Affective politics in the digital era: Contrasting emotions as feminist potency two years after the legalization of abortion

Abstract

This article analyses the affective politics that unfolded at the end of 2022 in relation to two political events relevant to the movement for the right to legal and safe abortion in Argentina. One of them is the detention of two activists pertaining to Socorristas en Red in Villa María, Córdoba province. The other is the second anniversary of the approval of the Law on Access to the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (N°27.610). These two events provoked conflicting affective reactions –rage, defense, joy, pride–, which mobilized distinct feminist political strategies. To account for this affective e

ffervescence, we analyze the affective politics deployed by four feminist organizations on social media.
We apply two analytical lenses. First, we develop the notion of a ‘plasticity of affects’ to account for the affective repertoires that were sustained and mobilized by these feminists as an affective-political strength of the movement. Second, the idea of a ‘reciprocity of care’ interrogates the role of affects in the maintenance of feminist networks which accompany abortions. Finally, based on our analysis, we propose that these feminisms deploy a unique affective politics that enables them to confront extremely volatile and challenging political scenarios.