Abstract

The gender equality agenda promoted by the feminist movement in Chile has, as in other countries, faced multifaceted legal, political, and cultural resistance. This article analyzes the reactions of public media intellectuals to the feminist revolt that the country experienced between April and June 2018. In particular, it studies the opinion columns published in the country's leading newspapers. We characterize opinion columns as devices to regulate the opinion space and the public sphere. We examine the types of subjects addressed in these columns and the roles the columnists ascribe to men and women in the public space. We argue that media intellectuals promote the presence of certain subjects (Butler in Cuerpos Aliados y Lucha Pol & iacute;tica, Editorial Paid & oacute;s, Barcelona, 2015) through the use of emotional signs (Ahmed in La pol & iacute;tica cultural de las emociones Universidad Aut & oacute;noma de M & eacute;xico, 2015) and render other subjects and subjectivities invisible. Male intellectuals tend to defend traditional gender roles and denounce the presence of women in public spaces. Furthermore, they question feminist demands as irrational, while intellectually appropriating certain slogans of the feminist movement. In contrast, female columnists tend to denounce the gender injustices they suffer on a daily basis. The research shows that male media intellectuals tend to perform social closure that ensures their right to appear and speak in the public sphere.