Feminist Performance as Challenging Voice-Body Regimentation

Abstract:This article proposes a close listening to women’s voices in Chile today. Subverting the assumption that the study of voices leads preferably to the description of individual subjectivities, this article aims to interrogate the collective dimension of vocal sound through the study of the performance A Rapist in Your Path. Its impact on the feminist movement is examined by paying attention to two versions in which vocal sounds articulate specific notions of identity, both of which challenge the conventional ordering of gender. It is the vocal timbre that disrupts this order, allowing us to hear the voices of Mapuche women shouting in their language and extreme metal singers sonically embodying violence. Thus, diverting the attention from the lyrics and movement to the sound itself, the articulation between this denunciation of rape culture and forms of inequality experienced by women in Chile becomes evident.