A wall of one's own: how gender impacts participation in Graffiti and Street Art

Abstract

The topic of this work revolves around the presence of women in mainly male dominated subcultures that take place in the metropolitan environment. Women during the 20th century have started taking up spaces in cities, in various forms and through different means. A path chosen by some is the participation in one of the subculture movements that has more of a dialogue with public spaces: graffiti and, later on, street art. In the first part of this work I analyze and discuss the notion of public space as opposed to that of private space, the idea of gendered city and the evolution and history of graffiti, pointing out the differences and similarities with the more widely accepted phenomenon of street art. The second part deals with questions about women’s participation or exclusion in subcultures and specifically in the graffiti world, focusing on the significance deriving from taking ownership of a space that tends to exclude them. The work aspires to shed a light on how the practice of graffiti can serve as means to create an identity, and how much gender plays a part in the way women choose to represent and identify themselves on the walls.