Europe sees conservative trend as Italy elects right-wing prime minister
Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Amy Kellogg reports on the conservative wave sweeping through European nations and touches on concerns the center-left has in its wake.
MSNBC opinion columnist Natasha Noman suggested on Saturday that incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is part of a nefarious and "dangerous" trend of "white feminism."
"Meloni is as much a feminist as a wolf in sheep’s clothing is a sheep," she claimed in her piece. "In co-opting an identity and cause that she then weaponizes to attack the very same people the cause is intended to protect, figures like Meloni present a much greater threat to feminism than cisgender men."
Noman gave some context as to why the Italian politician has become such a widely discussed figure on the world stage.
"Giorgia Meloni, who won Italy’s national elections Sunday and will become the country's first female prime minister next month, has branded herself as a feminist for years," she wrote.
FILE PHOTO: Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, takes a selfie during a rally in Duomo square ahead of the Sept. 25 snap election, in Milan, Italy, September 11, 2022. (REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo)
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She added that while Meloni is a female world leader, she is not the kind many progressives would want.
"Although some have championed Meloni’s win as she prepares to join the rare ranks of female world leaders in history, her election is absolutely anything but a win for feminism," Noman wrote. "Rather, Meloni is an exemplar of how some white women weaponize gender and use it to oppress other women and minorities."
She then suggested that Meloni's ideology as part of a larger "crypto-fascistic" phenomenon.
"White feminism has become an integral component of crypto-fascistic and white nationalist movements here in the U.S. as well. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is a prime example of this, positioning herself as a defender of women’s rights while terrorizing minorities," Noman claimed.
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Noman condemned Meloni's role as a mother as a mere "schtick" used to cultivate a public persona.
"Part of Meloni’s schtick comes in the form of being a working woman and an active, hands-on mother. After delivering a victory speech Monday, she reportedly left the media frenzy to some of her subordinates so she could go pick up her kid from school," the opinion columnist wrote. "But time and again, Meloni has played this part in an initiative to reduce women to their reproductive value and paint them as bastions of a regressive social order."
Noman went on to warn that Meloni is "anti-abortion," attributing statements to her such as "yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death."
The Leader of Fratelli d'Italia, Giorgia Meloni in Rome, Italy, on 22 September 2022 for the closing of the election campaign for the general election in Italy on 25 September 2022. (Getty Images)
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She claimed that women like Meloni are "dangerous" and that they "promote ideologies that covertly and overtly embrace violence."
The writer circled back to her wolf in sheep's clothing metaphor to slam Meloni again.
"A wolf is easier to identify. You know the dangers, you know what you’re dealing with," she concluded. "A wolf in sheep’s clothing has the capacity for something more sinister and pernicious. And the political advancement of women like these will literally cost lives."
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