The precariousness of women's battered faces: an ethical and political clamor

um clamor ético e político

Abstract

This article discusses the different and asymmetric distribution of life support as a condition of (socially and culturally) induced precariousness, such as violence against women. We chose images of violated faces of women from two different corpuses: the first, used in the problematization of the article, consists of images from an international campaign designed by the artist Palombo; the second was intentionally taken from the Google search site, having as search criterion the campaign BREAK THE SILENCE (2016-2022). To be more specific: what are the lines of political force at stake in the precariousness of the battered faces in the campaigns, particularly in BREAK THE SILENCE campaign? The analysis has enabled us to say that the images, as a technopolitical force, put under stress the persistence in exposing the faces of the brutality of violence against women, still present contemporaneity. The battered faces are exposed in the public arena, with their political and ethical powers, revisiting suffering and pain, as possible ways to resist dehumanizing violence and to outline their political possibilities of confrontation.