Author: Victor Manuel Del Moral Rivera

Different Feminisms in Mexico, as well as in the world, has grown enormously in recent years.

Remarkable are the ways, strategies and visual resources that have been used mainly in the latest marches/strikes/demonstrations in Mexico City. That go beyond the symbolic and affect reality.

It is unfortunate and deeply disgraceful to know that feminicides are a constant reality in Mexico, as well as domestic violence, and the difference in opportunities, just to name a few of the deep and depressing problems.

Of course, this is reflected in multiple demonstrations like the massive mobilization of March 8, 2020, which together with the strike of activities led to the massive closure of schools, emptying of streets and public transport, making the absence a political action of resistance. . Also, in September 2020, the occupation of the building of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the CODHEM in Ecatepec by activists, mothers who are victims of femicide and united groups of feminists, who have maintained this occupation, as well as the temporary occupation of several radio stations in different Mexican cities. And even more recently, in the context of the pandemic, a large group of women reacted in front of the protection wall of the government palace, turning it into “the wall of memory” where women activists painted hundreds of names of victims of femicide.

An important note is that these recent manifestations of women’s and feminist movement have demonstrated an intergenerational character that confronts an increasingly violent patriarchy, in an increasingly globalized world, with great impunity, where the continuity between public space and social networks are becoming more and more diffuse.

“Each of these characteristics are the conditions of existence of many younger women, who, although they are heirs to the long feminist tradition in Mexico, show a clear differentiation in language, action strategies and management of networks. that define their particularity, as they are part of a new generation” (Matos and Paradis, 2013).

Of course, this is not an exhaustive review of the movement, but I wanted to share in a general way the vitality with which these feminisms have taken over the streets of Mexico, literally painting almost the entire city purple and pink, graffiti on its monuments, and emitting very direct messages.

Unfortunately. Nothing is enough, as an answer to that painful reality. But it is a good start to begin to eradicate it.

V

With your permission, and I hope I’m not in such bad taste, I bring here a series from netflix, which is directly related to our topic.

It is a current reference of popular culture. Problematic like any television event, due to the spectacle, dramatization and sometimes light way of dealing with complex issues. And also under the suspicion and mistrust generated by a platform like Netflix telling contemporary history.

Beyond the care and distance that will have to be exercised in the face of the trendy phenomenon of historicization of the last 30 years, as well as the gentrified contemporary portrait of the globalized society in which we live; I find it interesting not to ignore the new audio-visual novels that millions of people consume. And at least recognize some accurate issues that I find in this series.

Created by American writer Amanda Peet and Harvard PhD Annie Julia Wyman, the show stars Sandra Oh as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the first woman chair of the English Department at a stuffy ambient.

Short and not exhaustive, it captures at least, not perfectly, entrenched structures, such as sexism and racism in the world of universities; and how “seemingly open” institutions still struggle with including marginalized groups and diverse candidates in their jobs.

I think it is not bad to take a look at it if we are reading this book. And thus be able to discuss the relevance of its existence, and if it adds to or subtracts from the theme, dramatizing it and including a perhaps cheesy love story. Not without saying that perhaps it is also conservative in its critique of power.

I close this brief review, highlighting the humor of the series, without forgetting and thanking that this factor is always oxygenating.

The invitation to discuss is open.

Here is one of the most interesting reviews I found online, by cultural writer Alessa Dominguez.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alessadominguez/netflix-the-chair-review-sandra-oh

As many of you know in Spanish, unlike English, adjectives, verbs and nouns have gender. Feminine words generally end with the letter “a” and masculine words with “o”.

Faced with this, in the last decade many alternatives have been proposed to replace these vowels and build a more inclusive language. Different proposals from Latin American countries or Spain suggest the “e”, the @, or the “x” as a symbol to replace and neutralize the way in which we express ourselves, without necessarily having the connotation of gender, which is so often unnecessary.

Last year, the Mexican artist Mario García Torres proposed in his last exhibition a proposal that has generated much controversy. He and typographer Aldo Arillo created a new vowel for Spanish as an attempt to solve the dilemma of gender and inclusion in the language. The vowel was created in his “Secte” project, which is part of his exhibition “The Poetics of Return”, the retrospective of García Torres in Marco. Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey.

The vowel’s proposal was shown at the museum, where it was launched. There was a sculpture of the letter, a wall with words that exemplify its use and a video. “It’s a letter to try to solve the gender problem. It’s actually a ligature of three letters: a, e, and o. We did it so that it was just a specific sign and that it was a new letter that doesn’t have gender,” García Torres said in an interview. “It’s called ‘sect’ and the idea is that it becomes the sixth vowel of our vowels.”

The letter is a speculative glyph, the artist explained, and is currently only available in the NeuLeon typeface, created by Arillo. “(Hopefully) other fonts eventually begin to add this symbol. It’s not easy,” said the artist of Monclova and one of the Mexican artists with the most projection abroad. With the character, the artist and typographer propose that it can be used instead of e, @ or x, which have been used informally in inclusive language.

Arillo mentions signs like the # that for a while was used only for numbers and is now indispensable in internet culture. Several feminist movements of the 20th century have demanded an inclusive and non-sexist use of language, since in Spanish, masculine pronouns, adjectives and terms predominate. However, specialists and institutions such as the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language have resisted any type of change

“Somehow you had to have a graphic posture, how to solve this in a good way. Language is not something static, it is a living convention, which changes according to need,” said Arillo. “From a graphic and typographical point of view, this sixth vowel proposes a solution, a proposal, something to open a conversation on the subject.” *

For the creation of the vowel, the experts were based on the theory of typography. Arillo explained: “We wanted this sign to have characteristics such as legibility, harmony and rhythm, something that e, @ and x lack in this type of use.

García Torres and Arillo will present the vowel “secte” at the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) online congress soon, and at TypeCon, a symposium to be organized from Philadelphia. It is possible to request the letter for its use in the email aldoarillo@gmail.com.

The MAIN QUESTION HERE is: Why would a white, heterosexual and privileged man have to decide how to represent a vowel that alludes to a fight that clearly does not belong to him?

Different groups and collectives, including several feminist groups, have shown indignation and anger at the artist’s proposal. I understand why. I find it interesting to share this, to open the discussion.

* source: https://www.elnorte.com/aplicacioneslibre/preacceso/articulo/default.aspx?__rval=1&urlredirect=/crean-mexicanos-vocal-inclusiva-para-el-espanol/ar2140611

Allora and Calzadilla are a collaborative duo of visual artists who live and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Jennifer Allora (b. 1974, Philadelphia, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (b. 1971, Havana, Cuba)
Since the beginning of their collaborative career in 1995, Allora & Calzadilla have worked in a variety of media to produce a body of work spanning sculpture, photography, performance art, sound and video. Allora and Calzadilla are known for their interactive art pieces in public, often addressing social and political issues and engaging questions of history, geopolitics, and culture.

Chalk (1998) is an ongoing art project in which the artists place human-size sticks of chalk – each piece measuring 64 inches in length – in public spaces for passers-by to use as they choose.

Chalk is not a completed project. It has been presented in many cities globally, including Zapopan-Mexico, Boston, Paris, Sydney and New York. This ongoing project was also installed in the central government square in Lima, Peru, to stand as a part of the 2002 Biennial Iberoamericana. With each iteration, the character of the work shifts in response to the locals, social, and political factors

I wanted to share this to broaden the vision of the formats that a collective demonstration can have. I find it interesting to think about the complaint beyond institutional formats. I would like to highlight the simplicity of this piece as a potential for the use of public space as a huge blackboard, an extended canvas on which one can write, sue or complain.

Although the piece is not a specific call to express complaints, on the multiple occasions in which the “agents, executors, pedestrians or participants” have performed, they use the opportunity to express general discontent, complaints with the government, emotional manifestations or political positions. .

I also wanted to show this in relation to the book Complaintivism!, to see explorations of how the complaint can be thought from art, how from the idea of “installation, performance or drawing” the public space can be rethought to share the private issues.

Remarkable the game with the scale. It seems accurate to me, how a device as simple as chalk, with that school connotation that it has, by making it giant, takes on a sculptural dimension that empowers the potential writer. Removing the chalk out of class and placing it into art spaces or streets stands as a chance for the public to share their ideas and enlighten their foils.

Víctor del Oral

Mónica Mayer is an artist who has dabbled in drawing, photography, digital graphics and performance. Her work is characterized by being a precursor of feminist art in Mexico. Mónica Mayer was born in Mexico City in 1954. She studied visual arts at the National School of Plastic Arts of UNAM. The author began making feminist art when she was frowned upon in our country. The artists who raised their voices to express their dissatisfaction with machismo and violence against women were immediately considered lesbians and hating men. I like the idea of sharing it on this blog because I find that she is an artistic reference in the Mexican context that makes direct allusion to the idea of the complaint already in the late 70’s.

Her work “Tendedero” was exhibited for the first time in 1978 and has been replicated to this day in various educational, cultural and university institutions, even in virtual form. This work is based on hanging sheets of various sizes and colors and invites women to hang their own paper with phrases, questions, complaints or opinions. This work has been a great success because women have found a way to report and express themselves anonymously and without retaliation, especially in disadvantaged situations such as between students and teachers.

The work has been reproduced in different contexts, dates and cities throughout these 40 years.

In the mid-1970s Mónica Mayer became part of a group of artists who conceived their work within the context of artistic feminism. (POLVO DE GALLINA NEGRA) In 1978 she moved to Los Angeles to study at the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman’s Building. It was there that she encountered artists who were central to the US feminist art movement, such as Judy Chicago and Suzanne Lacy.

In 1978 she produced El tendedero (The Clothesline Proyect) at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. She invited visitors to hang up small sheets of paper on which they had completed the phrase “As a woman, the thing I detest most about the city is . . .” in order to encourage a dialogue about the violence experienced by women in public spaces.

Mayer said in 2017:
What has changed in forty years?
The only thing that is different now is that I am not the only one doing it.

I´M TIRED OF PASSWORDS, I´M NOT A ROBOT

PASSWORDS FOR THE MOODLE

PASSWORDS FOR THE MAIL

PASSWORDS FOR THE BLOG

PASSWORDS FOR THE CPTV

PASSWORDS, PASSWORDS, PASSWORDS

LESS PASS , MORE WORDS! ( ? )

LESS WORDS, MORE PASS !

IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO ACCESS TO ALL THE PLATFORMS AT THE UNIVERSITY, THERE ARE SO MANY, AND EACH ONE WITH BAD DESIGN, BAD INTERFACE, NOT PEDAGOGIC, NOT INTUITIVE, NOT FRIENDLY. A LOT OF BUREAUCRACY, UNNECESSARY PROCESSES. STOP, STOP, STOP.

IT´S INCREDIBLE! I´M FED UP OF LOGIN NAMES, USER NAMES, PASSWORDS.. OPEN MORE ACCOUNTS…AND MORE… AND MORE…. DIFFICULT TO GET HERE… EVERYTHING IS SO COMPLICATED, LABYRINTHINE, WHY NOT MAKE IT EASIER?

MY FIRST COMPLAIN IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM IN THE UNIVERSITY.

LESS PASSWORDS, LESS FINE PRINT, I´M NOT A ROBOT!

VICTOR DEL (M) ORAL