UnBoliviable Bouts: Gender and Essentialisation of Bolivia’s Cholitas Luchadoras

Haynes, Nell

doi:10.1057/9781137439369_17

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…This ultimately referred to women's violent capacity, equal to men, to retaliate and to achieve justice. More broadly, in agreement with Haynes (2015), the wrestling cholita figure links the figure of the cholita with her feminine capacity of protest, which becomes visible in the protests of feminist women's organisations such as those organised by CIDEM. Further, the spectacle also pinpointed the limits of the 'vigi lant' capacity of the FELCC and the vecinos 'vigi lantism'.…”

Section: Cidem's Vigilant Capacitymentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Nell Haynes (2015) argues the 'fighting cholitas' act as icons both of indigenous women caricatured as violent and unruly, and of indige nous protest against colonial powers and unfair social policies. She argues the figure of the cholita in the wrestling ring undoes the politi cal power that indigenous violence might have in protest settings by converting it into spectacle.…”

Section: Vtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…My attendance at the wrestling show inspired by a friend and colleague at CIDEM became incorporated into my understanding of the overall work as an activistresearcher at CIDEM's archival centre in La Paz. 5 I had expected the wrestling match to be comical with the typical men in leotards and American masks, or the popular fighting cholitas, two Aymara women fighting each other (Haynes 2015). Nonetheless, this expectation was challenged when at the show a wrestler cholita and a wrestler 'colonel' started a fight.…”

Section: The Journey To the Wrestling Ringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, this particular wrestling match symbolises the longterm tension between indigenous and colonial powers and leg acies. In the wrestling match, the gendering of the Aymara culture is feminised in the figure of the cholita, bearing the essence of the indige nous Aymara group (Haynes 2015), while the state and its legal system is masculinised in the figure of the colonel and the corrupted referee, thus portraying two gendered moral sides (Haynes 2013: 436) alongside the gendering of legal powers. Both men, standing for the state police forces and the state justice system, beat the cholita up until she gains strength and puts down the colonel.…”

Section: Vigilant Systems Of Urban Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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CIDEM’s femicide archive and the process of gendered legal change in Bolivia

Miguel-Lorenzo

2020

Journal of Legal Anthropology

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This article analyses a spectacle, a wrestling match, that brings out the problem of violence against women and the role of activist organisations such as the Centro de Información y Desarrollo de la Mujer (CIDEM) to raise awareness among people and to influence the Bolivian state to change the gender of the law. In effect, it considers CIDEM’s vigilant role, by visualising cases of femicides in partnership with the press, is translated in wrestling matches. The article considers one such wrestling match I witnessed in El Alto, Bolivia, and argues that CIDEM’s vigilant role extends to overlooking and complementing the vigilant roles of the state and customary legal systems in El Alto that are unable to prevent femicides: women being killed by men because of their gender.

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Section: Cidem's Vigilant Capacitymentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Vtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Journey To the Wrestling Ringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vigilant Systems Of Urban Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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CIDEM’s femicide archive and the process of gendered legal change in Bolivia

Miguel-Lorenzo

2020

Journal of Legal Anthropology

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Between antagonism and eros: the feud as couple form and Netflix’sGLOW

Chow

Laine

2019

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory

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The trope of feuding women is often characterized by a slippage between the representational and non-representational worlds, between character and performer. Ruth Wilder and Debbie Eagan, the protagonists of Netflix's popular television program GLOW, are contemporary representatives of a form of antagonistic "coupling" that includes celebrity "beefs" (Cardi B and Nicki Minaj), German drama based on English history (Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I in Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart), classic films (All About Eve, 1950, dir: Darryl F. Zanuck) but which stretches back at least to 18th century theatre (see Nussbaum 2013). Ruth and Debbie, played by Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin, are both actresses, and best friends. While Debbie has made a regular appearance and apparently a good living as an ingenue in a long running soap opera, Ruth has not had a break and finds herself in an endless cycle of auditions and scene study classes. In the pilot episode of the series, Ruth auditions for a women's wrestling promotion, but is unsuccessful. Immediately following the audition in the wrestling ring, she is confronted by Debbie, after Debbie discovers that Ruth has had an affair with her husband. As the pair physically fight in the ring, the show's director, Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) sees the possibilities of capitalizing on both Ruth's willingness to fight and on the established feud between the two women. Framed by the peculiar theatricality of the professional wrestling ring, the fight highlights the slippage between the supposedly representational in-ring violence, and the "real" feelings of enmity between the former friends. "Is this real?" another aspiring wrestler asks, watching them fight. "Who the fuck cares," answers another.

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UnBoliviable Bouts: Gender and Essentialisation of Bolivia’s Cholitas Luchadoras

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

CIDEM’s femicide archive and the process of gendered legal change in Bolivia

CIDEM’s femicide archive and the process of gendered legal change in Bolivia

Between antagonism and eros: the feud as couple form and Netflix’sGLOW

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