The visual construction ofgender in posters for the 2016 and 2017 chilean electoral campaigns

This article follows previous research concerning how gender operates in electoral campaigns. The purpose of this article is to understand the way the visual culture interrelates with a gendered political culture. A qualitative methodological design was used, based on photographic records of electoral posters displayed in public spaces in Valparaíso and Santiago during two electoral campaigns held in Chile respectively for the 2016 municipal elections and the 2017 parliamentary ones. A theoretically guided analysis was conducted based on gender and visual sociology perspectives. The results show that gender norms act under different forms how bodies and messages appear, what evince that in spite of a context of growing feminist mobilizations and a higher number of female candidates, the electoral propaganda (re)produce new and classic gender stereotypes without questioning gender inequalities. In this respect, the study we conclude that the images of the analyzed campaigns reproduce a range of gender norms and stereotypes about representation that continue to shape that «common sense of the visual» (Caggiano, 2012) which reinforces the hegemonic way of understanding politics.