Sex and Dissent

"Revelatory. . . . At a time of great backlash and regression, North American women should indeed look to Latin America for a new way forward.”—Sarah Weinman, author of Without Consent

Four electrifying and hopeful accounts of feminist uprising that have swept through Latin America and Spain in the wake of #MeToo—and what we can learn from these protest cultures in a fraught moment for democracy in the US

As women’s rights have faced alarming rollbacks in the United States over the past decade, mass feminist movements beyond our borders have achieved historic victories. Award-winning journalist Meaghan Beatley takes us to the frontlines to tell inspiring stories of resistance and political imagination that will be a vital roadmap in the years to come. 

In Argentina, a national reckoning over abortion—sparked, in part, by an unholy alliance with a popular gossip show—ignited a nationwide movement that led to the legalization of abortion. Across the Andes, young feminists in Chile fueled a constitutional rewrite to confront deep structural inequality. In Spain, a high-profile sexual assault case cracked open a fierce public debate, redefining the meaning of consent. And in Mexico, balaclava-clad student protesters occupied a government building to force the epidemic of femicide into the national spotlight.

The product of a decade of immersive reporting, Beatley captures the urgency and creativity of these movements and the women who led a motley crew of former guerrilla fighters, student occupiers, and mothers standing down narco violence. At once intimate and politically electric, Sex and Dissent reframes the global struggle for equality—and offers a model for building power, solidarity, and radical democratic change.