Tracing the Feminist Body in Protest
How do public spaces condition the way we hold our bodies? This question sat at the centre of my research when I explored the global circulation of the performance Un Violador en Tu Camino (A Rapist in Your Path). Originally created by the Chilean feminist collective LasTesis in 2019, the performance uses synchronised movement, accusatory lyrics, and collective presence to make visible the structural mechanisms of gendered violence.
When the performance migrated from Santiago to international streets, it took on new local resonances. Participating in the performance in Freiburg, Germany, offered a layered experience of solidarity and translation. While the core critique of state complicity remained intact, the shift from Spanish to German reflected how public institutions, legal systems, and cultural discourse shape local expressions of feminist resistance.
To explore this bodily dimension beyond abstract theory, I turned to autoethnographic methods. Over the course of a week, I worked with a partner to map my everyday posture across various public and private environments. Using a photo diary that tracked spatial contexts, body positions, and emotional states, I examined how gendered socialisation produces subtle, internalised patterns of spatial restriction. In public spaces, such as bus stops or busy streets, my posture frequently reflected learned habits of shrinking or folding inwards, whereas private or familiar spaces allowed for more expansive physical ease.
This everyday physical self-regulation stands in stark contrast to the embodied disruption of protest performance. Re-enacting the choreography in a private setting as part of a visual video experiment revealed the profound emotional charge of collective action. Without the physical presence of the crowd, gestures such as pointing in direct accusation felt vulnerable, yet the underlying resilience of the performance remained palpable.
By bridging everyday autoethnography with the explosive energy of collective protest, this research highlights how the body serves as both a site of social discipline and an instrument of political resistance. It reminds us that reclaiming public space begins with how we inhabit our own physical presence in the world.
