Milei’s War Against Women
HAVANA TIMES – Argentina’s recent vote against a UN resolution aimed at preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls (1) marks yet another chapter in the delusional denialism of a leader like Javier Milei.
I mention this because Argentina was the only country in the world to vote against such a basic and important resolution, one that even authoritarian governments notorious for violating women’s rights daily, such as Iran and Russia, did not oppose.
Argentina’s rationale for voting against this resolution is rooted in Javier Milei’s so-called cultural battle against “wokeness,” joined by figures like Agustín Laje and Emmanuel Dannan, who aim to position themselves as the vanguard of the current far-right.
This ideological dogma takes to the extreme the notion of a sinister global UN agenda—referred to as globalism —designed to destroy nations, with gender policies serving as its primary tool.
It might seem like a bad joke, but it isn’t. Javier Milei genuinely believes that patriarchy and women’s struggles for a less violent and more equal world are part of a global leftist conspiracy to destroy men and impose a totalitarian regime against them.
Consequently, Milei denies the existence of gender inequality, framing it instead as a war between sexes instigated by the global left. He claims that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, the left invented a new opposition to continue generating conflict.
This is the misnamed cultural Marxism, endlessly invoked by today’s far-right, which casts any collective demand or recognition of a particular group as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by a mishmash of actors ranging from the UN’s Agenda 2030 to the Puebla Group, Disney, China, and George Soros.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that Argentina also voted against a UN resolution on the rights of Indigenous peoples (2), employing the same rhetoric about globalism and a nefarious plan to destroy nations.
While this may all seem ridiculous, such narratives continue to go viral and attract many followers —especially men —who support figures like Milei or Trump in an increasingly dystopian and surreal world desperately clinging to certainties at any cost.
In this context, these kinds of votes against women undeniably pose a threat to their physical and overall well-being. However, this is precisely why we must not give up. Milei’s attempts to deny gender inequality and other disparities are nothing more than the desperate defense of an angry, traditional masculinity fiercely resisting the loss of its privileges.
In other words, Milei’s so-called cultural battle is ultimately a war to uphold racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, environmental destruction, and every form of discrimination and rejection of diversity. It mirrors what happened a century ago with fascism and National Socialism, only now the market, rather than the state, is worshipped.
With that said, let this November 25th —International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women —serve as a special moment of commemoration. Let us stand alongside the historic struggle of women in Argentina, who today more than ever need our support and solidarity.