“Until living becomes worth it”: violence and social reproduction as keys to Latin American contemporary feminist rise

Abstract

The article offers a reading on the contemporary feminist rise in Latin America. The hypothesis is that current feminisms in the continent are gathered around the issue of violence against women and feminized bodies. This centrality of violence is due, on the one hand, to the importance of the historical trajectory that this theme has had in recent history, linked to dictatorships and authoritarian processes, and, on the other hand, to the conditions of intensification of violence against women and feminized bodies in a scenario of advanced neoliberalism and crisis of social reproduction. It reviews the treatment that the feminist movement has given to the problem of violence against women and feminized bodies both in its specific sense and in its structural dimensions, highlighting the articulating role at the historical and contemporary level. It also addresses the reflection on violence in a structural key and the problem of social reproduction in a context of crisis of care and struggles and conflicts associated with these dimensions of social life. In the conclusion, critical perspectives and openings presented by the movement today are raised.