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MULTIVERSO JOURNAL | ISSN: 2792-3681
Volumen 3, Número 4, Edición Enero-junio de 2023
https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.2792-3681/2023.4.5
Cómo citar:
Vargas-Machado, C.A., & Vargas Sepúlveda, C.F. (2023). Feminism as a gender condition for global bioethics. Multiverso Journal,
3(4), 53-63. https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.2792-3681/2023.4.5
Feminism as a gender condition for global bioethics
El feminismo como condición de género para una bioética global
Camilo Andrés Vargas-Machado
Claudia Faviola Vargas Sepúlveda
Recibido el 15/11/2022 - Aceptado el 12/01/2023
Abstract
With the objective of corresponding the political and social movement of feminism with the bioethical
discipline, a systematic review of literature produced and generated in the Spanish, English and
Portuguese languages in the period from 1970 to 2021 was carried out. With exploration in search
engines and databases. Of virtual data, where a qualitative method was applied, with a descriptive
approach, with the design of a review matrix instrument to apply a correlational method, from which
two emerging categories were determined: complex thinking and neo-atheism. As a result of the
review, it was concluded that feminism is a mass movement of a different nature, which germinated
from the current defending the will and self-determination of women, whose theory has adapted to
the changes in the situation that has allowed it to accept more equitable positions, to break patriarcal
schemes where global bioethics has changed, supported by the theories of complex thought and neo-
atheism, to invigorate its critical-revisionist nature and framed to produce changes, they will be
recorded in the everyday reality.
Keywords: Bioethics, global bioethics, feminism, complex thought, neo-atheism.
Resumen
Teniendo como objetivo corresponder el movimiento político y social del feminismo con la disciplina
bioética, se efectuó una revisión sistemática de literatura producida y generada en los idiomas español,
inglés y portugués en el periodo de 1970 a 2021. Con exploración en motores de búsqueda y bases
de datos virtuales, donde se aplicó un método cualitativo, con enfoque descriptivo, con diseño de un
instrumento de matriz de revisión para aplicar un método correlacional, a partir del cual se
determinaron dos categorías emergentes que fueron: el pensamiento complejo y el neo-ateísmo.
Producto de la revisión se concluyó que el feminismo es un movimiento de masas de distinta
naturaleza, que germinó de la corriente defensora de la voluntad y autodeterminación de la mujer,
cuya teoría se ha adaptado a los cambios situación que ha permitido acoger posturas más equitativas,
para romper esquemas del patriarcado donde tiene cambiada la bioética global apoyada en las teorías
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0993-358X. Email: camilo.vargasma@campusucc.edu.co
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0772-9315. Email: claudiaf.vargas@campusucc.edu.co
Vargas-Machado, C.A., Vargas Sepúlveda, C.F. / Vol. 2 Núm. 3 (2022) Páginas. 53-63
Multiverso Journal publica bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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del pensamiento complejo y, por su parte, el neo-ateísmo, para vigorizar su naturaleza critico-
revisionista y encuadrada para producir cambios, se registraran en lo real cotidiano.
Palabras claves: bioética, bioética global, feminismo, pensamiento complejo, neo-ateísmo.
The Feminist Movement
Feminism was not only a theory of the feminist movement as is often speculated, it is also a
theory of human society that eventually led to a planetary movement; but with emphasis on the
gender condition, in this case, reassessing and revalidating the human condition of being female. The
woman is a human condition, for which it is suggestive to remember the theoretical approach and the
epistemological look that Fernando Mires provides with his article, The Feminist Revolution published
in the Nueva Sociedad Magazine of 1996.
Since not all feminist movements sought to overthrow Patriarchy per se, or cause a revolution
with the established status quo (Stablisment), nor did they seek to combat Patriarchy and Masculinity
installed in the human mind and praxis at all costs since the subject is subject and the woman lives
with the man.
Feminism was born to be a mass movement, to later be widely disseminated throughout the
planet, except for non-Western cultures. Feminist theory is interesting not only for the revisionist
contributions, about the social roles of both men and women, but also for the duration in time and for
having had the ability to be permeated and mutate with its passing to establish contributions to
western societies, basically. Relying on his theoretical set, to date he has provided not only initiatives
for other social movements, which are translated into concrete collective social actions as defined by
Tilly & Wood (2012), revolutionary collective actions -without wanting to be- as happened with the
murder of the three Mirabal sisters
7
by the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in 1960. Where
from this cruel murder the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is
commemorated or also called the International Day of Gender Non-Violence, which was promoted by
the Movement Latin American Feminist.
Feminism has been an important movement, because for a social action to last over time,
taking the French Revolution as a starting point, and going through the sociopolitical movement of
the Suffragettes, it can be quantitatively deduced that there are almost 220 years of actions and
struggles. of marked confrontation, which to date has also sponsored and promoted social action
movements, with its most concrete and contemporary achievements such as the LGTBI, Anti-Racism
groups, among others (Oliveira, 1995).
The mere fact of mentioning them implies an analysis of a social totality subdivided into
historical and social partialities, as is evident in the footer (That is to say, each movement, even when
it started from initiatives of the feminist organization, not all of them arose based on the same
reasoning, causes and historical justifications). To which Mires gives us the academic and historical
reason when he affirms that feminism is not only about the feminist movement, but also the struggles
7
Ciriaco de la Rosa, one of the murderers, would later recount it: «After capturing them, we led them to the place near the abyss,
where I ordered Rojas Lora to take sticks and take one of the girls away. He complied with the order immediately and took one of
them, the one with the long braids (María Teresa). Alfonso Cruz Valerio chose the tallest (Minerva), I chose the shortest and chubby
(Patria) and Malleta, the driver, Rufino de La Cruz. I ordered each one to enter a cane field on the side of the road, all separated so
that the victims would not witness the execution of each one of them [...] I tried to prevent this horrendous crime, but I could not,
because I had direct orders from Trujillo and Johnny Abbes Garcia. Otherwise, they would have killed us all. (ABC newspaper. ES).
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and practices of women, even if they are not feminists. Therefore, this movement has been built as a
theoretical link from a social movement, which adds both non-feminist women and those who are
(Mires, 1999).
This theoretical set (of postulates, premises and other elements) served as the basis for other
sociocultural movements as is evident. This conformation -sociocultural- gives it the vitality that time
has obtained, even if not always with the same intensity. The feminine condition as a human condition
allows agreements and disagreements to be part of the dynamics of humanity, due to its very human
condition from the perspective of Hannah Arendt (Sanchez, 2012). That is why, within the infinity of
feminist movements, none has been homogeneous in relation to their ideas and even less in
approaches or causes of their undertaking against patriarchal domination or fight for their rights to
equality (Mires, 1999).
But it is this coming and going of reasoning and positions that gives the most vitality and
dynamic meaning to this reflective writing. Because debates and diatribes are forces that give
dynamics to the fight (Mires, 1996). Its different positions inwards on the one hand, and on the other,
when they are shown to the rest of society, is what gives it the wealth of sui generis epistemological
and ideological positions of great interest for its more detailed study. The number of positions around
feminism throughout history makes gender one of the most diverse tools of struggle through identity
and discursive construction (of a historiographical nature as well as others); which brings together
interesting characteristics to be examined in greater depth. And like every social position that comes
from feminism, it has its casuistic or original properties. Well, for this reason, it cannot be expressed
that there is a position that is more feminist than another (Mires, 1999).
Feminism, even with an arduous and tiring task ahead, continues to fight not only against the
forms of patriarchy, but as Mires rightly points out, its fight is more tenacious than that factor, it fights
against the vastest fronts, towards an economic order, a culture, a system, a civilization. So, all the
different forms and expressions of reality that feminism confronts are lumped together in the concept
of patriarchy (Mires, 1996). Feminism does not consist, up to now, in denying patriarchy according to
Mires's approach, but it is worth emphasizing that starting from this denial -almost outright- it also
starts from a "dualistic scheme" of a binomial conception of pure positions - that sometimes they can
become entrenched in their niches similar to the Marxists (Fonseca & Alvaro, 2015).
This philosophical and life dualism, specifically, generates reasonable properties for his own
struggle of objectives -immediate or not-, as well as antagonistic relationships with his peers if he is
approached from the premise of that patriarchy forges elements and concepts that are opposed to
the emancipation of women in itself; validity criticism for our analytical purpose, since the north is to
skip this dualism that often generates obstacles or complications for both genders.
It is a dualism, for example, where patriarchy as a philosophy of domination has managed to
establish itself with unique forms and expressions, considering that the concept of patriarchy cannot
be a localizable reality, nor a specific place, because it has various forms. To which it could be said
that the construction of the concept of patriarchy is a power that is micro-physically represented in
habits, people, institutions, people and places (Mires, 1996). And to combat a multidimensional reality
such as patriarchy, an ideology with an explanatory and penetrating capacity for complexity was
needed, such as feminism, according to Kate Millet, one of the most penetrating ideologies of our
culture (Millet, 1971, p. 25, quoted by Mires, p. 3).
Vargas-Machado, C.A., Vargas Sepúlveda, C.F. / Vol. 2 Núm. 3 (2022) Páginas. 53-63
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It is penetrating and combative also due to its essence and consideration now founded on the
basis of Bioethics as a discipline of recent study. To combat the radical position and male
predominance, she needs this. Boscán is certain when stating that bioethics has an ethical treatment
of both biomedical and social factors, and from the focus on preserving biodiversity oriented towards
the survival of Humanity, what is will be useful to gender theorists and feminists to glimpse the
plausible dilemmas to these dilemmas brought by diverse gender and sex groups, but also for anti-
patriarchal heterosexual people (Boscan, 2015).
In relation to this approach, it is that it makes room for the presence of Bioethics, but not just
anyone, it is a Global Bioethics that intentionally allows addressing the enormous complexity of
cognitive or knowledge alternatives such as bounded dualism.
However, Global Bioethics focused on our criteria obliges us to mention a specific case, for the
purposes of our analysis the article on Women and Contraception has been selected. some brief Notes
by Javier de la Torre; This deals with the controversial issue of contraception in men and women, how
this human fact is understood, whose implications stand out due to the order established by the
patriarchy of masculinity (Castañeda, 2007) undaunted by the advances of feminism (De la Torre,
2010).
Within the framework of reflections by Javier De la Torre, the following stand out: The fact
that the responsibility for contraception falls almost exclusively on the female gender, there is a
domestic solidarity of the feminine about this action where it is not conceivable that the man as such
is responsible or co-responsible for induced human non-reproduction (MacArthur, 2001).
Bioethics and feminism: points to elucidate
The condition of being female involves her once in which the exclusivity of contraception is in
the hands of the woman: it is not the man who takes care of himself. And indeed, this is how Western
human logic is structured, since most contraceptives are intended for women's bodies, despite the
fact that some of them suffer hormonal or metabolic effects due to their use. For this reason,
De la Torre points out how contraceptives harmed women, represented damage to their health, and
affected their body image (De la Torre, 2010), but they are a preferable risk and damage compared
to abortion or abandonment.
In this case, dismembering the woman's self-esteem, bearing the weight of a unique
responsibility that in case of failure -one of them- would be blamed on her, her responsibility for an
unplanned child, as if consummating the conception was one side (De la Torre, 2010). We see that in
the historical development of family planning, the woman becomes responsible for reasons of
imposition, economics or health. Also, if the woman continuously uses planning methods, it tends to
symbolize that she is dangerous, or that she is an easy woman (De la Torre, 2010).
In conclusions nine and eleven of his book, De la Torre explains how patriarchy has been
empowered to the extent that male children inherit this cultural matrix, as if the performance of birth
control of a nucleus only depends on the women's value system. Sex and sexuality, according to the
Judeo-Christian tradition, are only intended for procreative purposes, therefore, contraception
methods and techniques are denied, and if approved, it must be the woman who takes charge without
deciding neither does she alone (De la Torre, 2010).