The feminist worldview as an antidote against the State’s punitive and repressive activity

Abstract

The economic and social crisis that took place in 2009 in the Spanish State and Southern Europe would end up becoming a very deep political and territorial crisis that has led to a cycle of social conflict, as the one that has recently been happening in Catalonia. During these last years, the feminist movement has also strongly emerged, spreading a new worldview. The State has continuously used its repressive machinery against the emancipatory and democratizing aspirations of various social movements (15M, social movements against austerity, movements in favor of decent housing, feminism, the movement for self-determination, and so on). Several struggles and anti-repressive strategies reflecting ideas and practices of the feminist movement have functioned as a response to the punitive activity of the State. However, this same feminist worldview leaves open the possibility of rethinking the repressive activity of the State from a feminist point of view and proposing a new anti-repressive culture.