Chismosas Against White Hetero-patriarchy: Chisme as a Literacy Pedagogy of Resistant Girlhood/Womanhood

ABSTRACT

Women of Color feminists have theorized and pointed to the ways that chisme is a resistant practice for Women and Girls of Color. In line with this theoretical and epistemological framing of chisme, the authors explore the ways that gossip is, in fact, an intellectual and political literacy practice that Women and Girls of Color utilize in the face of racist, sexist, and classist structures. In doing so they aim to (1) center Women and Girls of Color as holders and producers of knowledge, (2) acknowledge and honor the literacies of chisme, and (3) center the truths of Women and Girls of Color who draw on chisme literacies in both academic and non-academic spaces. In this article they document the contours of chisme to highlight how it is legitimate, pleasureful, intergenerational, and disruptive of power structures. Through their respective empirical studies, the authors offer examples of chisme as powerful pedagogy with Girls of Color. They conclude with a call to scholars and practitioners to reconsider the role of chisme in their classrooms and research and how they might re-position Women and Girls of Color in their work.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names of participants are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mónica González Ybarra

Mónica González Ybarra is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research looks at the powerful practices of teaching and learning that exist in community spaces and how Chicanx/Latinx bilingual youth and educators draw on their home, family, and community knowledge to navigate their sociopolitical worlds.

Grace D. Player

Grace D. Player is an Assistant Professor in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. She is an educator, artist, and researcher committed to working in collectivity towards justice with Girls and Femmes of Color. Her current project, funded by a Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Grant, is a collaboration with a collective of girl and femme of Color curatorial board to create critical art spaces to explore educational justice.