Spectacles of control: Gendered violence across cultures

This forum brings together rich and diverse interdisciplinary scholarship examining how violence against women operates not only as physical harm but also as cultural communication that reinforces power, hierarchy, and control. Spanning historical and contemporary contexts, the forum explores how myths, artistic canons, media narratives, legal systems, wartime practices, and everyday discourses normalize or obscure gendered violence while simultaneously generating spaces of resistance. Contributions address colonial legacies, honor and shame regimes, digital and media representations, state and institutional responses, migration and labor precarity, religious and nationalist discourses, and feminist and grassroots movements challenging systemic abuse. By situating femicide and gendered violence within global cultural narratives rather than isolated events, the forum highlights both the persistence of structural violence and the diverse forms of resistance emerging across societies. Rather than producing despair, the project invites critical self-reflection, cross-cultural dialogue, and collective responsibility, encouraging scholars and publics alike to reconsider inherited narratives and imagine cultural futures in which tradition, community, and belonging no longer rely on the regulation or silencing of women’s lives.