RSS 1.0Ambigua : Revista de Investigaciones sobre Género y Estudios Culturales
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Ambigua: revista de Investigaciones sobre Género y Estudios Culturales es una publicación electrónica que aparece en forma de monográfico y aborda aquellos temas que se encuadran dentro de las investigaciones sobre el género y los estudios culturales desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar. El público al que va dirigida es de índole internacional, ya que acepta la publicación de artículos escritos en distintas lenguas de la Unión Europea (español, francés, inglés) y nacionales (catalán).
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The Globethics library contains articles of Ambigua: revista de Investigaciones sobre Género y Estudios Culturales as of vol. 1(2014) to current.
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Entre el discurso y la realidad: semblanzas femeninas desde la crónica artística en España (1900-1930)In their efforts to make room for voices with a feminine register in the format of illustrated magazines during the first third of the 20th century, a generation of pioneers paraded through the artistic columns of the newspapers, who contributed to renewing the language of Spanish art. This study reviews a series of articles published by the Madrid weekly Estampa on the artistic chronicle, where the group of women artists plays a leading role in the narrative story. The names of a minority of creators will be revealed who, although they do not resonate in the collective imagination, played an active role in the artistic circle of the time, such as Marisa Pinazo, Rosario de Velasco, Julia Minguillón and Margarita Frau, analyzing the valuation criticism of certain biographical aspects and his works. The analysis of these news has provided an effective instrument of observation regarding the debate of the epochal creation that was brewing, offering not only the possibility of rediscovering female talents silenced by artistic historiography, but also delving into the discursive representations at the service of the patriarchal organization of the institution-art.
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A didactic proposal for studying consent: overview and illustration in the 18th centuryThis article addresses the study of the idea of consent in literature and arts, and its practical application to classrooms. In this paper the authors propose an educational experience based on French classicism and its ideas of dignity, respect and consent. We propose a didactic approach to the representation of consent in 18th century French writings and paintings, prioritizing student's self-reliance and ability to manage the process. This period is particularly interesting because during the Enlightenment (the 'Age of Reason') many texts represent rape praising the act, forgetting that requesting and granting of a partner's consent, by its very nature, implies the recognition of that partner as a person. Since such an understanding is a prerequisite for effective sexuality education, consent is an ideal concept to explore in the classroom. This paper presents an overview of teaching approaches on how to include consent and its concept in the curriculum content of high school education. The research presented here was conducted surveying fifteen students currently attending Philology courses at the University of the Basque Country-UPV/EHU. The educational experience is based in an abductive methodology, creating a learning workgroup tasked with specific problem solving: with an approach to the studied period, the analysis of a French painting and sharing the answers of a test, and also based on different natures and degrees of difficulty. The article focuses on the role of the instructor: not trying to replace the students' imagination, but rather trying to provide them with adequate tools to complete their task.
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Presencia y evolución de los arquetipos masculinos en el cine de DisneyThis research seeks to explore and deepen in the treatment of the figure of the "prince" in Disney animation films, focusing on the presence and possible evolution of universal archetypes, as archaic residues, that can be found in the male characters of these films. For this, through a specific theoretical framework, a list of films from 1937 to 2020 will be analyzed, which will form the basis of an analysis that allows us to observe, evidence and compare possible structural and conjunctural elements, as well as the relationship of these male figures with contemporary social reality and the evolution of the hero archetype and masculinities. From a social point of view, the archetypes taken by the characters in Disney films are of great importance due to their wide international diffusion to an audience mostly children and still in training. This article will approach the male archetypes used by Disney since its beginnings and how social changes, especially those related to feminism, have been making this representation in animation evolve. In short, we will study whether the traditional roles in which "Disney `mythologizes' women and `memorizes' men" (Bell, Hass and Sells, 1995: 10) are still perpetuated, or whether they have been changing. Starting from a specific theoretical framework, we will analyze how certain male characters belonging to twelve films released between 1937 and 2016 are constructed, being categorized in reference to periods related to feminist waves.
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La masculinidad en Gigante (George Stevens, 1956): el hombre a través de la música de Dimitri TiomkinDespite its dramatic weight, Giant (George Stevens, 1956) has been included from the beginning in the western genre. Among the elements that characterize it as such is the figure of man in its multiple facets: cowboy, landowner, renegade, soldier, doctor. Each of them is defined narrative and visually through cinematographic resources, with more or less attachment to the conventions of the genre. But none of those descriptions is complete without the music, which ends up modeling every detail of the characters' personalities, showing the true reality of the different masculinities existing on screen and, somehow, beyond it. By using specific tools of analysis of film music, complemented with archival material, we describe and confront the different forms of masculinity typical of the western genre, demonstrating the ability of music and composer Dimitri Tiomkin to build stereotypes that, in many cases, surpass the myth.
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Spaces: nature, power, and genderPresentation of the monograph
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Gothic Noir Filmic Male Gaze: Gender Stereotyping in Margaret Atwood’s “The Freeze-Dried Groom”Stereotyping has been crucial in artistic representations, especially cinema, in the construction of gender paradigms. Males and females have been portrayed by means of simplified unrealistic clichés with the purpose of controlling and constraining them into patriarchal roles and conventions, promoting societal normative ideologies. Noir women are projections of male anxieties about female sexuality and female independence. In “The Freeze-Dried Groom,” Atwood unveils gender stereotyping through a typically film noir male gaze in three of its stock characters: the femme attrapée, the “detective” and the femme fatale. Hence, Atwood depicts a femme fatale to reflect not just on this character in film noir, but also on female identity, gender dynamics and feminism. She exposes and questions the marriage-family institution, and the patriarchal society as a whole.
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Gender roles and identity in the Chicana/Latina Women in Loverboys by Ana CastilloAna Castillo (Chicago, 1953) is the author of the short story collection Loverboys (1996). These stories address the reality of Chicana and Latina women in the U.S. from a plurality of social contexts. The purpose of this article is to analyse the stories in Loverboys from the perspective of gender roles and the concept of identity, as well as to present a brief initial observation on how female voices have been silenced throughout history. The hypothesis to be demonstrated is that, in these stories, Castillo defends, preserves, and seeks to restore the values of Chicana and Latina women, repeatedly reviled by the machismo of patriarchal society, through the female characters in the stories collected in Loverboys.
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An approach to female dramatic writing in Argentina: the affirmation of a own viewThis article proposes an approximation of the dramatic writing produced by women in Argentina between the sixties and nineties in order to find out how a critical look is configured from gender, an autonomous female discourse. In view of this, we mean some paradigmatic playwrights -Griselda Gambaro, Aída Bortnik, Susana Torres Molina, Cristina Escofet and Diana Raznovich - who, from various poetics, aesthetic and ideological interests, contributed to the representation and self-representation of women as a plural subject, crossed and inhabited by a complexity of voices and personal, social, generic, cultural inscriptions. For the description and analysis of the most representative dramatic pieces in this regard we start from a historicalist perspective that takes into account both the social historical context and the dynamics of Argentine theatre. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable limitation of women's presence in the national theatrical field, not only in terms of playwrights and directors, but also within theatrical management, critical reception and theatrical juries. Undoubtedly the convulsed political-social context hindered the emergence and the development of a theatre proper feminine until the advent of democracy, when they start to treat social facts taking into account the generic differences that go through them. Finally, we note that, directly addressing gender issues or mobilized by the urgencies of a society in crisis, with the intention of outshooting possible responses or simply raising questions, the authors we refer to seek to move away from stereotypes and archetypal models, to challenge narratives, to break the silent mandates imposed by dictatorships or patriarchal society.
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Los límites de la vida rural: naturaleza y violenciaAquest article estudia la representació literària dels espais que envolten la llar analitzant l’ús d’imatges naturals vinculades en relació amb l’enclaustrament femení. En particular, s’investiga com esdevenen símbols dels valors atribuïts a la dona —des de la síntesi que en fa Elizabeth Grosz—, sobretot en relació amb la fecunditat. S’utilitzen nocions de Michel Foucault sobre el poder per analitzar com els mecanismes de control creen i gestionen aquests espais limítrofs. Per a il·lustrar-ho, s’examinen casos dels «drames rurals» de l’autora Víctor Català —relats breus en català publicats entre 1902 i 1930—, on l’alteració de certes imatges recurrents permet reflexionar sobre la gradació de violències que recauen en la dona. Es mostrarà com les tensions entre individus s’inscriuen en certs espais naturals que van des de l’hort fins al bosc.
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A spatial and temporal journey: women under patriarchal and dictatorial power in 'Eni Furtado no ha dejado de correr' by Alicia KozamehBased on the spatial and temporal journey composed by Alicia kozame (Rosario, 1953) in her novel Eni Furtado no ha dejado de correr, this paperanalyzes the suffering and resistance of women who seek to achieve their own space within the patriarchal and dictatorial power. Throughout thisarticle, its purpose is to visualize the search for the literary space of the author herself; the spatial and temporal mobility of the two protagonists; thepain and trauma caused by patriarchal and dictatorial oppression; certain spaces as a representation of parental power, as well as the struggle of women in a violent environment. Eni Furtado no ha dejado de correr, which was published in 2013, is the sixth narrative work by the Argentine writer Alicia Kozameh. In this novel, through various points of view covering multiple perspectives, a central fact has been configured: the sexual abuseof a ten-year-old girl. Due to her own experience as a prisoner during the military dictatorship in Argentina, Alicia Kozameh dedicated herself towriting on issues related to prison and exile in her early works. This novel, in particular, is considered one of the very representative examples amonghis latest narrative novels, since it focuses on the private space of the family and the sexual abuse of minors; simultaneously, it incorporates another clueto express political violence and exile in an implicit way, thus establishing an analogy between dictatorial violence and the patriarchal oppressionsuffered by women. All of these have opened a broader vision to represent violence and trauma within Kozameh's literary universe. In short, throughthis work I hope to put forward a different point of view, which will contribute to the expansion of thinking on gender, space and power.
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Pregnant witch: Patriarchal criminalization of the (non) maternal body in access to abortion in ArgentinaThe criminological discourse of the Inquisition condensed in the Malleus Maleficarum in the 15th century and heir to the practices of persecution and torture developed from the 12th century, made use of the image of the witch to be functional to sectors of power in its endeavor to annihilate and decimating entire populations and imprinting in the bodies ways of being and acting necessary for the development of an economic system that required an articulated and controlled model of production / reproduction: capitalism. The objective of this work is to analyze the patriarchal criminalization of the (non) maternal body in access to abortion in Argentina and the continuities of the demonological discourse of the 15th century from the case of Belén, a woman who between 2014 and 2017 was detained for 29 months by a spontaneous abortion. To approach the case, we will use the theoretical contributions of different feminist authors, and from there we will investigate how the punitive power of the State crosses the body with biopower technologies, prints ways of being, thinking and acting, imperatives and prohibitions, and demonizes with its patriarchal stamp the "cursed", subversive and infamous part of what in this work we have called "pregnant witch".
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Childhood and didactic of gender identities in Béatrice Laure Mebou’s Plus sage que le roiLa narration écrite s'offre en Afrique comme un vecteur essentiel dans l'éducation holistique des masses à l'éthique. L'enfant joue parfois le rôle du sage enseignant, oeuvrant au renouvellement des identités de genre face au patriarcat qui prévaut. Quelles stratégies utilise-t-il pour postuler de nouvelles relations de genre ? La sociocritique de Pierre Barbéris guide cette réflexion qui s'organise en deux parties. Dans un premier temps, nous explorons l'explicite en questionnant la didactique qui sous-tend la démarche de l'enfant. Puis, grâce à l'implicite , nous examinons les esthétiques qui structurent la production de sens et fondons le discours sur le monde de Béatrice Laure Mebou. Key words: written storytelling, child, sociocritic, gender, aesthetics, ethics
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Everyday borders: intersections of exclusion and resistance settings in a migration experience from South AmericaThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on everyday settings as generators of social exclusion in migrant contexts. At the same time on those experiences, migrant people create resistance strategies, develop agency and contribute to social transformations through individual and collective actions. International borders are able to sort legitimated or illegitimated people who have different access to citizenship rights. However, it is in everyday interaction where symbolic borders appear, hindering migrant integration. Even more evident for migrant women. We will expose Gladys’ experience as a case of migration from Peru to Spain to illustrate our argument. We will discuss about the social settings she is allowed to participate and how symbolic borders are generated and modify the relationships between people in those spaces. From an intersectional perspective, these boundaries collude to push migrant people, particularly women, towards social exclusion and isolation. But otherwise, they could lead to creating resistance and agentive action. Specifically, in Gladys’ case as a caregiver, her experience fluctuates between being considered expendable workforce and, at the same time, being a fundamental part of the economic and social system. This tension is solved through political activism and the reconfiguration of roles and practices. In this way, the case invites us to rethink privilege and power as dynamic processes and also to reflect on individual agency, but community agency as well, as a main engine of political and social transformation.
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Space, power and feminist representation in theatrical practices of the Argentine Northwest regionIn this article we propose to analyze three dimensions of descolonial feminist theatrical practices developed in the Argentine Northwest region, which occurred simultaneously between 2015 and 2020. Institutional management in Theatre, theatricalities of street and virtual demonstrations,and feminist theatre plays propose to dispute the spaces of power and action and discuss artistic and political representations while adding to gender agendas and demands. These theatrical practices intersect, feed off each other and are promoted simultaneously at work and share protagonists. They are part of the massive mobilizations against thefemicides Ni Una Menos and the fight for legal, safe, and free abortion in Argentina.
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Mujer Semilla in the re-signification of the identity of women in the city of AguascalientesStreet art is an artistic activity focused on the graphic intervention of the urban infrastructure of cities by transfiguring physical structures into expressive supports to show different ideas of a social, cultural or political nature. Sociopolitical interests turn street art into a contextual movement, since the participants are concerned about the problems of cities. This is the case of the Seed Woman collective in the town of Aguascalientes, who cares about the situations that women live in the hydro-warm society. The interest is materialized in the elaboration of pieces of paste up when representing the experiences that they have lived in the locality. The activities of Woman Seed were analyzed under the theoretical postulates of Judith Butler (2007) proposed within the book: The gender in dispute. Feminism and the subversion of identity. The author raises the possibility of constructing gender identity voluntarily through the repetition of acts. It is precisely the identity diversity that was observed in the paste-up pieces of the collective due to the search to graphically present options of women's identities on the infrastructure of the city, but, aimed at the hydro-warm society. It is concluded that the participation of Mujer Semilla is a symbolic act that aims to change people's frames of reference by showing them bodily identities, phrases and feelings associated with the daily life of women
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Women´s madness: prison and subterfugeMadness as a suffering linked to women´s lives seems to manifest in the first instance as a historical and cultural continuity, a stage that all have gone through either for an instant or throughout their whole existence. To analyze the network of madness, violence, stigma and how they are presented transversely on women in a systematic and historical way becomes an essential but unreachable task in this article. What is specifically taken into account and questioned here is the notion and category of being crazy nowadays in western societies where violence(s), as a constant factor regardless its various expressions, fulfill(s) a fundamental role.