Challenging Women’s Vulnerability: Feminist Representations of Rape in Sexto Sentido, a Nicaraguan Soap Opera for Social Change

This paper considers explanations of rape related to perceptions of women’s
vulnerability and of men’s violence and strength as problematic, because of the
limitations they impose on women’s agency. Under the framework of post-
structuralist feminist politics of rape and politics of representation, it analyses
how to bring about change, in relation to these beliefs, at the level of
discourses. The principal justification to focus on the production of discourses
rests on the argument that ideas of women’s vulnerability and men’s strength
participate in constructing discourses that legitimise and normalise rape. These
reflections are then used to look at the experience of “Sexto Sentido,” a
Nicaraguan feminist telenovela, produced to incite stimulating critical
reflection and debate on different oppressive relations of power. More
specifically, this study discursively analyses how this soap opera challenges
dominant discourses on masculinity, femininity and rape in Nicaragua. Overall,
the paper critically discusses the potentialities and challenges of fostering social
change through discourses.