Thus it adds a third
characteristic to the desired woman personality: Except a mother and a nationalist fighter, a
woman should also be an ideal wife. In other words, a woman must be her husband‟s best partner,
an obedient object of power according to the traditional patriarchal view.
On one hand, the gender antagonism scheme is another ideological borrowing from critics
within feminism that also stress out the complicated tensions that are created by such views. As
Hoff Sommers stresses out: ‘when women set themselves against men, they simultaneously set
themselves against other women in a group antagonism that is untenable from the outset’21.
Moreover, gender relations and its differentiations are correlated with the different social
conditions but also with religious characteristics, age, sexuality etc 22.
On the other hand, the evil force behind the globalized capitalist forces that are planning
the destruction of nuclear family is, as usual, based on stereotypical, extreme right anti-Semitic

17
Kathleen M. Blee, Inside organized racism: Women in the Hate movement, Los Angeles, University of
California, 2002, p. 118
18
https://ethnikismos.net/2016/05/11/%CE%BF%CE%B9-
%CE%B3%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B5%CF%83-
%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83-%CF%87%CF%81%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7%CF%83-
%CE%B1%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%B7%CF%83/ (accessed: 21 August 2019)
19
Index, picture 3
20
http://www.xryshaygh.com/enimerosi/view/eugenia-chrhstouoi-ellhnides-eimaste-uperhfanes-kai-
agwnistries (accessed: 21 August 2019)
21
Christina Hoff-Sommers, Who stole Feminism?, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1994, p. 256
22
Nira Yuval Davis, Gender and Nation, London, Sage, 1997, p. 28
6
conspiracy theories that depict Jews as international loan-sharks and bankers that seek to
undermine nations in every possible way in order to enslave them.
Ultimately Golden Dawn seeks to replace the sexist role-models with a fascist role-model
in which every woman member ‘has to overthrow the contemporary decadent status quo and in its
place prevail a new way of life, a new Bio-theory. Her role is revolutionary and radical as it goes
against every kind of spiritual decay and body decrease’23. The true liberation stems from the
embrace of motherhood into the lines of the struggle for national rebirth and not from feminism. It
is the only way to prove that „the woman of Golden Dawn is not a pleasure vessel but a special
member of the society‟24.
Despite its promises for true liberation under its wings, Golden Dawn even in its official
rhetoric line cannot avoid depicting woman as a supplement of men. She is nothing more than his
obedient wife, his mother, his sister and the medium for the nation‟s perpetuation.
But why ultimately Golden Dawn managed to attract female members despite the
discrepancies of its discourse? One answer to this question could be the nationalist solution that it
gave to many women in Greece during the economic crisis that eventually expanded to all levels
of Greek society. The economic crisis translated into an overall crisis of democratic representation.
In other words, it became „a crisis of identity of the actual democracy’25 that embraced the Greek
society as a whole. Golden Dawn attempted to give answers to a variety of problems of modern
women including economic insecurity and safety but most importantly that of identity. In the
words of a female member of the organization, Ms Foteini Kotsaki: „The woman who passes the
doors of Golden Dawn knows where to stand, where she is heading and what she is trying to
achieve’ 26.

23
http://www.xryshaygh.com/enimerosi/view/oi-ellhnides-sthn-ethnikistikh-koinwnia (accessed: 20 August
2019)
24
https://www.tanea.gr/2013/10/01/greece/o-rolos-twn-gynaikwn-tis-xa-syntages-eykoles-giati-exoyme-kai-
drasi/#id_3 (accessed: 20 August 2019)
25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlkza6jii7c (accessed: 21 August 2019)
26
https://ethnikismos.net/2016/05/11/%CE%BF%CE%B9-
%CE%B3%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B5%CF%83-
%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83-%CF%87%CF%81%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7%CF%83-
%CE%B1%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%B7%CF%83/ (accessed: 20 August 2019)
7
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books & Articles
1. Αθηνά Αθαναζίος “Φύλο, εξοςζία και ςποκειμενικόηηηα μεηά ηο «δεύηεπο κύμα»” in Αθηνά
Αθαναζίος, (ed.) Φεμινιστική Θεωρία και πολιτισμική κριτική, Athens, Νήζορ, 2006.
2. Kathleen M. Blee, Inside organized racism: Women in the Hate movement, Los Angeles,
University of California, 2002.
3. Christina Hoff-Sommers, Who stole Feminism?, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1994.
4. Bell Hooks, Feminism is for everybody, Cambridge, Gloria Watkins, 2000.
5. Vesna Kesic, “Μοςζοςλμάνερ, Κποάηιζζερ, Σέπβερ, Αλβανέρ”, in Αθηνά Αθαναζίος (ed.),
Φεμινιστική Θεωρία και πολιτισμική κριτική, Athens, Νήζορ, 2006.
6. Tamar Mayer, Gender ironies of nationalism, New York, Routledge, 2000.
7. Robert Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism, New York, Vintage Penguin, 2004.
8. Jason Stanley, How Fascism works: The politics of us and them, New York, Random House.
9. Sofia Tipaldou & Katrin Uba, Movement adaptability in dissimilar settings: the far right in
Greece and Russia, European Societies, DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2018.1494294, 2018.
10. Nira Yuval Davis, Gender and Nation, London, Sage, 1997.

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9
 1. Self-defense lessons for women by the men of Golden Dawn.

2. Right Wing Propaganda from the Greek Civil War about the women who
were fighting in the lines of the Left Democratic Army (1947).

3. ‘There is beauty without make-up’: Golden Dawn’s Women Front.

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