{"id":189,"date":"2020-06-24T14:15:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T21:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/virtualkoerners\/?p=189"},"modified":"2020-06-26T16:24:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T23:24:57","slug":"peruvian-punks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/virtualkoerners\/peruvian-punks\/","title":{"rendered":"Peruvian Punks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peruvian Punks<\/strong>
\ny la minorizaci\u00f3n de lo femenino<\/p>\n

By Fabiola Bazo
\nStudent in the PhD program in Gender, Race and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia<\/em><\/p>\n

As I read Rita Segato for this week’s discussion I thought, Damn! Why didn\u2019t I have this text while I was writing about misogyny in the Peruvian punk<\/a> scene in the 80s?<\/p>\n

A punk scene sprouted in Lima in the 80s. It was a youth counterculture dominated by men and with clearly masculine symbolism and rituals. However, a small number of women dared to participate in this counterculture as musicians, among them Patricia Roncal<\/a>, best known as Mar\u00eda T-ta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mar\u00eda T-ta had a very assertive discourse about female sexuality, and made it clear that she did \u201cwith her life and with her body what she wanted.\u201d Her lyrics, presentations, interviews and publications evidenced her critique of machismo in Peruvian society. For instance, one of her songs describes the rape of a maid (a racialized woman from the Andes) by the son of a white family in a rich neighbourhood in Lima.<\/p>\n

Her discourse was not welcomed in the punk scene, because the “dominant social thought” considered women’s issues to be a minority issue. As Segato argues, this minorizaci\u00f3n<\/em> infantilizes women, and confines women\/feminine issues to the sphere of the intimate, of the private, as a \u201cminority issue\u201d (2017: 91). Advancing feminine themes that were at that time considered intimate was against the punk canon. A canon that considered it “of little importance” to bring to the public sphere issues that affect women due to their condition as women.<\/p>\n

To devalue Mar\u00eda T-ta\u2019s attempt to merge spheres, her project to de-minorizar<\/em> feminine issues, punks claimed that Mar\u00eda T-ta\u2019s music and performative style was not serious. It was unpleasant and trivialized important social issues because \u201cshe had shit in her brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enforcing the punk masculinity mandate<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEl mandato de la masculinidad exige al hombre probarse hombre todo el tiempo; porque la masculinidad, a diferencia de la femineidad, es un status, una jerarqu\u00eda de prestigio, se adquiere como un t\u00edtulo y se debe renovar y comprobar su vigencia como tal\u201d (Segato 2018: 40).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEl hombre que responde y obedece al mandato de masculinidad se instala en el pedestal de la ley y se atribuye el derecho de punir a la mujer a quien atribuye desacato o desv\u00edo moral\u2026el estatus masculino depende de la capacidad de exhibir esa potencia, donde masculinidad y potencia son sin\u00f3nimos\u201d (Segato 2018: 44)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although the punk scene questioned authority, injustice and social conventions, it disciplined unacceptable behaviours sneakily with jokes and paternalistic attitudes, or overtly with physical aggression. Mar\u00eda T-ta\u00b4s lyrics dealing humorously with women\u2019s desire \u201cinfuriated\u201d male punks who verbally and physically abused her while she performed. \u201cThe macho<\/em>\u201d was brought out when punks saw a woman who wanted to take command on the stage.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda T-ta awakened the demons of many people, who considered her \u201ca woman out of control,\u201d who did not know \u201cher place.\u201d So it became necessary to ensue the mandate of masculinity to exercise violence. Attackers would jump on the stage, and some thought their intention was “to make her disappear.\u201d Or as Rita Segato would put it, she was violently disciplined by the patriarchal forces imposed on all of those who [must continue to] inhabit that margin of politics (Segato 2017: 96).<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, a scene that considered itself libertarian, denouncing conservative values \u200b\u200bassociated with the authority of the family, the Church and the State, rested on a patriarchal system demanding “sobriety” and “seriousness” as parameters of what was considered to be an “appropriate” punk. Women\u2019s participation was tolerated only so long as it was subordinated to the mandate of masculinity and respected the division between the public and private spheres.<\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/p>\n