Nasty Women: The Right to Appear Together

Abstract

Activists and artists understand that images create meaning about the world around us. Images have the power to expose culturally learned meanings and to serve as catalysts for socio-political activism. On the occasion of the 2016 Women’s March in Washington, D.C., thousands of women and their supporters gathered together—to voice their concerns about gender, economic, racial, and environmental injustices; as well as the erosion of reproductive, LGBTQ, and immigrant rights. Events fueling the Women’s March, significantly, the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Nasty Women’s Movement, and future events that the march set in motion, represent a pivotal moment in history that shows how women use public assembly for social activism. This article focuses on strategies of visual address by nasty women, who are artists and activists that contest gender-based inequities and promote feminist practices toward socio-political, cultural, and aesthetic experiences that empower women’s lives.