Wolfish White Nationalisms? Lycanthropic Longing on the Alt-right

Abstract

This article takes aim at what, on its face, appears counterintuitive: the figure of the wolf in the iconography of alt-right groups in Canada and the US. In settler colonial states until quite recently wolves have historically been reviled and exterminated. Indeed, in the US and Canada, wolves were often conflated with Indigenous peoples and both were constructed as obstacles to colonial progress. This collapse of racial and species categories comes as no surprise as it has been and remains a central part of racialization and national identity in settler states. But in this case, there is a discursive reversal in the attempt to craft an alternative nationalism, one that hinges on the association of animals with white nationalism and misogyny. I use examples from two groups – one in the US and one in Canada – that have deployed wolf imagery in the elaboration of their often nativist and misogynistic mythology. Through these examples, I contend that wolves occupy a complex space in these alt-right movements, serving as ambiguous ciphers – simultaneous markers of both persecution and unbridled wildness – for their violent narratives about masculinity, alternative nationalism and white identity.