Celebrities, violencia de género y derechos de las mujeres: ¿hacia una transformación del marco de reconocimiento?

María José  Gámez Fuentes; Emma  Gómez-Nicolau; Rebeca Maseda García

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2016-1123

Authors

María José Gámez Fuentes Jaume I University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5870-7277
Emma Gómez-Nicolau University of Valencia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3009-7427
Rebeca Maseda García University of Alaska Anchorage https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3143-929X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2016-1123

Keywords:

Gender-based violence, ethical witnessing, victimisation, popular culture, post-feminism, celebrities

Abstract

Due to the limitations of the current framework of recognition of gender-based violence, this article analyses the possibilities of the actions performed by celebrities in the transformation of such framework and in the fight for women’s rights. To this end, we propose the concept of “ethical witnessing”. Methods. The study proposes an analytical model based on the operationalisation of this concept applied to the examination of the representational practices that may destabilise the current hegemonic configuration and re-signify the subject-victim relationship of violence. The four dimensions of analysis are: the relations generated between the subject-victim and the witness; the degree of transgression of the reified representational models of the subject-victim; the focus on agency; and the connection with women’s fights for their rights and other social movements. This model is applied to three case studies: Beyoncé’s musical performances; the interview with actress Carmen Maura, and Emma Watson’s #HeForShe media campaign. Results. The study discusses the possibilities of the discursive practices stemming from postfeminist principles. A new image emerges to contrast the image of women as victims: the image of successful women who find a balance between feminist vindications and the fight against gender-based violence with consumerism, materialism and capitalism. This image enables the destabilisation of the narrative about violence, but it does not constitute a re-signification of the framework of recognition, as it can be co-opted by the “celebrity economy”, can be absorbed by liberal feminism, or can be disassociated from the collective fight, which complicates the comprehension of the shared nature of vulnerability.

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Author Biographies

María José Gámez Fuentes, Jaume I University

María José Gámez-Fuentes holds a PhD degree in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies from the University of Nottingham. Former teaching assistant at the University of Nottingham. Guest Professor in Columbia University, University of Kent, University of Roehampton and Goldsmiths-University of London.

Her research work focuses on cultural violence and on how to transform it from a feminist and gender perspective. Her works have been published in journals such as the International Journal of Iberian Studies, Social Movement Studies, Estudios del Mensaje Periodístico, Peace Review, Asparkía and Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies.

Full professor in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising since 2015. Eighteen years of experience as researcher and leader of the following research projects: “Re-signification of the women-victim relation in popular culture” (FEM2015-65834-C2-2-P, MINECO/FEDER), National Programme for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Research of Excellence (Spain), and “Ethical witnessing and communication for change” (P12015·1B2015-21), Projects for scientific research and technological development of the Research Promotion Plan of the Universitat Jaume I de Castellón (Spain).

Emma Gómez-Nicolau, University of Valencia

Emma Gómez-Nicolau holds a PhD degree in Sociology from the University of Valencia (2015) and Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology (2009, Outstanding performance award winner) and Journalism (2005).

Her research work focuses on feminism, gender-based violence and social movements. Author of publications on gender-based violence and communication in national and international journals such as Feminismo/s, Nóesis. Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Cuestiones de Género: de la igualdad y de la diferencia and Arxius de Ciències Socials.

Member of the research project “Re-signification of the women-victim relation in popular culture: implications for representational innovation in the construction of vulnerability and resistance” (FEM2015-65834-C2-2-P), funded by the National Programme for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Research of Excellence, of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Rebeca Maseda García, University of Alaska Anchorage

Rebeca Maseda-García holds a PhD degree in Philosophy and Literature from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Professor of cinema, media y Hispanic studies. Coordinator of the Spanish language programme of the University of Alaska Anchorage since 2010.

Author of numerous essays on cinema and gender, female pornography and the book Ensayo sobre la contradicción: Virginia Woolf en la pantalla (Ed. Universitat D´Alacant, España). Author of many articles on representations of PTSD in American cinema and female trauma in European and Hispanic cinema.

Member of the research project “The re-signification of the women-victim relation in popular culture: implications for representational innovation in the construction of vulnerability and resistance” (FEM2015-65834-C2-2-P), funded by the National Programme for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Research of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (idi.mineco.gob.es).

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