“Degradation and immorality.” With these terms he publicly condemned the Argentine vice president, Victoria Villarruelthe novel Earth Eatera narrative by the renowned contemporary writer Dolores Reyes on gender violence and motherhood in Latin America. This debut feature by the Argentine storyteller has aroused the suspicion of the far-right government headed by Javier Mileiwho has harshly attacked her for, according to him, perverting childhoods by depicting scenes of sexual encounters.
Outraged and scandalized by the “pornographic” content of this work, Villarruel recently expressed through her count of (formerly Twitter) his desire to put an end to the dissemination of the book in educational spaces: “There are limits that should never be crossed. Stop sexualizing our children, remove those who promote these nefarious agendas from the classrooms and respect the innocence of the children! “NOT with the boys!!”
Far from being a kind of feminist version of One Hundred Shades of Grayas they tried to draw from the most conservative sectors of the Pink Housewhat the novel entails is a deep reflection in a semi-realistic key on topics such as care, the violence that women go through or poverty.
In recent weeks, Reyes has not been the first nor the last writer to suffer direct attacks on her work: as the Argentine newspaper recently reported Bores Codealso Sol Fantinthe late translator Aurora Venturi and the cultural journalist and socio-environmental activist Gabriela Cabezón have been affected by the cultural hunt that the hosts of Freedom Advances They have been orchestrating for weeks.
Now, institutional disapproval has not been limited to words of rejection on networks. The Argentine Government has already put into operation the machinery of a censorship campaign aimed at these and other authors with publications considered transgressive.
Such has been the State’s war against them that, after a complaint filed against the Buenos Aires Minister of Education for alleged crimes of corruption of minors, dissemination of pornographic material to minors and abuse of authority, Milei now intends to remove them from Argentine school libraries.
Many of these works, written from a intersectional perspective and active fight against the traditional value system openly display issues tabooed within a largely conservative society like Argentina: from the exercise of prostitution until the sexual-affective diversity in families queerpassing through dissident minds or sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence.
It is perhaps for this reason, the authors say, that they are uncomfortable for some reactionary sectors and have inflamed their anger since they began to be spread successfully.
A feminist author: “If all literature were read from that perspective that ultra-conservatives have (…), not even ‘Don Quixote’ would be in the libraries”
“This is the most brutal case of censorship towards female writers that we have noticed since Milei’s entry into the Government of Argentina. If all literature were read from that perspective that ultraconservatives have, there would be very little literature left. Neither the Quixote would be in the libraries, not to mention the Biblewhere things happen like two daughters raping their father or even a man having another man killed to keep the first man’s wife,” highlights Public with indignation one of the affected authors, whose identity prefers to remain anonymous to avoid death threats “as has happened with several colleagues.”
One more step in the setback in feminist rights
The organized and well-structured silencing from the spheres of power is due, as they allege, to a explicit strategy to bury all advances of feminism in the countrybut it also reveals the fear of many of the driving force of this movement. Also to the discursive power of those who have currently emerged as great references of contemporary Argentine literature and enjoy extensive international projection.
It is no coincidence, then, that the alarms of those who today direct the censorship campaign went off at the moment when its distribution in school libraries was revealed. Massively discipline the dissident voices of all those women who deny their wife-mother role and offer radical alternatives to inhabiting the femininity It is, in the eyes of these authors, the ultimate goal of national executive.
This latest moralistic movement by the far-right adds another step to the already extensive range of repressive measures against women’s rights that have been implemented since Milei seized presidential power in November of last year.
The elimination of the Ministry of Women was followed by that of the area dedicated to women victims of gender violence, with an 80% cut in the Acompañar program
After removing the Ministry of Women Gender and Diversityas he had promised during his electoral campaign, the area dedicated to the protection of women victims of gender violence and it cut by 80% the budget allocated to Accompany programwhich provides protection to these survivors.
The retreat in feminist rights It has also become palpable through the efforts of the Executive to prevent access to abortion, especially since last February a project aimed at repealing the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Lawapproved three years ago in the Congress. Argentina had managed to place itself at the forefront of Latin America By finally conquering this right in February 2020 after the famous marches of green scarves who toured the streets of Buenos Aires in droves.
Now, in addition to the arrest of numerous feminist activists in favor of women’s sexual rights in the country through provisions such as the law of bases to increase control over citizen protests, the State seriously intends to bury the activity of the writers who make specifically feminine realities visible and do so from a stark language.
The Adventures of China Iron (work of Gabriela Cabezón that The Country designated as one of the 20 best Latin American books published in 2017 in Mexico), for example, brings to the table the issue of female empowerment and sisterhood by telling the story of a woman who begins a journey of personal exploration after escaping her marriage. .
Other works by this author, such as The virgin head, You saw the face of God and Black Blonde Romancehave also had an unfavorable reaction from the most conservative sectors in Argentina. For its part, Venturini’s cousins offers the story of a destructured and dysfunctional family composed entirely of women, tracing in it a complex mosaic of female profiles who live together in the society of their adolescence.
Mariela Belski, executive director in Argentina of Amnesty Internationalrecently referred to the danger posed by the Government’s repressive reaction and warned of its “silencing and intimidating effects that undermine freedom of expression.” In fact, weeks ago this organization publicly expressed its fear of the dismemberment of diversity policies in the country by La Libertad Avanza, something that has already translated into an increase in hate crimes of all kinds in Argentina.
A feminist author: “They are lying when they say that teachers force children to read scenes of sexual content aloud”
The immediate effects of the attacks against women writers are being felt in the misinformation about the age of the target audience of the criticized works. As one of the authors points out, “they are lying when they say that teachers force children to read scenes of sexual content aloud in the classroom and that they force 12-year-old children to read them, but none of this is true. They are optional reading books for teenagers from 16”.
Furthermore, he adds, “this terribly affects our freedom of expression, because these are coordinated attacks that treat us as corrupters of minors and even go as far as threats.”
The Argentine cultural sector rises up against Milei’s discredit
On a broader level, coercive measures such as those being studied by the Government threaten to undermine women’s own freedom within and outside the cultural ecosystem. Exposed to intimidation, surveillance and verbal violence, women writers fear that their intellectual activity could pose a risk to their own integrity in a country where the so-called “gender ideology” is increasingly punished with greater ferocity. Since the intentions of those close to Milei became known, the popular response against the censorship attacks has spread like wildfire throughout the country.
“Fortunately, the entire group of writers is uniting to defend the freedom of literature,” says one of the affected writers with joy. Proof of this was the collective reading of several of the censored works, including Earth Eater and The Adventures of China Ironwhich took place weeks ago in the Picadero Theater of Buenos Aires. 120 Argentine authors thus showed their unanimous support for those censored but also their rejection of the state government.
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