Abstract

BARRERA BASSOLS, Dalia  and  CONTRERAS MEDINA, Sonia Guadalupe. Reivindicaciones femeninas, dominación masculina y violencia simbólica en las canciones de Paquita la del Barrio. La ventana [online]. 2018, vol.6, n.48, pp.294-326. ISSN 1405-9436.

This work presents the results of the analysis of Paquita la del Barrio’s songs, a well-known Mexican singer of popular music, splitting her musical career into two main phases which encompass her transition from the singer of bolero and canciones de la noche -songs about night life- to her current image as defender of women and an advocate for a strong and aggressive response from their part to their being exploited, depricated, and aggravated by their partners’ infidelities. She became internationally known during the second phase for her song titled “Rata de dos patas” -two-legged-rat-, developping a long list of song lyrics that aim to respond to women’s grievances by denigrating the supposed manhood of machista men while referring not only to their actual abuses, such as cheating or a lack of loyalty in general, but also to the assumed “small” size of their sexual attributes and to their sexual decline, which comes naturally with aging. According to these songs, attempts are made by those men to mitigate this decline by seducing significantly younger women, whom may in return pay back by cheating on them. Our analysis is based on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “symbolic violence”. Signficantly, we found only one song which aims at resignifying the concept of “real” manhood.

Keywords : Male domination; symbolic violence; female vindications; hate speech; misandry.

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