The resistance of Monse in the series “On my block” (2018)

from the place of speech to the empowerment

Abstract

In this article, we are interested in the series "On My Block" (2018), more specifically in the 
protagonist Monse, an Afro-Latina teenager who, throughout the series, reveals a resistant way of existing, 
opposing universal stories. Watching the series under the theoretical perspective of black feminism, we 
noticed that this protagonist, although she does not declare herself a "(black) feminist" or that she defends 
the "(black) feminism", produces sayings and attitudes that can be related to this philosophical perspective, or 
rather, produces meanings that are affiliated/aligned with the discourse of black feminism, in order to 
constitute other ways of expressing (herself) and of being. Thus, we aim at analyzing how Monse's struggle, in 
relation to her group of friends and the place where she lives, can reveal a subjectivity that takes on a place of 
speech, empowering herself individually and collectively, so that to resist discursively to patterns and behaviors 
linked to universal narratives