“Do(n’t) Cry for Me Argentina”

In her seminal work on abusive feminism, Rosalind Dixon warns of a troubling phenomenon: the strategic deployment of feminist language or female representation by illiberal or authoritarian actors to erode democracy and equality from within. These actors, she argues, invoke the language of feminism and women’s rights but in an abusive way – undermining substantive commitments to democracy and gender equality.

Through abusive feminism, political leaders can pursue a strategy of maintaining pro-democracy voters while simultaneously sending subtle messages to those citizens who hold illiberal positions. In doing so, they end up using elements of feminism as a shell devoid of content (Dixon, 2025).

Two central elements are needed: (a) “a pool of suitably qualified women who oppose feminist goals or substantive commitments to gender equality,” and (b) “a public that assumes that in general ‘women help women’” (Dixon, 2022). Argentina offers a timely example of this trend: its current vice-president, Victoria Villarruel, has shown a political position that reveals the legitimization of an illiberal project committed to dismantling gender equality protections and attacking human rights commitments.

What is new with Villarruel in Argentinian politics?

Villarruel’s role contrasts with previous representation of women in the political sphere. Indeed, Argentina has a long and complex history of women in politics. Figures such as Evita Duarte de Perón (the same Eva who, even in the terminal phase of the metastasis that invaded her body, wrote letters to the Argentine Pueblo that would later inspire the song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice), Alicia Moreau de Justo, Julieta Lanteri, Cecilia Grierson (only to mention some examples), and the world-known Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have strengthened the participation of women in the political life within the last century. Argentina enacted its women’s suffrage law in 1947 (granting women the right to be elected to all political positions), but it was not until 1990 – through the introduction of quota laws, the first of their kind globally – and later, the parity law of 2018, that the principle of equitable political participation for women was firmly established.

In this context, the representation of women in the highest-ranking political positions was significantly marked by the appointment of the country’s first elected female president, Cristina Fernández (CFK).¹⁾ Her two terms, from 2007²⁾ to 2011 and from 2011 to 2015 – the latter being the most positively voted presidential election in the country’s history – constituted a breaking point in the symbolic barriers surrounding women’s political participation. CFK, who emphasized her role as presidenta (instead of the gender-neutral term presidente) and used expressions like “gender comrades” and “gender sisters” (Vitale & Maizels, 2011, p. 353), embodied an influential symbolic figure inspired by Evita Perón (Maffía, 2009 in Siegler & Gerber, 2009: 36).

Her feminist positioning was ambiguous: on multiple occasions, she asserted that she was not a feminist but rather feminine, and her political agenda was not characterized by a gender perspective during her first term, reinforcing a traditionally feminine role (Maffía, 2009 in Stiegler & Gerber, 2009). However, despite her reservations about the term feminism and her anti-abortion stance throughout much of her career, her presidency did produce progressive results in terms of gender, such as the Equal Marriage Law (2010), the Gender Identity Law (2012), and the Domestic Workers’ Labor Regime Law (2013), in addition to the Law on Violence against Women (2009).

Contrary to CFK, whose ambiguous feminism did not impede legislative advances on gender issues, Villarruel embodies precisely what Rosalind Dixon defines as abusive feminism. While CFK, even with her reservations, contributed to the visibility and, in many cases, the improvement of women’s and minorities rights, Villarruel’s strategy, although also from a position of women’s empowerment and descriptive representation, actively seeks to undermine gender equality and dismantle existing protections. As will be shown, her case reflects broader patterns of authoritarian purplewashing and illiberal appropriation of feminist language.

Abusive feminism unmasked?

Villarruel is a lawyer and founder of the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism and its Victims (CELTYV). Her rise within the Argentine political scene has been dizzying in just two years; she went from holding a seat as a national deputy for the City of Buenos Aires in 2021 to becoming the country’s vice president. Unlike those who typically achieve this position, Villarruel did not have a traditional political background (Sánchez-Ceci, 2025). However, before her alliance with Milei, she was already active in the public sphere as a figurehead of a narrative centered on “complete memory,” promoting the recognition of the so-called “victims of terrorism,” in contrast to the memory policies predominant in democracy after the last coup d’état (Sánchez-Ceci, 2025; Berdondini and Vinuesa, 2024).

Villarruel deploys a particular discursive repertoire (Bedin, 2024), where she articulates right-wing values with references to figures of historical Argentine feminism. This combination gives rise to a narrative that reaffirms traditional gender roles while simultaneously questioning contemporary equality policies and presenting herself as a competent woman (Bedin, 2024). Consequently, she presents an innovative character within the Argentine right-wing, distancing it from traditional, openly anti-gender approaches (Bedin, 2024; Sánchez-Ceci, 2025) – which aligns with the “superficial invocation of gender equality language without substantive engagement” (Dixon, 2025, p. 489) that characterizes abusive feminism.

Villarruel’s selection for vice presidency is strategic. For a segment of anti-feminist society, she represents this competent/proper woman – embodying traits expected from a conservative perspective, with a classic feminine aesthetic, through consistently styled clothing and her signature long, unbound hair. Through attributes like restraint and neatness – central to the traditional image of the honest woman – Villarruel conceals an anti-feminist and anti-rights message that worryingly penetrates households (Bedin, 2024, p. 232).

What is “allowed” of Javier Milei is not expected of her: Milei can have outbursts on camera and engage in direct aggression without being judged by his supporters, who instead find an outlet for their frustrations in his rhetoric. In contrast, while using a serene and measured tone of voice, Villarruel cloaks her dangerously anti-rights discourse in a language that may even seem empathetic to an inattentive listener. In Paula Bedin’s words (2024), she presents herself as an iron lady: “Villarruel evokes a symbolic representation of the ‘capable,’ pioneering, and strong woman, in contrast to a conception of women as victims and ‘diminished’” while vindicating the “first feminists” Argentine women (Bedin, 2024).

“Of course, I thank, acknowledge, and remember all the women who fought many decades ago to guarantee us the right to vote, the right to education, and economic autonomy. I cannot help but remember Cecilia Grierson, Ada Elflein, Lola Mora, the Patricias Argentinas, and Juana Azurduy. Thanks to them, there has genuinely been concrete progress for women, and they are models not only of ability but of determination and talent.” (Villarruel, 2019 at Bedin, 2024: 245-246).

She represents a clear case of authoritarian leadership, positioning herself as a token of female empowerment within a male-centered, anti-democratic, and anti-rights administration. Villarruel articulates “a complex web of issues related to the merit and role of women in contemporary society, interweaving these discussions with a critique of ‘feminism,’ collective identity, and gender equality” (País Andrade et al., 2024). She privileges individualism, calling into question many of the policies designed to address gender equality (such as quota laws), legitimizing such policies as unnecessary or even counterproductive. Indeed, from her perspective, this set of policies promotes dependence on the State instead of fostering individual autonomy (País Andrade et al., 2024: 6).

A case of purplewashing and anti-feminism

Victoria Villarruel’s standpoint is strictly linked to her role as a woman in power who leads initiatives that contradict the feminist minimum core (Dixon, 2025). The vice president explicitly denies the concept of gender-based violence and the existence of patriarchy, reaffirming that “women are not victims.” When asked about the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity (MMGyD), she stated that it was a black hole of public resources that the State needed to use in other areas – even though the MMGyD, eliminated by the current government at the beginning of its term, was one of the lowest-budget ministries in the State and accounted for only 0.53% of all public administration personnel.

Moreover, her speech against abortion is based on this misleading idea of women as non-victims. During a Senate-sponsored seminar held under the new administration on the “Day of the Unborn Child”, she declared:

“Respect for life and human dignity should not be subject to majority decisions. They are basic preconditions of society, and no legitimate authority has power over them. Therefore, when fundamental rights are denied to a certain group of people – because they are unborn, weak, sick, or elderly – it undermines the legitimacy of the State itself, and it also undermines human life.”

Besides, she has strengthened the strategic importance of population growth. Villarruel’s framing bears a striking resemblance to the logic presented in The Handmaid’s Tale (series based on the homonymous novel by Margaret Atwood, portraying an authoritarian regime in which women’s rights are completely eradicated, reducing them to reproductive functions under an extreme system of patriarchal control), demonstrating that dystopian fiction is never too far from reality:

“With the lowest birth rate in our history, a deep problem becomes evident – one that threatens national development. The population is the most valuable resource of a nation, and increasing the birth rate is a strategic challenge. We can rise to this challenge because Argentina is a land of life, synonymous with family, friendship, and community.”

Villarruel shows a version of abusive feminism in Dixon’s strongest form: the vice president adopts the language of women’s empowerment while systematically dismantling the institutions and norms that have historically protected gender and sexual minorities. In doing so, she becomes a token of female inspiration in a government that is otherwise masculinist, anti-democratic, and anti-rights. Villarruel’s rise also illustrates what Dixon (2025) calls a “bribe dynamic”: a woman in power becomes a symbol used to legitimize broader authoritarian rollback – in other words, a case of purplewashing and anti-feminist authoritarianism (Dixon, 2025).