Discourses, Emotions, and Right-Wing Backlash in Contemporary Argentina

Abstract

This article analyzes a series of antifeminist public statements made by political figures in Argentina between 2023 and 2025. From a critical perspective, it identifies the main themes and rhetorical strategies that depict feminism as a threat to social order. The paper explores how gender policies are framed as ideological impositions, moral dangers, or unjust privileges, and examines their connection with global narratives that promote family values, individual merit, and free-market ideologies. The article argues that antifeminism is not an isolated discourse, but a political strategy that shapes common sense, mobilizes emotions such as fear, guilt, and resentment, and legitimizes regressive reforms under the banner of freedom. The convergence of radical neoliberalism and moral conservatism creates an affective landscape in which certain bodies are dehumanized while others are exalted as guardians of moral order. Feminism is portrayed as excessive and dangerous. The article reads these expressions as part of a transnational countermovement aimed at restoring gender hierarchies and neutralizing the transformative power of feminist struggles.