Globalizing the Feminist Agenda

October 20, 2016

Que hermosas que son, chicas.” The voice came seemingly out of nowhere, as did its owner, appearing from behind a wall around the street corner. My friend and I recoiled in surprise from hearing the jeers and subsequent slimy smirk from this stranger as we walked by. The incessant catcalls, or piropos, that overpower the streets of Buenos Aires cause me to outwardly cringe, and physically try to shake off the gross objectification. The not-so-dormant feminist in me wants to fire back expletives, but instead I walk by silently and avoid eye contact, not acknowledging the perpetrators.


Our program coordinators warned us about the catcalls we might hear as we roamed our new city, but I took that as an indication that I should be careful at night and keep my purse zipped, oblivious to the underlying phenomenon that has pervaded this culture. They told us to ignore them and keep moving. Acknowledging the comments or responding to them would only encourage the catcallers, or instigate a potentially dangerous situation.

Since my arrival, Argentine machismo has become glaringly obvious. The inequality between genders is a gap that originated with the male expectation to be proudly masculine and provide for his family, but has been held open wide by its transformation into the swaggering entitlement to dominate women. As a result, piropos are only the barest displays of machismo that pervades Argentina. 

Just last week, I walked by a protest near Congress in downtown Buenos Aires. Though protests and demonstrations are not uncommon occurrences in this city, this particular one was remarkable. Crowds of women, old and young, stormed the streets in the pouring rain, banging drums and shouting “Ni una menos” (not one less). They were marching to mourn the death of Lucía Pérez, a 16-year-old girl who was abducted outside her school in Mar de Plata, Argentina. She was drugged, repeatedly raped, and left outside a clinic by her male kidnappers; she died the next day from the injuries.

This is only one example of the domestic violence and murder of women that has rampaged Argentina, known to many as femicidios. Simply because they are women, they are killed by husbands, boyfriends, and exes. And because the government lacks resources to combat this sort of epidemic, the women go back to where it all started—the streets. The #NiunaMenos movement has gained support across Latin America to create awareness and begin working on solutions.

Ultimately, this is a social issue with roots in a cultural mindset that has only just begun to shift. Women are gaining the courage to speak up for rights that can only be considered as human. We should not need security briefings that instruct us that sexual harassment in the streets is something that might happen, and that we should react as if it doesn’t. We should be fighting back and changing the conversation. “¡Salí de acá, no me molestas!” we should be saying. “Get out of here. Stop bothering me." Not one woman less.
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