“FUNAS”: THE NEW SOCIAL JUSTICE

Ignacia Barrios
Francisca Figueroa
Word count: 1.003

A few months ago, one of our close friends at that time sexually abused a girl at a party
where we were invited, she was totally drunk and asleep which was reason enough for
not remembering much about it in the morning. She did not feel brave enough to sue
him, which is why one of her friends made a public “funa” about the abuser months
later. We didn’t know about that terrible experience and if it wasn’t for the “funa” we
would still be friends with a rapist.

In Chile and other countries, the gender equality movement has gained particular
relevance in recent years, obtaining historical notoriety due to social media. This has
certainly had distinctive borders here in Chile. Undoubtedly, “funas” are the new social
justice. They are the public demonstration of repudiation against a fact made by a
person or group that has committed an act that is considered illegal or unfair. It seems
to be very common and highly practiced in Chile. As consequence, this essay aims at
explaining the reasons why “funas” are the appropriate way to get social justice in Chile
and explore various ways in which new social practices of informal justice must be taken
in response to improper situations.

The majority of the “funas” that are being published online are about gender violence
from men to woman, most of them are about violence or aggressive attitudes present in
relationships. This is one of the main reasons why “funas” are generating attention
among population. Miller (2015) states that the rhetoric situation, in this case the “funa”,
is linked to a purpose and social exigence, which would be the person who is doing the
“funa” looking for a better judicial system that protects the victim, which would make
this phenomena legitimate. The action of creating a “funa” has a social purpose, which is
to inform others about a person in specific, and what they can do to someone else, and
to create a safe environment for the victim by supporting them.

One of the benefits of creating a “funa”, is that there is no one who can point at you
claiming that the victim is lying because there is not enough evidence. According to
Bahktin (1986) dialogism considers both parts of the speech, both parts are able to
expose their arguments and establish a discussion. The “funa” would be monologue
because there is only one absolute truth and cannot be refuted, so it doesn’t contain
dialogism. This is beneficial for the victim because it creates a trust environment where
they will not be judged because the only way that someone can tell them that they don’t
believe them or that they are lying would be via text message, and not in person which
is something that could be detrimental for someone who suffers from anxiety.

However, people can still interact in this “funas”, since it is published online and mostly
on Instagram, people can offer support or provide different opinions by leaving a
comment on the post in the person’s profile. Genres according to Millar (2011) are social
because members of a culture interact through them. They have stages and have a
typical established structure, and goals to achieve. In the case of “funas” the structure
would be, the name of the person who did a bad action to someone, the story about
what happened, it can be short or long depending on the details. It may also contain
pictures shown as evidence, for instance if the “funa” is about domestic violence some
people may upload pictures in which they appear with bruises. Sometimes there are
videos which can prove the aggressive personality or actions that someone may have
had. The goals in this case would be that the person involved in the “funa” realizes that
it was a wrong thing to do and starts acting, such as going to a psychologist.

“Funas” are very informal, Johns (2008) posits that an expert can have the structure and
the language planned for exposing a genre, but it has to be adapted to the specific
audience. As we mentioned before, “funas” are mostly upload on Instagram, so the
“funa” must be adapted for that specific audience. They cannot write in an academic
manner if the people who will read it will not understand It properly.

The genre of “funas” is very harmless speaking in a physical manner, no one is going to
go to prison for being in a “funa”, however, there may be legal conflicts involved.
According to the law “Ley N° 19.733” you can be sued for creating a “funa”, because you
can be talking slander or insults about someone, and if the person takes legal action the
victim can be sued for “lying” about someone else about the story that is being told. On
the other hand, “funas” can have a big negative impact on people, the person who is on
the “funa” could start to feel lonely because people stop talking to them for what they
have done. This can lead to depression if someone is not able to stand it.
To conclude, “funas” are gaining more and more attention these days, every day there is
someone who finally feels free to express their dislikes about someone or their terrible
experience with another person. We can synthesize that “funas” are an essential genre
used in our culture where the victims are considered as guilty. In our country there is a
large number of femicides every year and we can notice that justice is not reliable
anymore with all those cases that appear every day on newspapers or news on
television. People, and mostly women, are trying to get justice by their own hands since
no one is helping as they expect. We have read “funas” about femicides which involved
lawsuits years ago and women end up dead. That is why we consider this genre to be
important for asking for justice when no one else is listening.

REFERENCES

Bakhtin, M. (1986). The problem of speech genres (pp. 60-102

Johns, A. M. (2008). Genre awareness for the novice academic student: an ongoing
quest. Language Teaching 41(2), 237-252.
Ley sobre libertades de opinión e información y ejercicio del periodismo, N° 19.733,
2010.
Millar, D. (2011). Promoting genre awareness in the EFL classroom. English teaching
forum, 49(2), 2-15.
Miller, C. R. (2015). Genre as Social Action (1984), Revisited 30 Years Later (2014).
Letras & Letras, 31(3), 56-72.