Women 

and

Culture

In this workshop the participants were women working in the media, theatre, film, magazines, etc. The discussion centred principally on audiovisual material presented at the meeting, as well as the production of radio programmes and theatre. This was the most important contribution given on this theme, and aroused a great interest in all the women.

There was also discussion of research on the mass media and on children's and school literature from the point of view of its creativity, its role as a transmitter of patriarchal ideology, and its potential for developing new forms of language.

The following was said about language:

"When we communicate with one another we use the same models we have used all our lives. There is a fundamental problem of language among ourselves: we can't listen to
each other, we need a moderator who says: you keep silent, you speak. I think it is important to add that language doesn't only refer to verbal communication. There are a
number of other possibilities: writing, body language..."

Another women added:

"... the importance of how to express things, what to say. How we confront the existing masculine language, seeing feminism as a different perspective on fife. To discuss, to build a new way of relating to one another, the search for a new language, a literature for women and by women, begun by women and not referring, as has always been done, to masculine models. It's important to break the dichotomy between form and content."

To sum up we can say that the following questions were asked about language:

— How do we confront language in the search for our own expression and literature for and by women?
— How can we break the dichotomy between content and form?
— How can we change the vision of theatre, which is currently in the hands of men, without seeking participation at the level of direction?
— How can we gain possession of words which today are alien to us?

In a very general form the workshop presented some topics which need further work:

— To use art as a means of questioning reality, breaking with guidelines and molds imposed by the reigning ideology.
— To create or sponsor plays and other art forms that offer answers to problems that women confront in daily life.
— To develop a systematic critique of children's literature which simply reinforces male/female roles, without giving children a chance to reflect on this and reach their own
conclusions.
— To foster a greater development of creativity among women, which cannot now develop through their work or through the type of roles they assume, either in the family or in society.
— To criticise the traditional media which transmit and strengthen the dominant ideology, and to encourage alternative media

We would like to point out the contribution this workshop made to the general atmosphere of conviviality and solidarity at the Meeting, through sketches, poems and songs which were created and shaped in free moments.