Feminist artists and activists challenge narrative around femicide through art

Campaign
Latin America and the Caribbean

Executive Summary

Two Mexican art collectives, Las Iluministas and Pink-Collar Gallery are calling on all feminist artists and activists throughout the world to join them in disrupting, changing, and gaining control of the narrative on femicide. The article draws attention to the rising rates of femicide and the harmful ways in which it is frequently depicted in the media. The article highlights the innovative methods in which feminist activists have utilized art to protest and bring visibility to the issue of femicide. Las Iluministas and Pink-Collar Gallery demonstrate how art can be used as a powerful tool for challenging dominant conceptions of femicide and changing how we understand and respond to it in our society.

Author(s)

Tallulah Lines

Harmful Strategies Used in the Media to Portray Femicide

The article highlights how mass media continues to perpetrate violence against women even after they have been killed. Some of these strategies mentioned in the article include: underrepresenting certain victims of femicide, reproducing explicit and gory images of the victim's body, and blaming the victim for their own death. These tactics used by the media fail to recognize the global issue of violence against women and fail to hold the perpetrators accountable for their violence.

 

Examples of Feminist Art Activism That Challenges Media

Feminist activists in Mexico have made recently made national news for using colour graffiti to intervene in national monuments and public art, bathing public officials in pink glitter, hosting mass song and dance performances, and painting over portraits of historical male figures. Since January 2017, feminist collectives in Quintana Roo have been painting murals as a way to honor victims of femicide. These activists demonstrate how art can be used to visibilize and honour victims of femicide, as well as to spark discussions about how we understand and address femicide in our societies. The feminist activists in this article use art to disrupt, change and gain control of the narrative of femicide by placing blame on the perpetrator, where it rightfully belongs.

“Art is a powerful way to visibilise the invisibilised, and to challenge taken-for-granted norms and beliefs. Art can be polemical, and helps spark conversations on controversial or challenging topics.”

 

 


 

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