Bodies of whiteness: Space invading Viktor Orbán’s ethnonationalism

Abstract

The article maps moments of relations between two bodies and their proximity to the somatic norm of whiteness: that of Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, and of the author, an émigré mother returning to Hungary to vote at the General Election on 3 April 2022. The context of the encounter is the public space of the official Instagram account of the Prime Minister, and the photos of him posted in the run up to the General Election. Viktor Orbán not only displays white hegemonic masculinities in his social media platform but sets out the role for white ethnic Hungarian mothers in reproducing a nation built on racialized exclusion. The article traces affective disruption and unease engendered by the racialized and gendered norms of national belonging delineated by the current leader of the Hungarian government. Working with Nirmal Puwar’s Space Invaders, it examines the possibilities of creating a sense of belonging from an ambivalent position of being both in and out of place.