Att erövra barerna. Former och platser för kulturell förhandling kring genus i Spanien

Abstract

Cultural negotiation (e.g. gossip, debate, education) is a continuous activity in all societies, but in times of fast change it becomes especially intense. Spain offers interesting examples of how. The forms and places for such negotiations may also change. Key fora for cultural negotiations have been quite segregated along gender lines in Spain. This is still the case, but much less so, and segregation is questioned. This delegitimation is a central feature of gender change. One example of a forum that according to Spanish feminists should be "conquered" is the bars. Far from being a frivolous goal, conquering the bars is a question of personal freedom; it concerns the practical resources of everyday life and the possibilities for influencing collective decisions. The bars are a traditionell male forum. There have been traditional female fora, too, but they are disappearing. There are also more and more new kinds of fora that are mostly but not absolutely gender segregated. Since women and men today more often have similar experiences in life than they used to, their interests and habits tend to converge, but they also continue to have different ones. Everyday debates about these developments are polarised around issues of whether such changes are true or false, good or bad. In middle class contexts in Madrid, the discourses around gender issues focus especially on work, sexuality, merit, femininity, and modernisation. When such matters are being redefined, it is crucial that women participate and influence the process. Access to fora such as bars and patterns of interaction there then become strategic study objects for feminist research.