Discursive wall of artistic legitimation power versus positive action policies

Abstract

The Law for the effective equality of women and men establishes various tools to act on structural or diffuse discrimination that prevents equality in the field of artistic and intellectual creation and production. One of them is the application of positive action policies, commonly known as quota policies. The research carried out for the Observatory of Gender Equality in the field of Culture of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in order to evaluate the application of the Law, has revealed two closely related key phenomena. On the one hand, the ineffectiveness of the Law in allowing women access to the power of artistic legitimation, the maximum power of the cultural system, the one that establishes the meaning, the one that controls the construction of the canon. On the other, an enormous resistance of the system to the application of positive action measures within the framework of cultural policies. This resistance is organized through discourses that serve as an anchor to perpetuate the power of artistic legitimation. The four main stories that raise the retaining wall in the face of positive action policies are analyzed in the text.