Of Monsters and Women: Feminist Response to Gender-based Violence in Galician Noir

Abstract

This article contrasts strategies of resistance to gender-based violence in two examples of audiovisual media which draw on or subvert the burgeoning genre of Galician noir; season one of the TVG-Netflix hit O sabor das margaridas (2018) directed by Miguel Conde and the women-centred grassroots feminist web series Monstras (2020) directed by Eire García Cid. These divergent case studies muddy the binary of female victimhood and male aggression whilst drawing attention to the hegemonic sexual politics and socioeconomic systems which facilitate and endorse violence against women and girls. Yet while Monstras stands as a paradigmatic example of a socially conscious, ideologically driven artistic response to patriarchal violence, the feminist attributes of O sabor das margaridas are largely trumped by commercial concerns, shown for example through the eroticisation of violence. Though Galician noir has made a breakthrough on international streaming media by foregrounding women’s resistance to gender-based violence, this tends to be manipulated by the bid for viewer ratings. Fundamentally, it continues to be in alternative media where some of the most revolutionary conversations about women’s rights are taking place in the Galician cultural sphere.