The feminization of resistance: the narratives of #NiUnaMenos as social transformative action

ABSTRACT

The Argentinean movement #NiUnaMenos (NUM) represents one of the most relevant transnational examples of Latin American feminist mobilization against gender-based violence and can be understood as vanguard of a current tide of feminized resistance on a global scale. This article addresses two central narratives in the discourses and social practices of three founders of the NUM; one about feminist mobilization as a social transformative moment that creates distinctive protest performances in the pursuing of a liveable life despite the challenging restrictive possibilities; and the other about the intersection between gender and class in the struggle against the neoliberal patriarchal precarization of life, related to the lack of the collective systems of social protection against gender-based violence. The analysis of these narratives highlights a feminization of resistance that promotes a radical transformation of the social system, where politics also at a micro level question capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy by producing alternative knowledges, subjectivities, and epistemologies. Particularly, the study of the experience of enhanced precariousness created by the operation of patriarchal violence, and the resistance expressed in engendered alternative ethical and non-violent responses, reveals in the narratives the strength of a precarity awareness becoming a network of transnational and cross-identities solidarity.

KEYWORDS:

• Ni Una Menos
• narrative
• resistance
• precarity
• collective action
• feminization

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of this century, women in Latin America have emerged as key players in a global resistance movement aimed at addressing issues specific to women; a movement characterized by robust activism against gender-based violence and a concerted effort to secure sexual and reproductive rights, including access to legal and safe abortion. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in Argentina, where a series of feminist strikes and large-scale demonstrations in support of abortion and against gender-based violence have taken place since 2015. This current wave of resistance is not simply a matter of increased female participation in social movements, but rather represents a new political philosophy that emphasizes collaboration, relationship-building, and a people-first approach over neoliberal competition and control (Motta 2020, Nijensohn 2022). Furthermore, this approach prioritizes addressing the everyday experiences and needs of individuals, as opposed to seeking to dominate traditional and institutional power structures (Segato and McGlazer 2022). Such is the case of the #NiUnaMenos (or No One Less, from now on referred to as NUM) movement.

The recent pro-choice and gender activism in various Latin American countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil, highlights the ongoing issue of high rates of femicide in the region, despite the establishment of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women by the Organization of American States in 1994. According to data from UN Women, 14 of the 25 highest rates of femicide globally were in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017. ¹ In this context, the #NiUnaMenos activism is made overall visible by mass demonstrations that advocate for reproductive rights and policies designed to address gender-based violence. The movement’s green handkerchief has become a symbol of the ongoing struggle for fundamental human rights by women not only in Argentina, but in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. This symbolic use of the handkerchief is rooted in the activism of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo during the civic-military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983), and has continued to be utilized in contemporary manifestations as a token of female resistance against the patriarchal State and the neoliberal-conservative national society.

The phenomenon of #NiUnaMenos represents a call to action against the widespread issue of gender-based violence. This encompasses a range of harmful behaviors directed towards women, including physical violence, verbal abuse, psychological manipulation, obstetric violence, economic exploitation, sexual violence, institutional violence, symbolic violence, and labor violence. The NUM movement was galvanized by the tragic case of Chiara Paez, a 14-year-old girl who was murdered in Argentina in 2015, among the 286 reported cases of femicide in that year. This prompted simultaneous demonstrations in multiple Latin American countries, including Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. However, although high rates of femicide persist in other regions of Latin America, it was the Argentinean movement that served as a catalyst for a wider societal response to this persistent human rights issue.

As stated by previous gender scholars (Souza 2019, Langlois 2020, Motta 2020), the #NiUnaMenos movement has played a crucial role in increasing public awareness and addressing the issue of gender-based violence in the country, and even more, in the whole region. This movement has employed grassroots activism and mass demonstrations to protest against the high levels of violence and femicide faced by women in Argentina. One of the defining characteristics of #NiUnaMenos is its ability to mobilize broad-based support, including both women and men, in solidarity against violence and in advocacy of change. Through its activism, the movement has created a platform for survivors of violence to share their experiences and for the wider public to engage in discussions about the underlying causes of gender-based violence and the need for systemic reform. The impact of the movement on government policy has been substantial, resulting in changes to legislation aimed at better protecting women and holding perpetrators of violence accountable. For instance, the movement’s advocacy efforts led to the passage of a comprehensive gender-violence law in Argentina in 2015, which criminalized various forms of violence against women, including femicide.² Moreover, the NUM movement has played a vital role in raising public awareness and fostering a national dialogue surrounding gender-based violence, challenging deeply entrenched cultural attitudes and norms that perpetuate violence against women. In other words, through its activism and advocacy, the movement has been a catalyst for social change and has worked towards creating a more equal and just society for women in Argentina.

As previously highlighted by gender scholars such as Langlois (2020), Mason-Deese (2020), and Nijensohn (2022), the paramount significance of the #NiUnaMenos movement lies in its ability to shed light on the issue of femicide, thereby catalyzing widespread and powerful actions against gender-based violence throughout the region. The advocates of this movement have consistently called for the compilation and dissemination of official statistics on violence against women, the establishment of guarantees for protection and justice for women who have suffered violence, the creation of shelters for victims, the legalization of abortion, and the provision of comprehensive sexual and gender education. Despite its substantial size, the relevance of the NUM movement for catalyzing social change is predominantly attributed to the intersectionality of its demands and its explicitly transregional, massive, and heterogeneous nature (Motta 2020, Nijensohn 2022).

The #NiUnaMenos movement, as an alter-world, horizontally and participatively oriented movement, activates citizens as rights-bearers³ through the formation of informal networks and personal affinities. It is founded on concrete, specific projects and believes that social change must be driven from the bottom up through concrete individual actions that alter unjust social hierarchies, thereby deepening democracy by enhancing the dignity of citizens. With its growing capacity to formulate and implement proactive agendas, the movement has demonstrated its effectiveness in combating the pervasive and cross-cutting phenomenon of femicide in urban and rural areas and across social classes and age groups in the region. As an example of the massification of feminisms (a singularity described by Nijensohn 2022, pp. 134–135), this social phenomenon represents a collective and organized agency aimed at transforming precariousness into gender solidarity and hope.

On one hand, as a case in point of feminized resistance, the #NiUnaMenos movement subverts conventional or liberal understandings of leadership and activism, underlining the various and distinct methods and approaches that women bring to their pursuit of social transformation. On the other, an analysis of individual experiences of increased precarity, caused by patriarchal violence, reveals the presence of a specific gendered resistance within gendered, non-violent resistance. This finding will, finally, underscore the significance of the awareness of gender precarity as a means of fostering a network of solidarities at transnational, national, and local levels.

The focus of this article, therefore, is to identify and examine the narratives of gender resistance and awareness of precarity in the interviews with three founding members of the NUM movement. Through an analysis of their account of deliberate choice of action and personal insights, their motivations, and experiences of the challenges they face, their successes and setbacks, and their vision for the future, the study of these gendered narratives will illustrate the tenacity, efforts, and determination of the movement to challenge dominant cultural norms and expectations surrounding gender, as well as the power structures that support them.

2. Feminized resistance as a framework for social change

The feminization of resistance as discussed by contemporary gender scholars (e.g. Enloe 2014) refers to the growing involvement of women in political activism, challenging patriarchal structures and oppressive systems. This concept highlights the critical role that women play in resistance efforts, emphasizing their unique perspectives and experiences as well as their contributions to the struggle for justice and equality. It reflects a heightened awareness of the ways in which patriarchal systems impact the lives of women and marginalized communities and acknowledges the significance of women’s participation in activism and resistance.

Feminist scholars have also recently concurred that evidence of femicides and transvesticides in Latin America is just the surface level manifestation of gender-based violence, and that this violence is sustained by a system of institutionalized impunity and high levels of social tolerance (de Souza and Rodrigues Selis 2022, pp. 6–7). The collective #NiUnaMenos defies categorization as a socialist, radical, or eco-feminist group, encompassing instead multiple feminist legacies to address and resist a range of social issues related to the oppression of women and gender non-conforming individuals. In consequence, the NUM movement can be understood in the context of the feminization of resistance, where feminized resistances emerge as a response to the precarization of labor and limited access to public goods and subsidies, but specially as a reaction to the precarity caused by the constant threat of violence, based around a specific social construction of gender identities (as defined by Butler, e.g. in 2009:xii-xiii). Therefore, the feminization of resistance not only indicates in this case a change in the composition of social movements, but also represents a new form of politics that prioritizes the production of altered social relations based upon the transformation of the social construction of gendered subjectivities. Hence, the #NiUnaMenos operates as a transformative and constructive force, imagining alternative futures and forms of resistance (cf. Langlois 2020). The movement brings together a diversity of issues under a single feminist umbrella, challenging societal assumptions surrounding gender-based violence and holding both society and the State accountable for perpetuating such violence. The #NiUnaMenos also adopts a radical and plural feminism, centered on precarity as a site for alliances and adopting queer and decolonial perspectives. As noted byde Souza and Rodrigues Selis (2022), even in the current context of increasing anti-feminist sentiment, movements like NUM serve as a counter-hegemonic force, promoting the circulation of alternative knowledge and leading the way towards radical social transformation.

Some of the current transnational feminist movements in Latin America, such as NUM, can be better understood in the context of the feminization of resistance as means for social change. While Mason-Deese (2020, p. 462) asserts that Latin American women have always been at the forefront of this new wave of feminized resistance on a global scale, as highlighted by Motta (2020, p. 474), feminized resistances primarily arise as a response to the precarization of labor and limited access to public goods and subsidies. According to Mason-Deese (2020, p. 460), this feminization of resistance encompasses not just a numerical change in the composition of social movements, but also ‘a new way of doing politics that prioritizes the creation of social relationships and subjectivities’. This indicates a shift in the modes of political expression, marked by the politicization of private spheres and the recognition of spaces related to social reproduction as pivotal sites for struggle. From her point of view, Mason-Deese holds that the feminization of resistance always promotes a profound transformation of the social system, where politics takes place at both a macro and micro level, challenging capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy by adopting alternative knowledges, subjectivities, and epistemologies (Mason-Deese 2020, pp. 461–463)

Through its public statements and actions, the #NiUnaMenos repeatedly highlights the high rates of femicide in Latin America as a symptom of a society that culturally constructs feminized bodies as objects for male pleasure, to be disciplined and discarded. By framing femicide in this way, NUM transforms what was traditionally considered a ‘private’ issue into a public one, aligning with the feminist belief that ‘the personal is political’ (Langlois 2020). Additionally, the movement emphasizes the State’s involvement in perpetuating unequal gender relations, most notably through its denial of women’s right to legal, safe, and free abortions, and its failure to adequately protect victims of everyday gender-based violence.

For the analysis of this context, Nijensohn (2022) suggests the use of the concept of radical and plural feminism. This form of feminism is centered not solely on the identity of ‘women’, but on precarity as the foundation for alliances in envisioning the possibilities for an anti-neoliberal feminism. The focus is, then, on the massive public demonstrations as a site of plural performativity, as well as on the documents agreed upon by the diverse movements and organizations participating in the assemblies. This process of articulation not only addresses the long-standing issue of femicide in Latin America, but also incorporates queer and decolonial perspectives into feminism, making it a crucial counter-hegemonic force (Langlois 2020). This is significant when considering hegemony in a Gramscian sense, as it encompasses not just the economic and administrative fields, but also cultural, moral, ethical, and intellectual leadership. The circulation of new knowledge is, consequently, essential for radical social transformation.

According to de Souza and Rodrigues Selis (2022, pp. 7–8), the politicization of the female/feminized body as an social ontological phenomenon has emerged as a significant strategy of feminist resistance in the context of the growing anti-gender movements and policies in Latin America.

(…) if the embodied subject is a generalized human condition, its regulation is not. There is no universality in the social production of bodies; on the contrary, such production depends on specific power structures, especially those tied to the processes of representation and recognition in the public sphere. (de Souza and Rodrigues Selis 2022, p. 8)

This approach that ties violence against female and feminized bodies to agendas related to territory, environment, and even spirituality, has also been assessed by Segato and McGlazer (2022, pp. 72–75) as part of the coloniality of knowledge production that splits more than reunite diverse gendered knowledge and, therefore, gender solidarities.

In recent times, Latin American feminist movements have called for a reconfiguration of political solidarities, moving beyond a singular focus on identity and the historically inaccurate portrayal of women as a minority group. Instead, these movements are working to bring together a diverse array of organizations and collectives, including trade unions, leftist parties, landless workers’ movements, Indigenous groups, and soccer associations, among others (Souza 2019). These efforts have added new dimensions to the political landscape in the region. Feminist movements are no longer seen simply as a subset within larger struggles against capitalism and oppression, but instead have come to occupy a prominent role in the political arena, eliciting both anger and support. As Segato and McGlazer (2022, p. 74) observes, the characterization of gender-based violence as a war against female and feminized bodies enables a comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the underlying mechanisms that generate these forms of violence, which are particular and embodied. In the view of Félix de Souza and Martim Rodrigues Selis (de Souza and Rodrigues Selis 2022, pp. 7–8), it is specifically this shared inquiry that empowers the female and feminized bodies to overcome specific forms of social construction of femininity which suggest victimhood, replacing such subjectivity with forms of female identity that cultivate resilience.

According to Nijensohn (2022, pp. 137–138, 140–142), the initial success of the #NiUnaMenos’ identity-based slogan brought together a diverse range of feminisms. However, following 2015, two major transformations were observed in the movement that drew these feminisms together. Firstly, there was a shift in focus from femicide to a wider array of hetero-cis-patriarchal forms of violence. Secondly, the inclusion of individuals from marginalized communities, such as lesbians, bisexuals, transvestites, transsexuals, and non-binary people, in the movement’s discourses was achieved without disregarding the experiences of other precarized and vulnerable women.

In 2009, Judith Butler defined precarity is a result of the widespread dissemination of precarization (Butler 2009:ii), which can be defined as the various processes and events that contribute to social vulnerability and exposure (Puar et al. 2012, p. 169). According to Butler (2009:xii-xiii), individuals whose lives are not recognized as ‘readable, recognizable, or grievable’ such as women, the poor, queers, transgender people, and the stateless are inherently vulnerable to precarity. A decade later, when Butler proclaimed that the #NiUnaMenos protests embody a collective repudiation of the insecurity imposed by the socioeconomic system, she also recognized the performative exercise of the ‘right to manifestation’ in public, and the right to demand a more viable existence⁴ (see also Butler 2004, cf. to, Butler 2015). Individuals who experience their gender identity and choices in an insecure State are frequently exposed to abuse, stigmatization, and violence, and their human status is frequently devalued. Precarity, therefore, is a social and economic human condition that manifests in alter-world movements as a diverse range of bodies in action.

As expressed by Nijensohn (2022), the #NiUnaMenos’ public actions – which she refers to as the ‘politics of the street’-, have utilized vulnerability as a means of alliance-building and as a source of new forms of resistance against a neoliberal moral order. Despite the challenges imposed by these conditions, Nijensohn suggests that this strategy demands a high level of self-sufficiency. de Souza and Rodrigues Selis (2022) describe this as a form of ‘gendered necropolitics’ which cannot be separated from the intersections of racism, sexism, and capitalism. As Segato and McGlazer (2022) explains, Latin American feminism faces the dual challenge of resisting institutionalized gender-based violence and challenging structures of coloniality. The goal of these movements is not just to resist violence but to reconstruct the underlying political structures that shape personal experiences and individual life-stories.

However, the extreme vulnerability to gender-based violence and the absence of institutional protection, as well as other forms of vulnerability, do not necessarily diminish agency. Political struggles against the effects of neoliberal policies, such as the #NiUnaMenos mobilizations, are harnessing precarity as a source of power by translating shared precarity in collective agency and shared self-awareness through political resistance.

This is the paradox of plural performative action under conditions of precarity: acting in the name of support without that support. In this sense, this form of resistance is a struggle for a more egalitarian political, economic, social, and cultural order in which interdependence is possible. (Nijensohn 2022, p. 140)

Thus, a new question arises whether Latin American feminism can align with struggles for liberation and social equity if it is constrained by neoliberal rationality (cf. Langlois 2020, Nijensohn 2022). Under what circumstances do anti-patriarchal activists establish new organizational frameworks and forms? (Mckee et al. 2019, pp. 542–543). I concur here with Nijensohn (2022, pp. 140–141) in her assertion that the neoliberal understanding of empowerment assumes that even in a state of vulnerability, a gendered body can regain agency through a specific experience or series of experiences. However, for many Latin American women who have been stripped of agency, precarity exacerbates their extreme subordination and dehumanizes them by rendering their discourse and needs depoliticized (de Souza and Rodrigues Selis 2022, p. 8). Hence, as Butler (2015) emphasized, it is critical to challenge the association between vulnerability and passivity as opposed to agency, to better comprehend the role of vulnerability in gendered resistance strategies.

(…) sometimes it is not a question of first having power and then being able to act; sometimes it is a question of acting, and in that acting, laying claim to the power one requires. This is performativity as I understand it, and it is also a way of acting from and against precarity. (Butler 2015, p. 58)

3. Some methodological and ethical issues

The present study utilized semi-structured interviews with three founding members of the #NiUnaMenos movement. As the NUM follows a direct democratic structure with open assembly as the decision-making body, there is no formal leadership in the movement. However, some individuals are identified as key inspirational leaders in the historical accounts published by the NUM after 2018. Three of these founding members were selected for the interviews based on the length of their participation and role in the movement as representative at the same time of the diversity and unity of the founding thought, that’s the focus of this analysis. The interviews included mainly discussions about the reasons behind the movement’s formation, its goals and objectives, its successes and challenges, and the future of the movement. They also touched upon the broader issue of gender-based violence and the steps that need to be taken to address it, both on a societal and governmental level.

The interviews were conducted in Spanish between December 2020 and February 2021, prior to the official ethics clearance from the Research Councils in Sweden and Argentina. Nevertheless, utmost care was taken to abide by the guidelines set by the VR (Swedish Research Council) and CONICET (its Argentine counterpart) regarding informed consent, anonymity, and avoiding potential re-traumatization of the interviewees and the researcher. The participants have been anonymized and have given their consent to their contribution to the research to be used in this final piece by a Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) established before engaging in interviews. The researcher’s own life experiences were disclosed to the interviewees to promote empathy and transparency, and to minimize any negative impact on the participants.

As their identities have been kept anonymous, the respondents will be here referred to as:

I1 – Female, born in a province in 1969, feminist activist since 2008

I2 – Female, born in Buenos Aires in 1976, cultural activist since 2013

I3 – Female, born in Buenos Aires in 1966, feminist activist since 2007

Two narratives of social transformative action in #NiUnaMenos

A narrative of social transformative performance refers to a story or representation of actions, behaviors, and events aimed at creating a social change. This type of narrative seeks to illustrate how individuals or groups engage in intentional acts to disrupt the status quo, challenge oppressive systems, and bring about positive changes in the community. These narratives are often used as a form of activism and advocacy, as they bring attention to the issues being faced and help mobilize support for change. The narrative framework provides a way to understand and contextualize the motivations, strategies, and outcomes of social transformative performances, and to communicate the significance and impact of these actions to a broader audience.

As indicated by Motta (2020, pp. 479–481), the feminized resistance practices utilized by the #NiUnaMenos movement are typified by distinctive characteristics that are shaped through a series of protest performances incorporating both social and discursive practices. This observation is in line with the findings of Mckee et al. (2019, pp. 541–542), who describe these discursive protest performances in detail. On a similar way and conducting an analysis of the oral accounts of three founding members of the #NiUnaMenos, it is possible to discern here two central narratives. The first narrative pertains to feminist mobilization as a transformative moment that gives rise to distinctive protest performances. The second narrative explores the intersection between gender and class in the fight against the neoliberal patriarchal precarization of life and the challenges faced in pursuing a livable life despite the limited opportunities available.

• Narrative 1: Social transformative performances

This narrative can be defined as an exploration of the ways in which feminist mobilization and resistance can serve as a catalyst for social transformation. The unique forms of protest enacted by the #NiUnaMenos – which encompass both public demonstrations and the creation of written materials such as manifestos, historical accounts, and proposed legal reforms-, aim to achieve a more livable life for individuals who identify as female or feminized in an often oppressive and restrictive environment.

Feminism made me more human and more persistent in the fight, but less aggressive, less belligerent and more … how to say it? More political, more focused in the final goal (…) The fight for equality filled my life and turned me to activism, to feminist activism. I chose then to focus on community and international work, a rare but very necessary mix when expanding the network outside Buenos Aires and abroad. Maybe it was my brains’ own way to avoid the remembrances of past violence against my body, I don’t know for sure … but it helped to make something good of it, for sure! [I1]

The intersection of memory, gender, and violence is key in this narrative to understand how these personal experiences shape the common understanding of a trauma. The process of memory reconstruction within #NiUnaMenos is portrayed as a means of reclaiming agency and asserting control over their own experiences, as seen through the perspectives of the respondents. The act of memory reconstruction not only served as a means of healing for the survivors of gender violence, but also provided a platform for connecting with others who have undergone similar experiences and fostering a strong sense of community and solidarity within the movement, as enunciated by I1 and I3 during the interviews. Furthermore, the third respondent emphasized the role that memory reconstruction played in reinforcing her understanding of the widespread impact of gender violence and the social importance of promoting justice,

(…) by ensuring that my own and other’s experiences and suffering will not be forgotten or erased but acknowledge by the Argentinean State in policies and historical accounts. [I2]

The written materials produced by #NiUnaMenos also serve as tangible evidence of its inclusive and multidimensional approach to feminist activism as a form of social resistance. Langlois (2020) remarks that NUM has been successful in forging a unified voice based on the principles of solidarity, without suppressing the individuality of its diverse member base, which encompasses women of different backgrounds and sexual orientations. The movement also actively challenges the prevalence of heteronormativity and the violence inflicted upon those who do not conform to binary gender norms, by fostering unconventional alliances and building a coalition of women, lesbians, bisexuals, trans individuals, and other feminized bodies.

Maybe it was not that clear in our discourses in the beginning, but the idea was the same as today: We wanted to impose our agenda or gender equality on the political sphere, but only as an agenda whereas everyone was included, the queers and the no-queers. ‘Ni Una Menos’ means ‘no one more woman murdered or abused’, without labelling or excluding no-heteronormative identities! [I2]

With regards to this, the #NiUnaMenos collective even engages in opposition to a moralistic and religious perspective on sexuality and advocates for those who are stigmatized as ‘deviant’ by the conservative in the Argentinean society. In consequence, by considering and recognizing individuals with non-normative sexualities and gender identities, the NUM challenges and disrupts the cultural norms that uphold heteronormativity. In doing so, the movement expands and queers the feminist struggle by incorporating a more diverse and inclusive perspective.

The testimonies of the three respondents offer insights into the ways in which #NiUnaMenos engages in an incipient exercise of direct democracy, which Nijensohn (2022, p. 145) prefer to characterize as a ‘feminist radical and plural democracy’. This articulation of a plurality of demands constitutes a form of counter-hegemony, serving to resist the hegemonic process of social re-articulation in the face of neoliberalism. Vulnerability, as a condition of precarity, serves as the basis from which this form of activism emerges. However, this vulnerability should not be equated with a form of resistance, but rather viewed as the necessary foundation from which resistance can be generated. As implied before, vulnerability or precarity do not empower per se but reinforce the gender awareness and consequent collective action as social transformative resistance.

In this sense, Nijensohn (2022) suggests utilizing the concept of radical and plural democracy, as posited by Laclau and Mouffe in 1985, to conceptualize the notion of a radical and plural feminism. This formulation of feminism envisions the articulation of a multiplicity of demands in equivalent series, aimed at constructing a counter-hegemony that opposes neoliberalism, even as a transgenerational chain.

Today more than ever I feel committed to the fight for equality, especially to support, accompany, and enjoy with the number of girls and boys who wear the green scarf in their wallet or backpack, which is not only a sign of the right to decide in a framework of freedom and respect for others, but also a defense of sexual and reproductive rights. Of the rights of all Argentinean citizens, despite they social condition or gender identity (…) The young are the ones who marked our lives with their presence and words, the ones that have everything ahead of them: For them we have to be there, to give them not only an example of resilience but of maybe utopian, but constant fight. [I3]

• Narrative 2: The right to a liveable life

The analysis of the #NiUnaMenos’ discourses and social practices stresses the emergence of feminist mobilization as a transformative and constructive moment, aimed at envisioning individual and collective forms of resistance and imagining alternative futures. As mentioned before, previous studies have demonstrated that gender resistance can result in ‘distinctive protest performances’ even discursively (Mckee et al. 2019, p. 541; see also Gutmann 1993), and that women’s resistance practices and discourses can be diverse and shaped differently by the intersection of gender and class.

All the respondents also believe that the category of gender has played a unifying role for feminist movements in Latin American history, differing from the role played by the category of class in the 20th century social movements. According to Veltmeyer (2019, pp. 1280–1281), many of the 20th century social movements were initially divided by class, which could have limited their ability to act collectively with respect to gender identity politics even though class identity enabled massive egalitarian social change. In this regard, the respondents’ individual experiences of the #NiUnaMenos indicate that the collective’s ability to use gender as a cross-class unifier from the outset has contributed to its strong convening power, making its protest performances distinct from other historical resistance experiences.⁵

The proposition advanced by Nijensohn (2022, p. 145) to view the collective #NiUnaMenos as an ‘empty signifier’ capable of bringing together a heterogeneous array of positions in the form of street politics, represents a compelling lens through which to analyze the plural performativity of this movement. This collective action, marked by a struggle against precarity and the attempt to dislocate the centrality of male heterosexual identity, serves to re-articulate a plurality of precarized populations in opposition to neoliberalism.

The Argentinean right-wing has always tried to appropriate the feminist agenda and attempted to transform it into a private liberal property issue; this way of thinking presupposes that there can be ‘equality’ within the framework of savage capitalism or neoliberalism, such as the one we are currently experiencing. We [at the #NiUnaMenos] understand feminism as a liberation movement that recognizes gender oppression and, therefore, recognizes all other forms of oppression in our society. We cannot believe that gender equality only means having more women CEOs in a company or that inequality ends with political parity in a representation system that, on the other side, becomes more and more exhausted when it fails to understand that real democracy represents minorities, not only majorities. [I1]

The intersection between gender and class is brought to light through this narrative, highlighting the struggle against the neoliberal patriarchal precarization of life and the denial of social and state recognition for female and feminized subjects to attain a liveable life. In the perspective of Butler (2004, 2015), liveability is a fundamental aspect of human existence and not everyone is able to experience a liveable life due to certain factors such as violence and oppression that limit it to mere survival. This narrative of the #NiUnaMenos, therefore, underscores the importance of demanding social and state recognition to ensure a liveable life, beyond mere survival, for female and feminized subjects, including all forms of sexual diversity.

Furthermore, the ‘right to a liveable life’ can be understood as an inalienable human right that encompasses various aspects of an individual’s existence, such as access to necessities like food, water, shelter, and health care, as well as the ability to participate in societal and cultural activities. This right also encompasses the freedom from discrimination, exploitation, and other forms of oppression, and provides for the autonomy to make choices and decisions that shape one’s life. In the context of the #NiUnaMenos, the ‘right to a liveable life’ concretely refers to the pursuit of a life that is free from gender-based violence, discrimination and the ability to live in a manner that allows for the full expression of one’s gender identity and sexuality.

The task [of the movement] at hand is substantial and all-encompassing, as we address all forms of violence. The neoliberal adjustment by the State will have a profound impact on women, as poverty affects us disproportionately. We demand an end to all forms of violence: no more deaths from illegal abortions, no more lost workers, no more missing migrants, no more lost transgender individuals, but above all, we are driven by the desire to continue building the home we wish to inhabit, a safe home, a home without violence or discrimination, a home to happily live in. [I2]

The respondents indicate that the NUM endeavors to adopt an intersectional approach that embodies the characteristics of feminized resistance, which includes the political consideration of social reproduction, the objective of radical transformation, and a focus on marginalized or non-dominant perspectives. Thus, the #NiUnaMenos emphasizes the unique vulnerabilities faced by indigenous and Afro-descendant populations and integrates their issues into the feminist struggle while acknowledging diversity and complexity. This integration can be observed through the participation of several indigenous and Afro-feminist organizations in the collective’s manifestos over time, particularly in recent years, where the NUM’s discourse has become increasingly anti-racist and deliberately decolonial, as it’s expressed by I1 and I2 below.⁶

Indigenous women, transvestites and trans people are essential to the NUM, demanding the cessation of all patriarchal structural violence; the abolition of the ‘chineo’, that’s the group rape of Indigenous women and girls, mainly in the North region of the country; and the end of ‘terricide’, denounced by the NUM as crimes against nature and humanity that kill Indigenous women and girls. Both crimes must be understood as the survival of the colonial social system in our country. [I1]

Today we are not only victims of femicides, but they are also killing our Indigenous sisters in a constant genocide, with the lack of water or health care in the communities. Or the lack of food and having to eat agro-toxic food, all signs that show that the violence is broader in the communities, tremendously intensified by the endorsement of the national society that until today is silent or justifies these injustices. [I2]

The respondents’ accounts emphasize the resistance movement known as NUM as being directed against the systemic and institutionalized oppression and violence perpetuated against indigenous women, black afro-descendants, and afro-indigenous women. These accounts align with the concept of femi-genocide proposed by Segato and McGlazer (2022, p. 72), which highlights the systematic and impersonal nature of crimes committed against women and feminized individuals for the sole reason of their gender. The respondents reflect on the interlocking systems of power, including patriarchal, racial, economic, and colonial power structures, that sustain these oppressive systems. Through referencing the works of Segato and other regional femicide scholars, the respondents contend that resistance to acknowledging the gravity of femicide is a means of perpetuating societal power imbalances, a perspective also put forth by activist scholars such as Silvia Federici and Marta Dillon.⁷

I had already seen that women didn’t become directors or heads of service anywhere. But I came face-to-face with inequality when I realized that social inequality was not only between men and women but also between women with and without resources and between ‘white’ and ‘brown’ women. As a middle-class-born-and-raised woman, I never thought of that before! I then began studying maternal mortality and the impact of abortion as a cause of death and concluded that the poor ‘brown’ [women] were the ones who died; those who had money or social resources were treated in secrecy in private places and we didn’t find out because they say they’re getting their appendix removed or something similar. After reading Rita Segato’s book some years later, I could put a name to it: I was in presence of colonial power relationships. And I was part of the colonizers and the colonized at the same time. [I3]

The respondents note that despite their rejection of using class as a distinguishing category, the #NiUnaMenos movement has effectively acknowledged the social inequalities that exist among women, particularly regarding the division of domestic labor by social class, because ‘(…) as long as care work is not a responsibility shared by society as a whole, we are forced to reproduce classist and colonial forms of exploitation amongst women. Nobody teaches us about how to not do so’ [I1].

The links between right to safe and legal abortion, anti-racism and anti-colonialism are evident in NUM as a collectively constructed equivalence. The respondents argue that the class division perpetuates classist and colonial forms of exploitation among women, as care work is not considered a responsibility of the national society. The #NiUnaMenos, therefore, recognizes the diverse experiences of women across racial and class lines and holds a comprehensive view of justice that integrates multiple experiences in a ‘constellation of struggles’ (Langlois 2020). This encompasses a range of issues, such as racist migration laws and the criminalization of Indigenous peoples’ activism. By doing so, the NUM seeks to create coalitions across ‘us vs. them’ differences and challenges colonial dichotomies that separate individuals by embracing perspectives from postcolonial feminisms, recognizing the interconnections in the logic of oppression and the need to resist these logics.

‘The stands of NUM are at least 3 concepts: Femicide, Judicialization and Plurinational. Femicide because it is the State that kills us, oppresses us, the one that abandons the territories together with the women and children, handing them over to big business for mega-extractivism, for deforestation, apart from femicide we also suffer femicide. Judicialization for all the causes that are brought against the indigenous sisters defending their land, the lakes, the mountains, their lives – these sisters end up often being prosecuted. Plurinational because in this State we are completely invisible, we propose the self-determination of the peoples, we want the NUM to be plurinational, that we be respected from our language, our worldview – and that the NUM gains cross-border impact’. [I3]

As a seminal testing ground for the latest iterations of high-impact neoliberalism, Latin America can also be considered a forerunner in the creative imagination of new utopias and forms of resistance and public protest. The #NiUnaMenos movement constitutes a transformative resistance against the resurgence of right-wing governments across the region, challenging established power relations and the notion that societies should revert to traditional hierarchies. Transregionalism is viewed by members of NUM not only as resilience but as a consciously strategic narrative and a performative transnational community that transcends geographical or national boundaries. This transnational feminist articulation of resistance, as documented by Félix de Souza & Martim Rodrigues Selis (de Souza and Rodrigues Selis 2022, p. 5), is replicated throughout the region and serves as an imagined community sharing an alternate world utopia.

The respondents recognize the significance of NUM as a resistance movement but also raise concerns regarding its potential limitations within the context of neoliberalism, despite their acknowledgment to the fact that “(…) being able to sustain our ‘no more gender violence’ as the #NiUnaMenos’ overall goal, is still an enormous challenge towards the achievement of economic autonomy for women in a context of austerity, a neoliberal government, and a huge external debt, where everything is conditioned”. [I2]

In that sense, neoliberalism can be understood as a governmental rationality that frames all aspects of existence in economic terms. In their national context, the NUM as a relatively new social movement faces the risk of aligning with precarization and austerity policies under the guise of a new ‘progressive’ ethos. The NUM is aware of the risk of the liberal co-opting of their initiatives and the insufficiency of some surface-level actions by the State. As two of the respondents observed,

(…) envisioning our alternative modes of thought and understanding beyond the dominant cultural and ideological paradigms, presents a significant challenge in the context of the Argentinian society, which, as we well know, has not been immune at all to the terrible impacts of neoliberalism. [I2]

We are trying to bring to light this constant lack of State’s commitment and the insufficiency of the last years’ cosmetic measures regarding gender-based violence. We need to re-articulate our strategies, not only as resistance to but as means to dismantle this new State and liberal appropriation of our agenda. [I3]

Lastly, the ultimate paradox arising from this counter-hegemonic struggle for autonomy, economic stability, and State protection against gender-based violence could be the potential emergence of a new, albeit contentious, hegemonic form of urban and exclusionary middle- and upper-class feminisms. According to the respondents, this may result in the marginalization of various non-hegemonic feminisms that actively resist the continuation of oppression and strive towards creating a more equitable world and perhaps, even generating new forms of feminized resistance. ‘We must never stop listening to the voices of the most precarious sisters, those of the oppressed classes, those of non-hegemonic ethnicities. Properly understood sorority includes everyone and not just urban or middle-class activists. The rights for which we fight will belong to all, or they will not belong to any!’ [I2]

4. Final remarks

On the street, we became stronger, without losing our vulnerability.

We learned to speak from fragility, without positioning ourselves as victims.

We demand the full recognition of our dignity and our quality as human beings.

We ask for the rational language of rights to be infused with our experiences and our ways of feeling.(MP Nayla Vaccarezza, Statement in the Chaamber of Deputies, Buenos Aires May 8, 2018)

The #NiUnaMenos movement seeks to address and challenge inequality through the mobilization and dissemination of specific gender discourses. This approach constitutes a form of transversal activism that recognizes and addresses the complex and intersecting forms of oppression and inequality that exist. By utilizing these perspectives and discourses, the collective can disrupt the normalization of unequal power relations in a range of social contexts and practices.

Under the umbrella of feminism, the #NiUnaMenos brings together a range of social, cultural, political, and economic issues in Argentina, and critically examines multiple forms of oppression. The movement faces challenges and societal assumptions about gender-based violence by making it a public issue and connecting it to the country’s historical human rights struggles. The NUM sheds light on the tolerance and normalization of everyday violence, which allows that, in Segatos words (Segato and McGlazer 2022), the war against women persists while the NUM collective stills holds both national society and the State accountable for perpetuating such violence.

The testimonies of feminist activists participating in the ‘#NiUnaMenos’ movement offer a glimpse into their motivations and experiences advocating for women’s rights and the eradication of gender-based violence in Argentina. These personal accounts, primarily from an urban and middle-class perspective, underline the faced obstacles, the triumphs and failures, and the future aspirations of the movement. Furthermore, they shed light on the experiences of incorporating marginalized groups, including women of color, trans women, indigenous women, and rural women, into the broader feminist agenda against gender-based violence and the consequently increasing precarization of everyday life.

Thus, what can be inferred from the narratives of the #NiUNaMenos founders? By rejecting the patriarchal and neoliberal organization of society, the NUM reappropriates and creatively redefines the concepts and logic of feminized resistance by holding the Argentinean State accountable for gender-based violence, specifically for the high rate of femicide and the impunity for crimes against women’s human rights. The #NiUNaMenos movement’s reinterpretation of feminist resistance as a transregional effort both aims for and contributes to the creation of transnational, national, and local solidarities that drive social change through its redefinition of the struggle as an act of visibility and redistribution of gender rights within a context of neoliberal policies.

Finally, the #NiUnaMenos serves as a noteworthy example of feminized resistance for structural social change, as it has been successful in expanding the scope of social mobilization through various forms of activism that exist beyond the confines of the mainstream political arena. This is particularly evident in the diverse discursive practices utilized by the NUM collective, which play a crucial role in its efforts to resist dominant power structures in Argentina.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Clara Medina

María Clara Medina is since 2007 Assistant Professor at the School of Global Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gothenburg. Her current area of research and recent publications focus on sexual and reproductive rights as human rights, contemporary feminist movements and gender-based violence in a context of precariousness and master suppression techniques. Originally from Argentina, and as founder of international networks and member of the Editorial Board of international journals, Medina is widely travelled and have lived in multicultural contexts in Latin America, Asia and Europe. Her previous academic appointments have been at the University of Tucuman (Argentina), the University of Delhi (India) and Linnaeus University (Sweden).

Notes

1. See UNDP & UN Women, 2017, Report: From Commitment to Action. Policies to eradicate violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean (https://lac.unwomen.org/en/digiteca/publicaciones/2017/11/politicas-para-erradicar-la-violencia-contra-las-mujeres-america-latina-y-el-caribe). More recently, in November 2022, ECLAC (UN) claimed for the urgent implementation of strategies in Latin America that address gender-based violence as a ‘shadow pandemic’, based on four pillars: financing, prevention, public response and information systems (https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/eclac-least-4473-women-were-victims-femicide-latin-america-and-caribbean-2021).

2. The fundamental differentiations between conventional murder legislation and the legal framework addressing femicide predominantly pivot upon the discernment of motivations underpinned by gender, the acknowledgment of deeply ingrained systemic gender-based violence, and the amplification of protective measures and resource allocation directed towards victims of gender-related lethal occurrences. Femicide, specifically, denotes the deliberate act of terminating the lives of women or girls predicated upon their gender identity, frequently encompassing motives imbued with misogyny, discriminatory inclinations, or violence that emanates from entrenched gender disparities. Femicide legislation, in its essence, seeks to cater to the distinctive nuances inherent in gender-based killings and aspires to engender a heightened level of consciousness regarding the precise nature of targeted violence that women and girls may confront. These legislative provisions potentially entail escalated punitive sanctions for homicides rooted in gender bias, an encompassing engagement with issues linked to domestic violence, the active advocacy for preventive initiatives and victim support mechanisms, and an overarching endeavour to challenge societal norms that perpetuate and sustain such egregious forms of violence.

3. The concepts of rights-holder and rights-bearer are a prevalent topic in the field of Human Rights. Rights-holders are defined as entities, whether individual or collective, that possess legally recognized rights or claims and expect the State to uphold and protect such rights, including but not limited to, equal basic liberties. Conversely, rights-bearers refer to entities, individual or collective, that are entitled to the enjoyment and exercise of these rights and anticipate the State to acknowledge the importance and sanctity of such rights in accordance with their human dignity. Both concepts are integral to the discourse on human rights and underscores the obligation of the State to respect and uphold the rights of its citizens. See e.g. Samantha Benson’s “The bearers of human rights’ duties and responsibilities for human rights: a quiet (r)evolution?”, Social Philosophy and Policy, 32:1, Fall 2015, pp. 244–268

4. ‘Judith Butler: las violencias machistas y las migraciones forzadas exigen una movilización transnacional’, in https://latinta.com.ar/2019/05/judith-butler-violencias-machistas-migraciones-forzadas-exigen-movilizacion-transnacional/ (Accessed February 3, 2023).

5. One feature that NUM and previous resistance movements in the region would have in common is ‘(…) that the resistance has not taken the form of a class struggle for state power’ in any case (Veltmeyer 2019, p. 1266). A remarkable similarity to other very effective but non-class based nationalist, ethno-centered or anti-colonial resistance movements, such as the EZLN or Black Lives Matter.

6. See e.g. the documents Mujeres Indígenas por El Buen Vivir, Columna Negras Indígenas Racializadas y Disidencias, and Coalición de Mujeres Negras (Una Menos 2018).

7. This observation is also consistent with Langlois (2020).