Rapadas. Public shaming as a means of subjection. Cultural origins, continuities and changes up to the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

Rapadas or pelonas: this was the term used to refer to women and girls who were exhibited, their hair shorn, in shaming parades across hundreds of towns and cities during the Spanish Civil War. These acts of public shaming were used against women to intimidate the general population into submission. Only the rebels (Francoists) carried out this gendered repression, and it is commonly associated with practices that originated in fascist Italy. This text explores the shaming and humiliation of Spanish women who supported the Republic, suggesting that these cruel behaviors had their origins in cultural practices related to the belligerent political and religious identities that emerged in the nineteenth century Spain and even earlier.