In Puta Life, Juana María Rodríguez probes the figure of the puta—the whore, that phantasmatic figure of Latinized feminine excess to examine how visual tropes of racial and sexual deviance expose feminine subjects to misogyny and violence, attuning our gaze to how visual documentation shapes perceptions of sexual labor. Highlighting the criminalization and stigmatization that surrounds sex work, she lingers on those traces of felt possibility that might inspire more ethical forms of relation and care.

RESPONDENTS
Yetta Howard (SDSU), Roy Pérez (UCSD) Hentyle Yapp (UCSD), Nguyen Tan Hoang (UCSD)

Sponsored by Literature, History, Ethnic Studies, Critical Gender Studies, Institute for Arts and Humanities, Chicanx and Latinx Studies, and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion