Paper short abstract:

Under the sparks of fire dressed up as devil, women defend their place in ​​folklore somehow at the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes. Likewise, on their disguise many of them, exploiting their public visibility and breaking the rules, wear symbols to claim for political and gender rights.

Paper long abstract:

Lately, fervor for traditional local festivals has

increased in Catalonia, specially devils and fire animals attract crowds

of people of all ages, who take to the streets to participate with

devotion in correfocs. A correfoc (literally “run fire”) is a festive

street event in which participants parade under the sparks of fireworks

borne by devils and other fantastic figures, emulating hell.

In a city of the conurbation of Barcelona, 40 years ago the willingness

of a few women to join a group of “run fire” and their impossibility to

do so led them to create their own female-only group. Its very existence

is a claim to women’s courage. The more so because in their parades they

stage the struggle between good and evil, yet they themselves somehow

represent evil, at a symbolic level, since women represent the evil

side, at the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes. What’s more, in a

night party context, they might be exposed to all sort of experiences,

reducing the risk thanks to sorority.

The paper presents the results of an ethnography carried out with this

group during 2019 on the framework of CHIEF (Cultural Heritage and

Identities of Europe’s Future) a HORIZON2020’s project. It analyses how

in the context of popular culture, these women legitimate an activity

aimed only at men and how taking advantage of their public visibility

and popularity, they use their costumes to claim for their political and

gender rights, breaking the established rules.