Revista científica de historia y pensamiento de género de difusión impresa y electrónica. Presta especial atención a las áreas de conocimiento de Historia Contemporánea y Filosofía. Publicada por el Grupo Kóre de Estudios de Género de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Melancólicas y emancipadas. La transformación de los mitos de la feminidad patológica en discursos de empoderamiento feminista
The figure of the melancholic has been used historically to neutralize and discredit women’s discourses of emancipation, understanding the deviations of the norm as pathologies that needed to undergo a "social orthopedics". However, as represented by the characters of Britney Spears and Madame Bovary, it would be possible to resignify this kind of discourses. We could appropriate these figures of the “pathological femininity”, addressing them as figures of resistance that indicate the only place where women can locate themselves to disrupt the hegemonic discourse: the critical, eccentric and marginal place of the pathological.
Feminismos y cultura contemporánea. A la búsqueda de nuevas identidades
Arte feminista. Empoderamiento de las mujeres en el arte. El ejemplo de Paula Rego
Ever since 70’s feminism, art made for women tries to question artistic values of cultural western tradition, attempting to analyse and revise their role and identity of woman states for masculine perspective and view from immemorial times. Through their works of art, artist women, aware of stereotypes and social and cultural restrictions, try to show new ideas about the feminine and how women acquire an increasing empowerment. The case of Paula Rego is specially significant of this new situation.
Frida Kahlo y el problema de la autoría fotográfica. Una aproximación teórica
Previous studies of Frida Kahlo’s work focus mainly on her paintings, but Kahlo used other means of expression to develop her creative discourse as well; for example, photography. Frida did not take many photographs in her life, but she did pose for a considerable number of renowned photographers of the first half of the twentieth century. These images have traditionally been regarded as mere reflections of the artist’s eccentric personality, or as samples of the photographer’s work, but never as examples of Kahlo’s own use of the discipline. A more rigorous analysis of this enormous heritage reveals how Frida, through her poses, actually developed certain strategies and formed an artistic dissertation in which she questioned, quite explicitly and in front of the camera, the idea of photographic authority. In this way, she recovered part of the “authorship” which had been denied to her before.
First-wave nineteenth-century feminisms addressed their positions by attempting to fit women into the universal “Human”. Second-wave feminisms, starting from the 1960s and 1970s, generated a critique of the universal Human as inherently not just incidentally masculine. Yet this critique rested upon a categorization of men and women, on gender difference, on a doubling of universal categories. The universal category “woman”, taken up so strongly in the 1980s, was then criticized in turn as inherently not just incidentally focused on white, upper/middle-class heterosexual women. Given this analysis, a greater focus on more specific identities seemed to be the solution, offering a plethora of identities from which women can choose. Feminism has often been presented as being the “wicked stepmother,” the originator of a prescriptive identity-based morality which wags a mumsy finger at improper behaviour and against which it is important to rebel. My contention in this paper is to explore queer theory’s tangled, productive and ongoing relations with feminist theory and literature. In order to demonstrate this, I will analyze Rita Mae Brown’s novel Rubyfruit Jungle. With notable parallels with Brown’s real life, its success is part of why the genre is now often considered a cliché. This work is notable for being an early literary lesbian novel, as well as for Brown's own activism in lesbian and feminist causes but deliberately ignores other identities we cannot do without.
La construcción del sujeto víctima de la violencia de género en Youtube como acto performativo
This article aims to analyze a research on the complex way in which the representation of female subjectivity has been constructed in the thematic YouTube channel of one of the most active virtual feminist communities that deal with violence against women: Ciudad de Mujeres. The analysis demonstrates that this subject is almost always interpellated by the audiovisual texts through Butler’s hate speech theory. To this end, we adopt a multimodal model of analysis with the goal of studying the verbal-visual components of the videos regarding feminist activism in the fight against violence targeting women as the subject of this activism: the victim-subject of gender-based violence.
Perspectivas sobre el empoderamiento femenino en el s. XXI
Opinion polls show an increasing adherence of the Spanish population –both male and female– to gender equity. Such statements contrast with the persistent unequal distribution of carework between women and men in the domestic-familiar sphere. The article offers an analysis of the impact of different models of care provision on gender equality and establishes a dialogue with Nancy Fraser's approaches based on the findings of an ethnographic research developed in Andalusia. The construction of a new social order where all the people participate in the paid and unpaid work (care), “shared responsibility” at the micro level and "social care" at the macro level are required for a full and equal involvement of men in care.
Aquelarre de abuelas, madres e hijas rurales. Empoderamiento y redefinición de lo femenino en el cono Sur americano
The Latin American version of the domestic woman was intensified during the consolidation of the States in the eighteenth century. The good mother and wife model, typical of the Andean elites, is extended to the lower classes. During the twentieth century, the new woman model is promoted by aristocratic and middle-class women, who question the exclusion of women from the public sphere. Do lower class women participate in the transformation of the models? What kind of empowerment strategies do they use? This article is based on a doctoral research that uses the biographies of three generations of Chilean and Peruvian rural women. We analyze the strategies of empowerment made ​​by redefining the domestic woman model. In the peasant home –a metaphor of the coven where witches celebrated their meetings– rural women are empowered redefining the feminine models.
Democracia en el país y en la casa. Reflexión y activismo feminista durante la dictadura de Pinochet (1973-1989)
During Pinochet’s Dictatorship a new phase of women’s movement was developed, because of the lack of liberty, the state repression and the economical crisis. The critique of the women’s movement was towards the dictatorial system and the patriarchal oppression. This context allowed a compromised activism with the fall of the military regime, this activism operated from a female identity built over the community of interests but maintaining the differences between women. Therefore, human rights groups, shantytown’s women and feminists coordinated themselves creating strategies of protests and a gendered resistance in the street and at home. They formulated a new feminine citizenship and demanded the return of democracy.
Construcción de identidades femeninas en la esfera pública estadounidense
This work analyses women’s participation in the configuration of the contemporary public space, focusing on the U. S. political sphere. In this article, we study the solution of that dilemma “The gender of power and the power of gender” in the United States. We appreciate a certain tendency that goes from the “Activism” to “Politics”. The slow women’s integration into the U.S. political life must be considered as a conquest to get their emancipation and to make effective their incorporation to the “Power” in any of its ways. Simultaneously, this work focuses on some women’s paths. They were well qualified to get some important politic posts, especially during the last centuries of the 19th century. They started a track that the future women generations must follow.
Incidencia del empoderamiento de la mujer en los ámbitos público y privado en la Argentina
The paper presents the ongoing struggle of the Argentinean women and how was achieved her positioning in regard to women's rights, the equality of opportunities and the other aspects of social dynamics through the joints of the nineteenth and twentieth century and those spaces that have always been in man's power or under his supervision.
Las mujeres como transmisoras de la ideología falangista
At a historical moment, as it was General Francisco Franco´s dictatorship, female and male models were clearly defined, as well as their field of action. Women had to return to a private space, home, as they were not allowed to do any public activity. However, a falangist women group took up this space. They were in charge of the transmission of a very definitive feminism model that the rest of Spanish women and girls should follow. At the same time, these falangist women were responsible for the spreading of falangist ideology.
Precios, salarios y diferencia de género en Argentina en la primera mitad del siglo XX
The wages and prices evolution show us the economic and social conditions in the 20th century. The gender gap and the skill premium are a good start to understand the social conditions from the I World War to the Great Depression. At a first approach, the gender gap was not only a wages issue. The inequality was out of the official records. For example, limited access to upper positions or more work hours.
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye describes the destructive effects and the dramatic consequences of the white standards of beauty in the US of the 1940s. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate from a Race, Ethnicity, Imperialism feminist perspective how the novel contributes to forging identity politics among African-American women in the first half of the twentieth century and its significance in contemporary society.
The Saharawi women constitute a special case in the North African countries. This article intends to reflect the current role of Sahrawi women in society, both within the country and in a more extensive scope. In parallel, we analyze the reasons that led to the Saharawis to obtain this power, as the evolution of the Sahara to become a matriarchal society.
Religiosidad femenina en la Edad Media. Mujeres en las órdenes militares
During Middle Ages and Modern Era, Military Orders were institutions in which female religiosity had a secondary function, only inside convent. Military Order of Santiago was an exception during the first centuries of its existence. From the XIIth century to XIVth century, in Militar Order of Santiago women enjoyed more autonomy and rights than women at other Military Orders. But in the XVth century their rights diminished and they were obligated to live in monastic confinement. The end of Middle Ages and the State consolidation signified for the Military Order´s nuns a great lost of privileges and freedom, like nuns at the other Military Orders.
Igualdad de género en la revolución zapatista de Chiapas. Los derechos de la mujer zapatista
The Chiapas Zapatista Revolution and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) present a number of unusual characteristics, in particular the significant presence of women. Women dominate the private and public life of indigenous communities, occupying senior positions in the militia and in all government institutions, as well as carrying the burden of domestic life. The female zapatistas have lobbied the Mexican State to recognise their rights and some of these were included in the Mexican constitutional reform of 2001. One of the first revolutionary laws issued by the zapatistas was the Revolutionary Law of Women, which even predates the January 1994 Zapatista Revolution. This entails equal rights and obligations for indigenous men and women. However, indigenous customs and traditions impede the full effect of the rights enshrined in this law.
Equality between men and women in the Army is one of the most important changes within the contemporary military organisation. In Spain, the process began in the 80´s, later than in most western countries and as expected it met with some resistance in the military. This resistance was not only because of Franco´s dictatorship heritage. However, the incorporation of women into the FAS (Armed Forces) has developed normaly and fast, driven by the cultural modernisation of the Spanish society and by the guidelines of the Ministry of Defense. Even if we compare it to our partners in the EU and in NATO, the Spanish model is one of the most evolved. Nowadays, the chances of access to a professional career are exactly the same for both genders, no role or theater is forbidden to women in the FAS. As a way of approaching this subject, the article studies and ponders about the incorporation of the women to two infantry units of the Army, the Brigada de Infantería Ligera Paracaidista “Almogábares II” (BRIPAC) and the Brigada de La Legión “Rey Alfonso XVIII” (BRILEG). Studying these brigades involved two related phenomena to the woman incorporation to the FAS: the professionalisation of the troops and the FAS participation in operations abroad. The BRIPAC and the BRILEG were the ones that opened this missions, and then more units have incorporated since then. One of the conclusions is that the percentage of women is not the same for the whole of the units in the FAS and that in the units with greater demand for physical conditions the proportion of women is lower. The sources used are: official publications of these Brigades, internal arrangements designed to readjust the units to the new situation, personnel evaluations of these units and operations journals of the units and statistics which highlight the evolution of the process.
La polémica entre redistribución y reconocimiento. Nuevas formas de entender a la mujer como sujeto de justicia
The role of claims for recognition in the debates about social justice from the 70s implied the redefinition of the most basic foundations of feminism. Since then, this social movement had to adapt its future plans to the new understanding of gender that emerge from cultural perspectives. In this article, I will analyze the approaches of Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Seyla Benhabib, three feminists whose works try to resolve the conflicts between the political-economic and political-values dimensions of justice.
Neighborhood associations are born after 1964 in the Spanish quarters to claim a series of huge gaps in them. In this article we will examine the role of womens in the neighborhood movement of a medium sized city during the Transition, Valladolid.
When philosophy inspires art, philosophical ideas disseminate to a point impossible to reach through the austere language of concepts. There are many examples of such an intersection in the history of both, philosophy and art – in this article I will reflect on the synthesis created between art and feminism. At the beginning of the nineteen sixties, the texts belonging to the so-called Second Wave of feminism have a clear impact in those artists that have reflected deliberately about the experience of being female. The final product of such reflection is known as feminist art. Feminist art runs parallel to political action and feminist activism. As a consequence, there is a sustained growth of networks that offer women a definite space for reflection and action. And with a room of their own we experience the arrival of a new art which is critical with the patriarchal discourse and its logocentrism, and that will set the bases for the erosion of modern art.
La mujer y las Escuelas de Artes y Oficios en la España de la Restauración
The present paper studies the feminine vocational training in the Schools of Arts and Trades as a form of social recovery of the women during the period of the Spanish Restoration. The particularities of the modernization and of the industrialization of the first third of the 20th century opened new labor spaces that up to this moment had been closed to the feminine group. In this context, the woman of middle class formed a part of the student body of the “Schools of Arts and Trades”. She was aroused of that the academic qualification in the professional studies was going to modify the political and socio-economic relations imposed by the nineteenth-century speech "angel of the home".
This paper analyses the development of gendered-based differentiation in political issues in the early 20th century Spain. At the same time, Spanish women started to be involved in political parties and were appointed as city councillors and mayors. Women's part within politics was explained as a social extension of their gender role within the family. Although, women's presence in political parties represented an improvement for women's representation in politics, it did not affect the implementation of gendered division of tasks within local politics.
In this article I intend to extend previous considerations about motherhood, through the attention given by feminist theorists. I return, as the argument in my opinion is still subject to debate, to focus on it from new perspectives, through a multidisciplinary approach, and for that I will look at this topic from optics such as history, sociology, political philosophy, anthropology or the critical analysis of feminist discourse, approaches all essential given the multidimensionality of the theme and its annexes: motherhood, mothering, maternology; joining these with the concept of wage labor and the strength of the prescription of what is designated, in the early twentieth century, as feminine. I explore, based on these considerations, a redefinition of motherhood that transcends traditional theoretical dichotomies, especially those socio-political or the antagonistic concepts of public / private. The sources used, most of them from the newspaper La Vanguardia (1881-1939) endow this contribution with an eminently empirical character.
El feminismo político de Magda Donato de los años veinte
Many subjects are unknown, others have been silenced, many other subjects have been “rescued” and others are waiting for being explored and investigated. Aside of the effort made in order to give voice to those people who didn’t get it in the past, there is the risk that the research of an original investigation could overtakes the necessity of the mere knowledge. The Magda Donato’s history is not that case. I hope it isn’t. The reason for which I decide to investigate her life is the wish to show some relevant aspects of her life as a protagonist of the social and political feminist movement in the crucial decades of the 20s and the 30s of the XX century. This is the moment in which she had voice and vote.
La sexualidad pensada en términos masculinos
The aim of this paper is to analyze the case of violence against Wayuu’s women of the Guajira, Colombia, based on the feminist theory of Catherine Mackinnon, as well as the justice’s outline of Nancy Fraser. Taking this into account, the analysis is developed from two sides: on one hand I examine the structural grounds that leaded slaughter on, and that propitiated the use of one sort of siege’s mechanism and excluded the others. On the other hand I focus on proposing a set of necessary conditions which guarantee an appropriate process of retrieval to the violated Wayuu community. The concept of sexuality is essential as a conceptual articulation of the whole text, because it guides the interpretation of the facts that occurred in the Guajira.
Cuerpo femenino y abyección en los desnudos de Débora Arango
Female Body and Abjection in the nude paintings of Debora Arango. The representation of the female body in the nude paintings of Debora Arango was perceived as a transgression of the traditional canons of representation of women. This transgression shared with the analysis of abjection, the fact of being seen considered as disruptive of social and moral norms which were those prevailing in the colombian conservative government in the early twentieth century. This led to stereotype the work of Debora Arango and to her exclusion and self-isolation from the artistic community.
La comunidad moral entre las mujeres musulmanas ceutíes
The moral community is a conceptual construct through which we represent the complex structure that is formed by the Muslim women in Ceuta (and also in nearby Morocco). Its aim is to reproduce the cultural model of their community by means of efficient mechanisms of social control. If in the past it has made the cohesion of the group, regarding traditional cultural norms possible, then actually its function seems to have been altered substantially because of the interference of the male in the subtle forms of interaction that used to belong exclusively to the femenine domain. Although we ignore the reason for this interference, everything points to the rapid process of Islamization that exists in the town.
Envueltas en el Niqab y mirando hacia el futuro. Género, tolerancia y multiculturalismo
In today's Europe it is a basic citizen concern and policy to find ways that allow the coexistence of people coming from different cultures. In this paper, based on the analysis of different policies concerning the use of the Islamic headscarf, we analyse the potential danger multiculturalism might bear for the rights of women. We also advocate a new form to manage multiculturalism recovering the ideals of the Enlightenment.
El género y las dimensiones de la justicia
Contemporary feminist theory faces important challenges. Firstly, the central concerns of social justice, such as equity and economic redistribution, are still relevant to the feminist theory which has shifted its attention towards the identity politics and the “cultural turn”. Secondly, in advanced capitalist societies and the globalized world, feminist theory has to deal with gender relations in a context of plurality of claims for recognition and civil movements based on race, ethnicity, cultural belongings and sexual orientation. This article offers a critical reflection on Nancy Fraser’s theory that attempts to integrate the two paradigms of justice based on economic redistribution and the recognition of group identities.