Gender-based violence in the Spanish cinema

• Published in: Revista de medicina y cine 2016-04, Vol.11 (4), p.190-202
• Main Author: Beatriz OGANDO DÍAZ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: violencia contra las mujeres; violencia de género; violencia doméstica
• ISSN: 1885-5210

Complex phenomena are hardly understood from one single viewpoint. Cinema has a polyhedral approach that discloses the hidden faces of reality. There are many aspects to be shown in gender?based violence (GBV), such as its genesis and the causes of its durability; emotional abuse in the form of controlling behaviors, isolation and submission; and the consequences of all this. The range of operation for GBV is very wide (within the couple, in the family and the workplace, institutional and community?based, among others), as much as it is universal, cutting across social class, race, economic status, religion or nationality. Movies may prove useful in revealing violent male?chauvinist behaviors, some of them so deeply rooted in societies that they tend to become normalized and to go unnoticed. In spite of the efforts towards visibility, and understanding and stopping violence against women, the phenomenon remains largely unknown. The movie industry is now beginning to reflect it in motion pictures, sometimes in a more explicit or argumentative manner, at other times more covertly or obliquely. We have made a selection of ten Spanish movies depicting some of these multiple facets: violence against women in the domestic domain, sexual violence, and violence related to economic and sociocultural aspects.