Feminist demonstration persistence: pulse, agenda and massiveness in the city of La Plata

Abstract

This paper outlines feminist social conflicts based on an analysis of the demonstrations that took place between on March 8, 2001 and on December 26, 2019 in the city of La Plata. I based my study in these two specific dates because, in both occasions, the city hosted enormous marches within the framework of the Women National Gathering (Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres), in 2001 and The sexual Dissidence March (Encontrolazo) and the Annual Meeting of Women, Lesbianas, Travestis Transgender, Bisexuales and Transgenders, Non-binary and Intersex people (Encuentro Plurinational de Mujeres, Lesbianas, Travestis, Trans, Bisexuales, Transvestites, Transgénero, Bisexuales y personas no binarias), in 2019. The organization of these meetings has presented challenges to the local activism due to the planning they require. In addition, these events have been examples of the increasing visibility of their slogans and demands.  I have chosen these feminist expressions as the focus of this article, since they have meant an increase in the usual anti-patriarchal demonstrations in the city. Considering the above, I analyze the pulse of tension in relation to the amount of gatherings taken place each year so as to show that what is usually characterized as the “fourth wave” of feminism was actually an increase in the number and in the amount of demonstrators of only some protests. I also explain that the intensification between 2015 and 2019 was not the only one in the period, since there were two previous moments: in 2007, 2011 and 2012. So as to understand these moments of upsurge in conflict, I address the local activist agenda to show that these feminist expressions generally took place on local, federal, and international dates and, in some cases, on specific ones that recall cases of gender-based violence and instances of cissexism and heteronormativity in the region. Finally, I refer to myriads of people in some demonstrations in the light of the bibliography on the “fourth wave” in Argentina. I believe that, rather than a series of always massive actions, there were only a few with this scale and others shared the characteristics previously outlined.