Bodies that Do Not Matter
Marginality in Maya Goded's Photographs of Sex Workers in Mexico City
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2170198 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dominika Gasiorowski (0000-0001-6537-2612, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 501-515 |
| Publication date | 2015-10-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569325.2014.993308 |
| OpenAlex | W2324032803 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
Maya Goded is one of the most renowned contemporary Mexican photographers. This paper focuses on an analysis of a selection of photographs from her album entitled Plaza de la soledad (2006), which contains images of prostitutes working in the oldest red-light-district of Mexico City. After briefly situating Goded in the context of contemporary Mexican visual culture and its relationship with representing prostitution, the focus will shift to the ethical tensions involved in socially engaged visual production using Plaza de la soledad as an example. Drawing on Judith Butler's theories in Bodies That Matter (1993) Goded's photographs will be examined as cultural texts challenging gendered stereotypes in Mexico and visually resisting reductive binaries. They will also be studied as simultaneously forging a cultural space for otherwise unrepresented or underrepresented people and potentially fetishising and commercialising the suffering of others. To that end, recent theoretical debates about ethical ambiguities in documentary photography will be considered. Close analysis of a selection of photographs from the album will exemplify different representations of women within the frames of their internal and external displacements while examining the images' potential for empowerment as well the risks of exploitation
Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Empowerment · Ethnology · Maya · Mexico city · Political science · Sociology · Visual arts · Visual culture · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Photography and Visual Culture
| Highly cited | No |
|---|