Breathe
By Thelma Elena Pérez Álvarez
Although the official narrative insists on declaring the end of neoliberalism in Mexico, this is not the case. This dominant model of socio-cultural articulation continues to legitimize beliefs and controls, translated into structures that asymmetrically distribute economic and social resources based on alliances between economic and political elites established to strengthen their power and maintain capital accumulation.
Neoliberalism is a class-based political project and a disciplinary regime (Harvey, 2005) that operates through discourses that exalt individualism, choice, freedom, mobility and national security, with the aim of depoliticizing inequality and normalizing precariousness. Thus, the experience of multidimensional inequalities is a consequence of personal choices and not of the inequitable distribution of resources.
If we add to the above the ingredient of populism, we have a cocktail of neoliberal populism, which, while constructs simplifying and sentimentalizing discourses on social complexity, promoting nationalism and polarization, justifies the permanence of inequalities, undermines rights and democratic principles to gain control of powers and institutions.
Media, inequalities and violence against women
The media play a structural role in the legitimization and normalization of inequalities and violence against women. The multidimensional inequalities experienced by women in Mexico, after 40 years (and counting) of neoliberal policies, are the result of sociocultural processes that, under the rhetoric of "empowerment" and "free choice", resignify and validate logics that perpetuate a vicious circle of distributive (material) and representative (symbolic) inequalities with greater impact on us (Pérez Álvarez, 2020).
Violence against women is the cause and consequence of historical inequalities and resignified by neoliberal culture. Specifically, symbolic violence in the media modality occurs when media content constructs and disseminates forms of inequality and discrimination that are outside the media, because in the social imaginary there is a symbolic support based on gender inequality, which intersects with other sources of inequality (class, race, ethnicity, age) and first allows the expression of symbolic violence and then others, such as media violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, physical violence, etc.
La Casa de Los Famosos is a media content that seeks to legitimize the misogyny and discrimination that have caused the violence registered so far against the participants of the reality show (symbolic, psychological and feminicidal apology). This includes the revictimization and the demand to the members to reconcile with aggressors, the minimization of mental health problems, the trivialization of the LGBTQIA+ population and xenophobic expressions.
In addition to the spectacularization and capitalization of conflicts by the television station, production companies, brands and partners with a presence in the reality show based on contractual provisions, ratings and interactions, since the content expands to socio-digital networks and platforms, where the activity of audiences functions as a sounding board, participating in the reproduction and normalization of these inequalities and violence.
Government response
The olive in the cocktail of neoliberal populism and its relation with reality TV was placed by President AMLO in the morning of August 15, when he minimized the violence denounced and the scope of the program. Also, when he pointed to his confidence in the Mexican people to choose worthwhile content and indicated that, instead of censorship, content regulation should be in the media and not in the government. He also mentioned that, possibly, the owner of the TV station did not know about it.
The statement attempts to justify the government's inaction to guarantee both the rights of audiences and freedom of expression as well as the prevention, attention, punishment and eradication of violence against women, both on and off the screen, disregarding national legal frameworks and international treaties signed in this area. In the first quarter of 2024, 80,384 calls for gender violence were registered, 5% more than in the same period in 2023 (García, 2024) and every day between 9 and 10 femicides occur, but only 2 are investigated under the femicide protocol (Jiménez, 2024).
Likewise, he encouraged doubts about alliances with Televisa's owner by trying to excuse his responsibility in this fact. In 2022, the federal government paid the company 1.19 billion pesos in official advertising and social communication (Fundar, 2023).
Finally, it transferred the responsibility to the citizenry. Thus, inequalities and violence are the product of personal decisions and not of a government that perennially shirks its obligation to guarantee women's right to a life free of violence. I insist, on and off the screen.
* Lecturer in digital communication, advertising and marketing at universities in Spain and Mexico. Actively works for the Mexican State to guarantee the human right to media and information literacy.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()