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La Libertad Avanza (LLA) presidential candidate Javier Milei, who will run for the presidency of Argentina on November 19, says there is no gender gap. The 36th Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Transvestites, Transsexuals, Bisexuals and Intersexes, held in Bariloche last month, accused the feminization of poverty in its opening document. Milei represents a threat to democracy, not only in Argentina, but also in the contagion of Latin America with neo-dictatorships, with TikTok and at the ballot box. The meeting, for its part, is a much more literal expression of democracy, without the representation of a few on behalf of the many, with a horizontality of voices heard equally and a multiplied participation.
Milei calls for deregulation of weapons. The Assembly condemns the attempted femicide against Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Milei votes against the National Comprehensive Response to HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Other Sexually Transmitted Infections and Tuberculosis Act because “it increases the size of the state.” The conference calls for ensuring access to retroviral drugs. Milei claims: “Anyone who wants to bust up on drugs or commit suicide can do so without government help.” The meeting calls for the establishment of community centers to treat addiction and mental health problems.
Image of the 36th Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Transvestites, Transsexuals, Bisexuals, Intersex and Non-Binary People in Bariloche in October 2023.
Milei says he will call a referendum to repeal the voluntary abortion law. The meeting celebrates support for legal, safe and free abortion and calls for training for health workers in humanized childbirth to avoid obstetric violence.
Democracy is not just political, it is also a sample of bodies choosing not to be mothers, choosing how to be mothers, and respecting individual and collective choices. The hatred of women is not based on what they choose, but on why they choose. This is why women – in large numbers – do not vote for those who hate them.
The Plurinational Women’s Meeting was born 36 years ago in the city of Buenos Aires and has grown into a unique event, the largest pogo (the name given to the huge jump that occurs at a rock concert) in the world, an annual event that is achieved as a feminist mecca (with raffles, fundraisers and communal picnic rituals) with a goal that changes and is elected by applause or the democracy based on who claps loudest.
In 2023, the headquarters was Bariloche (Furilofche in the original Mapuzungun language), a ski center chosen by European tourism, where Mapuche women denounce the usurpation of their ancestral lands, pollution, oppression, imprisonment and persecution.
The meeting took place on October 14, 15 and 16, after the open, simultaneous and compulsory primaries (PASO), in which the formula of Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel received the most votes. The results created a heated feeling that Argentina had lost its democratic resources and that feminism was to blame for alienating young men eager to once again challenge and conquer power by a candidate who looks like an angry lion .
The meeting is a democratic milestone that the majority of the press ignores and the men ignore or despise. It is said that no one comes back from an encounter the same way. This is true. But the meeting also allows us, like a kaleidoscope, to take a look at the country to come. There is even something witchy in this collective prediction, that so many forces in the party and the debate, the march and the contrast, have coalesced into a numbed society. This year, seeds were thrown and cell phones were turned off at dawn in front of Lake Nahuel Huapi – a Mapuche ritual. Show less and sow more. Trust and ask. Learn and wake up. Having more signals than one signal.
In 2015, the meeting in Mar del Plata saw an unusual crackdown on the cathedral, where a group of neo-Nazis brutally attacked the demonstrators. This year the elections marked a turn to the right and the return of repression to social protest. By 2023, the meeting seemed to be nothing more than a pocket souvenir or a flash of a fading movement. What could have happened didn’t happen. It took much longer than expected. The nearly 100,000 women and diverse people huddled beneath the mountains, still dressed in snowflakes given by winter and greeted by cherry blossom trees in a spring of wind and sun, became an omen of hope.
Against all odds, far from the capital and far from almost everything, thousands of women from across the country arrived in the South, got off buses, camped out in schools and spent hours discussing sexual education or strategies talk. against fascism. The march went up the stairs, with the effort of improvised climbers unaccustomed to challenging steps, reflecting a voice that was also gaining traction.
The country that seemed on the verge of denying itself and enthroning a denier of state terrorism, a denier of sexist violence, a denier of the gender gap and a denier of femicide continued to scream on TikTok with a toolbox that the Globalization of the right knew how to use, expand and consolidate in Poland, Hungary, Spain or other Latin American countries.
However, in the elections of October 22, this right lost and La Libertad Avanza came second with 29.98% of the vote. It made it to the runoff election, which will take place on November 19th, with an uncertain outcome. The phenomena are extreme, but they never solidify without return, nor do they disappear without ashes.
The disparity in women’s voting was one of the most significant in the country’s history. Milei’s opponent, Sergio Massa, scored 36.7 points, with a clear gender difference: the support of 45% of the women’s register and the consolidation of a global phenomenon in which women in Spain, Poland, Argentina and Brazil represent an obstacle to neo-fascism.
That’s a lot in a world that doesn’t seem to appreciate the risk of hitting the wall of its own destruction. Elections leave no choice but to choose between the possible options. However, the encounter goes beyond the possible and resonates through the earth, the air, the oxygen, the water. Breathe, swim, sow. It’s not just about being saved, but also about healing. Democracy is overcome when it is democracy.
Our recommendations of the week
There are about 50,000 pregnant women living in the Gaza Strip, of whom around 5,500 give birth during the month, equivalent to more than 180 births per day, according to the United Nations. Neither mothers nor newborns receive the support they need.
The men’s triumphs in the regional elections did not lack feminine aesthetics, as is the case with the particular candidacy that won the office of mayor of Cali and which deserves careful analysis.
The activist Aideé Zamorano is a phenomenon in networks and a feminist reference for labor rights. She herself suffered from workplace harassment and her “ranking” of companies with the best parenting policies already covers the US and Europe.
The Brazilian, co-founder of A casa do Porco in São Paulo, offers a menu dedicated to pork that is one of the cheapest on The Word’s 50 Best list.
The Ballon d’Or for the Spanish national team and the FC Barcelona football player crowns an extraordinary season.
In 1973, tennis player Billie Jean King disagreed: Either women and men received the same prize at the US Open, or she, the previous year’s winner, did not play it. Fifty years later, their fight for athletes’ rights is still more alive than ever.
“Squirt” is surrounded by urban legends and half-truths due to the lack of scientific studies on the subject and the fashion created by pornography. When, why and how does it occur?
And one more suggestion at the end:
A short film: Maruja, everyone’s grandmother. By Noor Mahtani
Image from the short film Maruja
Many of us are lucky enough to be or have been in love with our grandmothers. About food, wrinkled hands and the same memories told on a loop. Director Berta García fell in love with her best friend’s grandmother and made a 15-minute short film that is one of the most beautiful things you’ll see this year. Recorded in Cornellà (Barcelona), in the house and market of Maruja and produced by Isabel Coixet, it tells the daily life of a lady who must have been wonderful. Also (spoiler), Silvia Pérez Cruz made the soundtrack that takes you from pure laughter to tears and warmth in your chest. It can be found on Filmin. If you don’t have one yet, subscribe because there is a nice selection of auteur films and documentaries that have been created with great care.
We don’t know if Maruja is in heaven or reincarnated, but I’m sure she would have had a lot of fun watching this short film. What a lovely way to remember her!