Symbolic annihilation is a sociological term which refers to the removal of an entire group of people based on their socio-economic status, race, gender, or sexual orientation. This thing that happens; this omittance of a subgroup of people can be done in two ways: purposefully or unconsciously. The purposeful omitting of a subgroup of people will often depend on the almighty dollar or personal prejudices, but the latent removal of subgroups of people is often subconscious.
Many of us have been watching the changing face of the mural at the base of Park Hill, and we’ve seen the mountains go up, and we’ve seen the Hollister Kidz Crew helping Phillip Ray Orabuena and Joel Esqueda working, between their regular jobs, to make this happen, but when I stopped by the other day I saw the faces begin to form. I realized the caballeros were going to be men. I said to Phillip as he was coloring in the skin of the blank face in the front: “Is there going to be a lady on a horse?” Phillip looked at me with a shock, he said “I didn’t even think about that!” I smiled and then I said, “You could just add a braid and a skirt, huh” and Phillip smiled and said that he’d put her in the front of the pack.
The fact is that representations of subgroups in the media should work to reflect the community in which they exist. To move the concept of inclusion even further, the media should work to authentically represent subgroups of people by recognizing those often omitted subgroups and offering them access to things which can be hidden in a patriarchal, heteronormative, Eurocentric, Christian society.
In the end, we have a female caballero in a very adequate symbolic gesture of femininity in pink, and rugged strength on the frontier.
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