A 15 años de La Morada...

Olea, Raquel (ed.) “Capítulo II: Vicisitudes del feminismo en la transición chilena”. Escrituras de la Diferencia Sexual. Pp. 43-64. Santiago: Colección Contraseña, LOM Ediciones/La Morada, 2000.

En este capítulo las presentaciones de Norbert Lechner, Tomás Moulian, Raquel Olea y María Antonieta Saa en el seminario "Políticas e imaginarios de la diferencia sexual. Feminismo a fin de siglo" (organizado por la Morada al cumplir 15 años).

Lechner le reconoce como aporte a las feministas chilenas incorporar más el mundo de los afectos al análisis de la política (!), pero les pide profundizarlo. Argumenta que la ciudadanía ha transitado desde un concepto universal y abstracto hacia una ciudadanía basada en las identidades particulares, por lo que un desafío para las feministas sería compatibilizar las diferencias que constituyen a las mujeres con un concepto más universal e inclusivo. (Pft!)

Moulian reconoce que no ha pensado mucho el tema de las mujeres. Pero hace notar que la transición como tránsito hacia una democracia —como un orden abierto al debate y a la participación— no ha comenzado en Chile. La mal llamada "transición" es un orden todavía autoritario y conservador, lo que tampoco es nuevo sino una constante en la historia del Estado en Chile, que desde su origen se constituyó en forma violenta como un orden racista y clasista. En este contexto y en el marco de la falsa reconciliación y consenso, no se han generado espacios donde exista un verdadero debate sobre sexualidad y derechos de las mujeres.

Olea plantea que la transición está marcada todavía por un imaginario autoritario que busca uniformar y homogeneizar el cuerpo social. Y la transición se ve en el impasse de conjugar la ideología de género de la dictadura con las demandas de un movimiento de mujeres, donde el debate sobre "el signo mujer" es un punto de quiebre de los consensos al interior de la misma Concertación. El impasse se resuelve en parte apelando a un discurso de la "igualdad" basado en la identidad femenina como madre, esposa y trabajadora. Las políticas de género quedan enmarcadas como políticas de la familia y el feminismo subversivo de la dictadura queda subyugado ante el feminismo institucional complaciente con el autoritarismo y las necesidades del modelo neoliberal.

Lo de Saa es una apología un poco penosa sobre las "señales" que se han dado para avanzar en temas de género desde el estado.

Comments

  1. JonJuly 19, 2009 at 2:55 AM

    I'm not sure I quite get your parenthetical comments--"!" and "Pft!"

    Meanwhile, perhaps especially with Bachelet's election, do you think that the "sign of woman" is still a breaking point within the Concertación?

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  2. Manuela Valle-CastroJuly 23, 2009 at 10:34 PM

    The parenthetical comments are non-academic interjections to express my impatience with Lechner and the wishy-washy tone of his lecture, thanking women for bringing the "affective" into political practice?? Also his reference to citizenship is typical of a sociological discourse in Chile that in my opinion, talks a lot but says nothing. That's why I Pft!-ed at him.

    I absolutely think that the 'woman' issue is still a breaking point within the Concertación, especially between conservative Christian Democrats (DC) and some of the youngest Socialists. It is enough to see how the law that Bachelet tried to pass for the distribution of emergency contraception to teenagers in public hospitals on demand was finally turned down by the Tribunal Constitucional, a legal body created under dictatorship. The boycotters of this law were conservatives from both the DC and the right-wing. In fact, any time an issue linked to the 'sign of woman' comes up, weird alliances occur: the conservative side of the Concertación aligns closer to the Opus-Dei driven UDI; or liberal right-wing politicians make alliances with feminist socialists.

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