“For Rage”: Rape Survival, Women's Anger, and Sisterhood in Chaucer's Legend of Philomela

Abstract

This article examines women's rage in response to rape, arguing that Chaucer depicts the possibilities of female rage and collective action in his Legend of Philomela. This article situates Chaucer's portrayal of sisterly anger in the context of the Philomela narrative in John Gower's Confessio Amantis and Ovid's Metamorphoses. It links this discussion of sisterhood, anger, and survival in medieval texts to contemporary examples of victim-survivors who use similar tactics to respond to their assaults and to challenge the cultural conditions that made them possible.

Gender Inequalities and the Effects of Feminine Artworks on Public Spaces: A Dialogue

“…She highlighted her artworks under the title Stop Telling Women to Smile by depicting non-smiling portraits of women above certain slogans, such as "Women: Not Here for Your Entertainment" or "My Name Is Not Baby": "These works provide an opportunity for the women who were silenced by the harassment to regain their voice" (Bacharach, 2018, p. 36). Similar to this, one can mention MissMe's Vandals works in Montréal, which, through the artistic placement of wheat-pasted characters, try to transform inherently patriarchal built space to generate dialogue around the issues that affect women, such as safety within urban centers, violence against women, racism, and colonization (Harris, 2019). In another example, we can add the feminist street artwork of the Mexican artist Mónica Barajas.…”