Feminism as a civilising-cultural project. An approach to Margarita Pisano's reflections.

Abstract

In the present article we are interested in reviewing some of the conceptual aspects of the lesbian feminist Chilean thinker Margarita Pisano (1932-2015). Considered one of the main representative of the autonomous feminist movement in Latin America, she represented, in the 90s, a series of original categories that allowed her, on the one hand, to articulate some critics to the patriarchy as a system of values, and, on the other hand, to formulate a civilizing proposition of re-symbolize us as humans through the production of another culture. For the analysis, first, we will approach the context surrounding the beginnings of her reflections; and, second, we will review her most important critics to the institutionalization of the patriarchal system, taking her notion of cuts/conflicts and her observations around femininity/masculinity. Lastly, we will critically consider the proposal of “re-symbolize us as humans” in relation to her suggestion of feminism as a cultural-civilizing project.