Anti-semitism, Hungarian style
The reason why I was inspired to write about this is in the entry of last week. It seems like I caught a cold, so I'll be breaf, but there is one point that really interests me as a wannabe gender researcher.
My colleague Krisztian sent this link as a backgrounder on Magyar Garda. What caught my eye was this ridiculous comment by Jobbik's spokesperson Krisztina Morvai:
Jobbik’s public face is Krisztina Morvai, a blonde, telegenic law
professor, noted for both her forthright feminism and her vituperative
attacks on Israel [!]. A message posted under her name on an internet forum
demanded that Hungarian [!] Jews should play with their “tiny circumcised
tails” instead of attacking [!] her. Ms Morvai declines to discuss the
matter. Jobbik says it will not comment on private correspondence.

Above is a Jobbik poster saying "Hungary for Hungarians", with K.M. in the middle.
I inserted exclamation marks to show her logical shortcomings. But the passage in general speaks about what I would call the general masculinisation of "evil". I would not exclude that Ms Morvai may have had 'relevant' personal experience here in Hungary, but the interesting part of this statement is that when she imagines her "enemy", she thinks of a bunch of middle-aged male Jews with black hats and beards, discussing politics. It's way beyond her imagination that along the way she may as well insult Hungarian Jewish women who may work in the same office with her at her university.
Have you noticed, whenever nationalists have a problem with someone they perceive comparable in power with themselves or even stronger, they, obviously, see men, for example, a masculine Middle Eastern or African immigrant (uncle Freud would nod his head saying he knows what they are jealous of). Meanwhile, demasculinisation of local men was a common practice in British, French, etc colonies. Anthropological writings of the time also show how the faithful servants of the establishment at the time toiled to prove their societies that colonial men are anything but masculine (I remember reading some interesting text on Vietnam). Some European men also make fun of Japanese men being supposedly feminine, which compensates for the Japanese often being economically superior
A typical psycho-social (I must admit though, I know nothing about psychology) mechanism evident in nationalists is very simple: if they feel helpless and more or less powerless against a group they don't like, they start issuing claims that this ethnic, social or whatever group absolutely must fail in masculinity (otherwise the world would be too depressing :)). But coming back to Morvai, it's probably the first time I hear such a narrative from a woman. Not like I've come across many Nazi women in my life... It certainly must have been tough for a woman to become a Nazi leader, so she has developed certain strategies that allow her asserting herself both as a Nazi and as a woman. I mean, the quote above mixes her political orientation with a statement on her sexual preferences, which probably in her world symbolically strengthens her as a Nazi woman who can supposedly totally ruin the "enemy's" lives by rhetorically rejecting them as sexual subjects (as if she's deadly attractive...). Typically it's not very likely that a woman makes a career in a skinhead movement or a nationalist party (both are usually very macho-pacho) by trying to be like men. Her choice is to emphasise and utilise her femininity in a very bizarre way.
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Comments
The presence of women in (especially in the front row of) traditionally very conservative movements always striked me as as somewhat contradictory... The case of Morvai is even more exotic as I subsequently found (in Wikipedia) she was a Human Rights advocate with a seat in the UN.
When we think nothing can surprise us...
i dont see why you should be so surprised that women can be right-wing extremists too.
Men & women are equal, & in this case equally stupid. (although i admit i was just as surprised the first time i saw female neo-nazis), bigotry, hatred & ignorance are not just for men, but fun for all the family!
It's not the possibility of women belonging to a right-wing movement that surprises me.
It's the position in the hierarchy of far-right movements known for their stance on the role of women, often contrary to an ethical understanding that is somewhat universal nowadays. If this reported to something that had happened 50 years ago, I suppose I wouldn't be so surprised.
I obviously agree with you when you say hatred is genderless. But I suppose there are some assymmetries. This is about consciously and personally representing ideologies that have, in the past, appointed women to lesser roles. And advocating ideas contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, having being a Human Rights activist.
Correction, and upgrade, read this not the above!
Cute, cute comments, is everybody brainwashed here?
If y want to have a complete picture, always ask a hungarian, like me, then y will have information in first hand.
First of all they are not far right.
They dont like jews? maybe. Why?
Well for a lot of realy good reason, and for that you guys need to learn some hungarian history, about the hungarian 20th century, and some hungarian economy, learn some hungarian politics, coulture, and learn something about comunism. Then you can say things.
Why specialy the last 20 years we started to dont like jews? Easy.
After the communisum fall, we didnt have money in the country.
The nice jews come whit the americans, and tell us that we wont receive nothing except if we give, or sell our main industryes. MEDIA, FOOD, ENERGY. Plussz we needed to promise that we dont hunt down the comunist people in hungary, who where guilty for killing people. EXcuse me??
Selling out the food industry, is makeing food more and more expensive, the same whit the electricity industry.
Selling out the media: Dont inform the people what is hapening, and why? This give them the opurtinity to do what ever they want working togeather whit the comunist party MSZP, and the jewis party SZDSZ(neoliberal people, they are the cause of the hungarian economic downturn for the last 7 years).
The last couple of year they want to privatise the lands, forests, water, road systems, local govorments, people houses etc. How to privatise people houses. Easy they destroy peoples lifes whit high taxes, and bad payments in jobs, or somethimes people dont even receive money. Well then. What can dey do? Sell the house. The only real money what hungarian people have is there house. In hungary most of the people own their homes, and not rent. hungarians 87percent has their own homes. Now they wanted to privatise the health care system. If y dont understand why we dont aggry whit privatisation.
First there is things you can not privatise, bicause its national security, and if somebody do that, and you realyse who solled it, and who buyed it, then both of them are responsible, and guilty. What do you think whose the buyer? .. i wont tell..guess
These politicians can do what they want, bicause the media supports them. things changeing bicause the internet, they loseing power. And whose owning the worlds 95percen of media? Supprise! Its the jews. Of course we are pisst off.
What happens? If they cant deal whit us in hungary, they use the world media aganst us. So we get more pist off. After this if we tell something, or do something about this, we are naci? Its realy slap in the face. We dont tolerate this things..
If you know hungarians, than you know that we are realy tolerateing a lot of things, actualy we are tolerate things to much in everething, but when its breaking us like now, then we will pop and start deling whit the real problem.
An important thing! we are attacking the comunist party. The jews started to protect them throw the madia, and misslead people, helping to stole the countryes money. Our money!! Unecaptable, and unforgivabe. we will allways remember it!
who gives them the right to involve other countryes bussines? I am sure not only just in hungary, and if people someday figure this out, than people will think diferently about jews! Sooner or later , everybody gets what it deserv!
JUst let us finaly start building our own free democracy, whitout any outside controll! If we have to we will fight for this, as we done in 1956!!!
The next years you will see how hungarians will throw out the political corectness(crime against humanity, unfortunately west countryes didnt realysed this yet), we will take back a lot of privatised, and stolen things(jews dont want that, which means they work against us, and in that case we wont wellcome them anymore whit open arms)
Hopefully we will start dealing whit the reamins of the comunist remains, what jews dont want, bicause thats money for them.
We dont like this atitude that everything is money!!!
It will change soon!!
The peacefull hungarians, whose famous for that ability of tolerating things to much, are starting to change to be radical people. SO ASK YOUR SELF? WHY?
A WHOLE COUNTRY TURNING TO RADICAL FROM 1 YEAR TO AN OTHER? THERE MUST BE A GOOD REASON FOR THAT, NO??? Or you guys didnt ask that question yet??
The things are so bad that only radical decisions can sord out this.
To remind you, PEOPLE ARE DIEING BICAUSE OF THIS, and you are tell as that we are naci? THATS A SLAP ON THE FACE, and this things are geting stronger against us, but thats GOOD! aT LEAST WE KNOW THAT WE ARE FOCUSING ON THE RIGHT THINGS!
A like to clear a realy important thing. We dont give [[[censored]]] about somebody who is telling us that NACI, bicause that word dont have big weight in me country. Why?
Yes, they wore bad guys, but they only ocupied hungary for 1 whole year, thats when bad things hapened to jews, and the ROMA people. But they forgot that we wore ocupied by the sovjets for 40 years, where there is lot of people died. WE had our own Ausch(death camps, siberia death camps) but people dont care about that. You guys only received from the naci problem, we received from the naci, and the comunism!!
For us, jews dont have prevelage, and if they do bad things whit us, or others, then they hide behind the protection of the 6million jews death, from where they think they can do everything behind that, than we give them big, big punch in the face!!
They forgot to tell you guys throw the media, that there where several hungarian towns, which was totaly wiped out killing everybody, the old, the jung, women, man, the unbourn. When solders was playing football whit babys heads, and when the hed can not take it it split apart from the babys boddy!! They wore just babyes!!
Oh you guys didnt know that? that after the 2 world war in some countryes around hungary, it was legal to hunt hungarians!
And i am not even talk about after the world war, when my country lost 67 percent of its teritory, and lost almost 66percent of its population, what they thik that its just minorityes in countryes, but the didnt know that they wore the majority, who is continously are bullyed even this days. If we say something than we are naci!
What about that is Slovakia which part of the EU, if a hungarian person speaks in hungarian, in its own languaga(one of the oficial language from many in EU) than the penalty is 5000Euro!
Human right activist dont do nothing(and thats discrimination, and racist) when they need to, but when people want to do something good for their nation than its NAci! You guys dont realise how fake, and [[[censored]]] system, suported by the media(wich we know that 95percent owned by, Who? =)... )
So jews in our eyes dont have special rights, like in west europe.
SO [[[censored]]] AND START WORKING!!
iF THE JEWS START ACTING LIKE A any othere NORMAL and hardworking PEOPLE, THAN WE WILL GLAD TO HAVE THEM AS FRIEND, BUT UNTILL, then NO! THEY THELLING HOW BAD WAS THE NACIS WHIT THEM, BUT THE DOING THE SAME THINGS WHIT PALESTINS [[[censored]]] THIS GUYS DONT HAVE SPECIAL RIGHTS AGAINS US AND IT HURTS THEM!
Oh and by the way. the big democratic countryes in eorope, and america, hate nacis, but they forget one thing that they are gone, but they are still not banning the comunist.
Thats too much!
Oh you guys didnt know? its not the nacis who wore the worst. Its the comunist.
The comunist are the number one in causing the death of 100millian people.
If you guys so next to human rights, than you guys can start whit comunism, if y have guts for that. Until then, you guys dont have right to tell us off!!
What a show. Antisemita, racist, political corectnes. Exlpane to the 100mill dead people.
WHAT A JOKE
Guys i can keep going day, and night.
But you wont belive me anyway. why not? bicause the media(whose 95percent of the world media own by jews) dont show this..
Now thats the bigest crime against humanity. the nacis are among us, just dont use weapons anymore.
Woke up west from your dream, and start seeing clearly, and start doing something about it, not whach other people lives in the big brother quality tv-s. you have internet, than use that!
Welcome to the EU, my friend. If you think communism was bad for you, wait to see in 10 years time what capitalism does to your country. Well, at least, now you can rant against anyone and not rot in a goulag. More seriously, blaming the Jews for all your problems is a childish and irresponsible stance. Remember that when you vote next time.
To Eric Wéry :
You have some misconceptions.
Two countries in the world say that they are communist. North Korea is poor, its people are starving , they have a crazy nut for a leader who is hell-bent on launching nukes, just like that nut in Iran. Why doesn't he give his people food instead of diverting the money to building very expensive weapons?
Cuba doesn't even have Castro anymore. They drive around in fifty year old cars and send their criminals to the US. Notice that many if not most Cubans are black but the Castros are the whitest people around. And Cubans here are huge supporters of the Republicans, who create myths about the "free market."
The most purely capitalist country around is Communist China. They also don't care very much how much polution they release into the atmosphere.
Dear Daiva.
First, thanks for a good blog, which I try to read regularly.
Second, this comment is coming a year too late - this post has fallen into the abyss of the internet - sorry about that but I only read it today.
Anyways. Female leadership in European populist/racist parties is becoming more and more the norm it seems, and feminine (liberal) rhetoric. From Pia Kjærsgaard's Dansk Folkeparti in Denmark, to Siv Jensen's Fremskrittsparti in Norway to Le Front National - where Marine Le Pen is taking the torch from her aged father.
Now let me state that I am a liberal - but those values are being hijacked, I feel, by populists and used for dubious purposes, such as the islamo-bashing of Jyllandsposten in Denmark, the banning of the burqua in France and minarets in Switzerland, with similar restrictions being fought for on liberal auspices in several other countries. The rampant islamophobia is justified with much the same logic and rhetoric as anti-semitism or anti-ziganism; i.e. that muslims are unethical animals who need to be controlled and a problem that needs to be "fixed". Now, having a woman spokesperson for these platforms is ideal, in the sense that it distances the platforms from nazism (whose rhetoric was masculine and rigid; whose spokespeople were agressive men) – and of course any populist with half a brain will start by distancing themselves from Hitler. If Hitler were alive I'm sure he'd be the first person to denounce himself (and then accuse everyone else of being Hitlerites).
What surprises me most about Jobbik is therefore not their choice of women in the forefront, nor their nazi opinions, but their flirting with nazi aesthetics and rhetoric – not the flagging of femininity, but the flagging of agressive (militaristic) masculinity.