Book presentation: "The Sexist Microphysics of Power"
“The Sexist Microphysics of Power. The Alcàsser Case and the Construction of Sexual Terror” – Nerea Barjola
Venue and Date Details
Online event: join via this link
Zoom link https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/81808545937
Date: 17th October
Time: 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Organised by: Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS) – University of Leeds
Book Presentation: “The Sexist Microphysics of Power. The Alcàsser Case and the Construction of Sexual Terror”, by Nerea Barjola.
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies is happy to host Nerea Barjola's most recent book. The event will be conducted in Spanish with translation provided by the translator Hannah Jeffrey (School of Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds.) This event will be hosted by the PhD student Laura Berro Yoldi.
Abstract
In her book “The Sexist Microphysics of Power” (2024, AK Press) Nerea Barjola proposes a paradigm shift in our understanding of gender violence and in the culture that enjoys its gruesome repetition. The Alcàsser crime and its patriarchal construction on women’s sexuality strongly impacted a whole generation of women, at a moment when the feminist movement had achieved new and essential steps towards women’s rights.
In 1992, three teenage girls from Alcàsser, a small town in Spain, who took part in a discotheque party were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, tortured and assassinated by two men. Their whereabouts remained unknown for 75 days when their bodies were found by a local. During that period, the media constructed a sensationalist and grotesque story around the harm done to the girls’ bodies, based on the events that occurred that night.
The media, particularly on TV news and shows, released graphic details that fuelled the narrative of sexual dangers towards women. This narrative constructed the idea that rape is not a crime but the expropriation of the female body, a threat against women as a class of potential victims. This narrative situates the responsibility of the violence onto the possible victims who must internalise their own control policing by limiting their freedom of movement. In other words, it is women who must carry the burden of staying safe through their avoidance of some (public) places and certain activities, to avoid being sexually assaulted or killed.
Barjola takes the concepts of “Bare life” (Giorgio Agamben), “Performativity” (Judith Butler) and the day-to-day operations of power (Michel Foucault) and Silvia Federici’s analysis of the witch hunt as a starting theoretical point to transform the Alcàsser crime from a (sexual) terror story, something unusual and exceptional, into a political narrative, a social construction inserted into our daily lives.
Author: Nerea Barjola
Nerea Barjola (Santurtzi, 1980) is a feminist writer, researcher, trainer and consultant. Barjola holds a PhD in Feminism and Gender Studies from the University of the Basque Country, as well as a Political Science and Administration degree. She also holds the title of Equality Agent.
Barjola’s academic interest is centred on the representations of sexual violence towards women and its conceptualisation as a political project. Her research process gave birth to her thesis: “Las representaciones del peligro sexual y su influencia en las prácticas de las mujeres a partir del crimen sexual de Alcàsser (1992)” [Sexual danger representations and their influence in women’s practices from Alcàsser’s sexual crime (1992)].
In 2018 she published “Microfísica Sexista del Poder. El caso Alcàsser y la construcción del terror sexual” [Sexist Microphysics of Power. The Alcàsser Case and the Construction of Sexual Terror] published through Virus editorial. Since then, she has taken part in plenty of conferences, seminars and publications.
In addition, in the last few years, she has taken part as a researcher in diverse projects and publications, such as “Placer y peligro: politizando el debate sobre la violencia sexual, Aquí estamos. Puzzle de un momento feminista” (Akal, 2019) and “Genova Per noi, Tranquilas. Historias para ir solas por las noches” (Lumen, 2019).
Currently, Barjola combines the writing of academic publications with work as an adviser in equality policies, as well as provides advice and script analysis with a gender perspective for film producers.
In 2021 her book, “Microfísica Sexista del Poder”, received the 2021 Menina Prize, in the category “Obra para la transformación social” [Piece for Social Transformation], by the Ministry of Equality and the Government Delegation Against Gender Violence of Spain.
Host: Laura R. Berro Yoldi is an intersectional feminist activist and researcher. She is currently studying for a PhD, "Au Pairing in the UK Post-Brexit Migration Regime", which intersects migration, work and gender. Her research interests are domestic and care work, gender and migration, sexual violence and women's representation in the media and RRSS.
Hannah Jeffrey [Interpreter]. A recent graduate of the University of Leeds MA in Conference Interpreting and Translation, Hannah is now a freelance interpreter and translator, working from French and Spanish into English. She is particularly interested in working in the fields of feminism and migration and has worked with a variety of clients, from large organisations to individuals.