Every November 25th we celebrate International Day against Gender Violence.
We are going to work a little about the issue reflecting on several posters from Jornadas de Diseño Motiva (Gijón, 2004). These posters are magnificent and I would like you think about them. What are they saying to us? Choose your favourite and leave a reply about it: what the message is, what kind of visual elements use to express it, why you has chosen it…
You can see them here.
We are going to comment the lyrics of these songs:
Love the way you lie by Eminem ft. Rihanna
Behind the wall by Tracy Chapman
Luka by Suzanne Vega
And finally: make up a mask as attacker or as attacked to do a photo-performance.
- Think about the face you would put if you were living under this kind of situation
- Take a self-portrait with this face
- Print it, so that your face fits a DIN A-4 page
- Add colours, lines… with markers, wax colours or collage
- Put rubber band on it in order to use it
Chromatic Spiral 
The image that I like the most is the one which shows less violence and more tolerance because I think that we have to use less violence and be more tolerant with each other and leave away the violence. Violence harms us whereas, tolerance is very important and makes us feel better.If we are tolerant, we do not have to use violence.If we are tolerant we are going to feel better than if we are violent.
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I am choosing this poster by Myriam Anllo because to me, it represents very well equality between men and women. To focus our attention it is painted in very strong colours like black and red. At the top there is an “H” representing men or female and under the “H” is written an “M” representig women or male. For me it is a very good representation of equality and I think the whole world needs to see this.
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I am choosing this photograph by Alberto Gombau because I think he represents very well what boys think about girls. Alberto Gombau, with this image, wants to represent that men think that women are objects. They think that girls are things that they can control, because they think they own them.
I think this is a good way to make people think about this topic: gender violence.
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I´ve found interesting the first image on which is written the word ¨love¨ by Carlos María Pérez Vazquez. In my opinion what this image is trying to tell us is that love and suffering must not be related, and to confuse them can lead people to a passive and submissive attitude when facing violent situations that can be very dangerous and can cause serious problems.
The image uses two colours, yellow and blue, these two colours clash and make the image much more attractive besides being painted over a dark background.
I have chosen this image because I think it expresses in a very direct way the idea of physical gender violence.
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I found interesting the image number eleven which is created by Carlos Maria Perez Vazquez. It shows a fist on which is have written the word “love”. I think it tries to reflect that violence and love can`t be together because some woman think that the men who hit them love them. The shapes in this image are very important to give reality to the image. The fist takes up all the space to be more impressive.
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I found the image created by Jorge Lorenzo very interesting. In this picture we can see a telephone hanging in the air and in movement, as if someone had just let it go.
I have chosen it because I think it represents the fear of these women, that do not dare to denounce their couples.
The artist has created the effect of movement in the telephone to make it more dramatic and impressive till the point that we really realize gender violence is very serious thing.
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My favourite picture is the one next to the la violencia no tiene generos , it is the one which has the two symbols of the two sexes. I think that it is very interesting because it is very atractive how it is made. It is very simple but I like it a lot .
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I think that this image by Juan Manuel González Calderón is pretty good. We see a daisy and a message that says I love me. It is written in spanish, so he represents the “o´´ like the symbol of the woman,that expresses a lot. Also, the coloques complete it.
The picture represents many feelings and insecurities of some women who think that they aren´t perfect or as perfect as they want to be.
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I´ve been lookinig at the different images and I´ve found one of them very interesting.
It´s photograph number 6, probably the easiest one to understand but I think it´s also the one which has the most important and powerful meaning.
Although this image has an easily understood meaning, it has some hidden clues. The kit with all the separated pieces that build up to form the woman includes also a cooking pan, a baby, a bottle of fabric conditioner and a broom; saying now-a-days, there are essential objects for a modern woman, although we´re in a so called contemporary age, in which everyone should have the same rights, obligations and rules, as well as freedom, self-personality and respect. I found the image very realistic, showing how women, forced by the way of thinking of a large part of the society, have to take care of different things, in this case related with the work inside the house. For several centuries, men had worked out of the family home, and woman stayed home taking care of children and house work while the men were out. We´re in the twenty-first century, when we can change this, and we have the power to do it, the only thing we have to do is to use all this energy we have to punish gender violence and to start initiatives to try to avoid it. We think it´s a matter of ideology, but it´s also a matter of education, government, behaviour in each home, and a matter of not seeing gender violence as something normal, as we do when we see it in TV news every day, we shouldn´t see it as something common, we should reject it.
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I chose the photo by Manuel Estrada, because I do not agree with this photo. In my opinion boys and girls are equal, and I think they shouldn´t have differences among them.
I think that the message of this photo is that the boy has more force than the girl. The boy can do everything that he wants, he thinks that he has the power and the girl has to do what the boy says.
The elements that are used in this photo are: the boy is sticking to the girl and the boy is strong.
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I chose this image of Ana de Tord and Joan Batalle because I found it very interesting. For me, it represents the control over women, in this case, like a relationship in which the man is a lock that does not give freedom to the woman. In this case she is just a key that the man controls like an object when he wants. The drop of blood represents the psychological and physical pain that the woman can suffer.
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I´ve found the first image interesting, the one by Alberto Gombau. In this image you can see a woman, she has a label that shows the conditions of how to use a woman and of what materials she is made. In my opinion this image shows us that a woman is made by the same materials (bones, muscles, etc) as a men. Also, that you can not use her in an inappropiate way.
On the other hand I think it shows the woman being a material, because males use them like this when they hurt them.
I like the image because it is shown in a very careful way, with a lot of details and, with some phrases. The simple image tells us a lot.
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My favourite picture of them all is the one with a flower ( daisy ). It says ” me quiero”, which means “I love myself”. For me this picture is very interesting because of the message it wants to transmit to us. Every girl has at some time picked a daisy and said “he loves me” “he loves me not” (thinking of a boy). But this picture says “I love myself “. One of the things that makes me think of this issue is because it takes you back, to when you were a kid and didn’t think of this fatal problem of gender discrimination. Women have to think if they are okay, If they are feeling confortable with themselves…if they love themselves before a man. Because you should go before any other person. That is why I think it is one of the most interesting pictures of the whole album of pictures talking about gender violence.
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I am choosing the image by Ricardo Morales because I was impressed by its simplicity and its message. It explains in only one word written in red, which stands out because the rest of the image is white. The victims of gender violence are caracterized because of that word “free”, because they aren’t, they are always in each situation of their daily life under the pressure of their partner.
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I am choosing the photo that shows the parts of a doll. This picture is expressive because it means that women are not dolls and you cannot make them feel as if they are. You cannot hit them and insult them because they have feelings and they can be hurt, they are not like dolls, you have to love them because they are humans.
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I’ve found the image by Peret very interesting. In this image you can find boxing gloves and a bunch of flowers, it also has a sentence in Spanish: “hay amores que matan…”.
I think it has a very strong meaning because the boxing gloves represent the hands that have been used for hitting the person and the bunch of flowers represents the present given to apologize for what he or she has done, but you have to reject it. Even if you love him or her, you have to stop it.
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I am choosing the photograph by Luis Sardá because I think it is very interesting and atractive. It means that men are stronger than women and in a future there will be less women than men. This picture is very realistic and I like it.
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The image by Carlos Gonzalez caught my attention because in it appears a male symbol crushing the female one, and it also shows a mark of superiority towards the woman. And I think that men and women are equal, so we have to respect each other.
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For me the image that has more impact on the viewer is the one by Miryam Anllo, it makes you think that both genders are totally equal. It is a very strong image because it shows that “M” and “F” can be letters that determine both genders and that there is not difference between them.
I liked this image a lot because of the different meanings that it can have.
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I have chosen the image by Estudio Manuel Estrada. The man represents the authority, the two figures seem like a puzzle that is removed. As we see, especially in this case, the woman is completely dislodged by the impact of the man’s fist. This image condemns gender violence and power that currently has the man over a woman. The latter reflects the dying or the wall there in the middle between the two.
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Although at first I found it very simple, after thinking about the relationship between the key of a padlock and a woman, I knew the image number five represented gender discrimination perfectly. Ana de Torn had a very ingenious way to represent it.
What first comes to my mind when I think about the image, is that a woman is the key, in a way in which, when gender discrimination occurs (mostly from men to women) the woman is the one who is suffering and is keeping the secret of all her pain. If she told someone what is happening to her, the man would be punished for all of what he had done to the woman. The woman could be the key for having a good relationship or could even go to the jail (in this case, the man).
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I especially like the one which says “Denúncialo”. I think it could be one of the most important ones because many women who are affected by this problem, don’t say anything about it just because they are scared. It is very important to recognise when you are beeing abuse by someone, but once you know you have to react and take measures to resolve the problem. If not this problem will not just continue…it will also increase.
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I´ve seen different images which have been interesting for me,but the one I like most is the number eight which belongs to Angel Gutiérrez. We can observe the male symbol hurting the female one. I think we are the ones who need to stop the violence towards women, because with time,it´s growing faster and faster.I also think that a real men is not the one who hits women, he is the one who cares for her.
Almost all the images shown reflect that life would be better if there is less violence and more tolerance.
Although women are more often the victims, men can also be.
And finally,my conclusion,is that men and woman are equal.
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The picture that I liked most was the one by Juan Carreño because it´s got a lot to do with
what we see nowadays sometimes. I think what this image is trying to say to us is that women can sometimes be seen as like we would say in spanish: un blanco fácil. In most of the cases of gender violence the main reason is because the man thinks he is better than the woman
and therefore he sees her as an easy target to abuse.
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I like the photograph by Peret.
I think this image represents a bad glove and flowers and these two things are not good because a flower is a good thing and a boxing glove is not.I like this photograph a lot and I think it is very interesting but I really like all of the photos.It is very important to do good things.
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This is the picture that I like the most. It shows us John Wayne, an actor, who in all of his movies respects women and helps them.
This picture shows how important it is to be respectful to women saying “does not hit a lady”.
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There are a lot of images that I like but the one that I love the most is by Ángel Gutiérrez in which the masculine symbol breaks the female one. I like it because it represents very well the gender violence with the red colour representing the blood and the broken symbol like a man killing or hiting a woman, when in my opinion men and women have the same rights.
My conclusion is that this violence has to end because it doesn’t get anywhere.
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The picture that I chose is the flower with the boxing glove by Peret. I think that this picture shows us a man who gives some flowers to a woman. This person supposedly is in love; and gives her some flowers. He gives the flowers to her in terms of love but it is not a true love so he abuses her. The boxing gloves representthe mistreated and Gender Violence.
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I have chosen the picture by M.D. Canto, because the sentence on it is terribly common in our society. People have a wrong concept of love, which is “it’s not real if you don’t suffer”. Actually, love is something you choose, and you should choose it because you like it, because it’s good for you. “Love hurts”, they say, but it doesn’t. If it hurts, it’s not love, it’s violence. If you don’t feel good, escape. That’s it. That’s what people should say. Our society has gender violence deep inside, we are surrounded by sexism, and we just can´t see it. We listen to expressions like this all the time, and we don’t care. We think it’s a romantic sentence, a melancholic way of thinking. But it isn’t. Gender violence is never poetic, opression is never a way to express love.
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