Participatory Graffiti as Invitational Rhetoric: The Case of O Machismo

Abstract

This article engages the Brazilian O Machismo graffiti project as an example of invitational visual rhetoric. Although most understandings of graffiti as communication consider it to be a persuasive artistic form, O Machismo invites viewers to respond to its invitation to help complete the art project and collectively share in co-creating its message. Through an examination of the responses to the invitation that emerge to resist machismo and promote non-patriarchal understandings, the article offers some ideas about how an invitational visual rhetoric expands our previous understandings of graffiti.