(Re)shaping Representations of Women in the Apocalypse: Women on the Walls in Belfast and Bogotá
摘要
In situations of peace and conflict, women are rarely represented as actors in the conflict, and when they are, they are overwhelmingly shown along two lines, denying them their agency: either as ‘life-giving’ (Åhäll, 2012) and caring victims/peacemakers/mothers, or as ‘life-taking’ violent mothers/monsters/whores (Sjoberg & Gentry, 2007). This binary representation is also found in biblical and mythological accounts of the end of the world. In Belfast and Bogotá, murals have been used by conflict actors and communities to communicate and share images of who and what peace, conflict, and politics look like. These representations offer insights into how women are perceived in situations of conflict and peace, and show images of everyday apocalypses usually ignored by peacebuilding institutions. This chapter looks at climate change and gender-based violence as everyday apocalypses, and analyses the gendered ways in which they have been represented in the street art of both cities. The goal is to offer new perspectives for peace and conflict studies by taking everyday violences and visuality seriously.