Visual Fragments and the Politics of Place: Feminist Advocacy in Czech Public Culture

Abstract

This article analyzes how Forum 50%'s visual “argumentative fragments” respond to and make visible the gendered norms of Czech political culture and advocate for women's increased levels of participation, representation, and legitimacy. Forum 50%'s visual rhetoric provides a compelling case to assess the argumentative resources of image events, the politics of place, and the role of humor for feminist work in the public sphere and on the public screen. Through an examination of Forum 50%'s visual strategies, this article demonstrates the importance of orchestrating a visible public image that commands political agency and dismantles gendered stereotypes while taking advantage of the rhetorical resources within a specific cultural context and place. Forum 50%'s campaign expands our understanding of gender and social protest, demonstrates the extent to which women can work toward political equality in a post-Communist environment, and explores the potential for visual argument to spark social change.

Keywords:

• Czech Republic
• Forum 50%
• humor
• image events
• public screen
• strategic juxtaposition
• visual rhetoric

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Lindsey B. Anderson (Ph.D. Purdue, 2014) for her research assistance on earlier versions of this article. Thank you also to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their expertise; the article is much improved as a result.

Notes

See the special issues of Argumentation and Advocacy, 33, edited by David S. Birdsell and Leo Groarke (1996).

Forum 50% launched its campaign in early April 2010 to make the public aware of the abysmal visibility of women on the party lists just announced for the May election. Women held approximately 25% of the list positions and were more likely to be in lower spots on the lists. The author attended the press conference of the launch, collected campaign materials, and made initial contacts with political women in attendance.

Consider, for example, the seminal studies listed mentioned earlier in this article on the ways visual imagery constitutes meaning of important social, political, and identity issues. Each is written from the perspective of U.S. culture. This study broadens that perspective to consider gender and social protest from another vantage point.

Michael McGee (1980) explains that ideographs are not simply propositions but are “pregnant” with meaning, “the building blocks, of ideology” (p. 7). Terms such as equality or quota function ideographically in Czech culture, resonating with the prior order rather than suggesting progressive change.

The image may be viewed on Forum 50%'s Web site at http://padesatprocent.cz/cz/kampane-2/starsi-kampane.

Cartoon reprinted with permission of the cartoonist.

The cartoons may be viewed, in Czech, on the Forum 50% Web site: http://padesatprocent.cz/cz/zeny-v-politice/kampan/samolepky.

The spots are archived at http://padesatprocent.cz/cz/zeny-v-politice/kampan/spoty.

Forum 50% archived much of the coverage here: http://padesatprocent.cz/cz/nase-aktivity/kampane/kure-v-mediich-a-na-fotografiich.