VISUALIZATION OF THE POLITICS OF TOLERANCE: WOMEN'S NON-VERBAL MESSAGE IN THE "EDIFICIO DE MUJERES" WOMEN'S BUILDING MURAL IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Women make up an extraordinary proportion of the individuals in murals worldwide, which can be viewed as a great base for communicating undivided, visual messages of female empowerment, mutual tolerance, and social justice in a world that is unjust, phallogocentric, (still) misogynistic, and strongly prejudicial against women. At the same time, it can be seen as politically opportune and fitting to stress even further the female perspective and send a clear political statement regarding women's rights and issues. In this respect, this paper focuses on the visualization of the politics of tolerance and liberation expressed in the Maestrapeace mural of the renowned education community center building called "Edificio de Mujeres" or the Women's Building in San Francisco, California, which pays tribute to a number of feminist icons from history and fiction, and the names of more than 600 women written in calligraphy, which is a vivid, undivided, and written presentation of the visual politics of female empowerment and tolerance, at the same time advocating for independence, self-determination, gender equality, and social justice. The building's spectacular mural, painted exclusively by seven women artists is a broad-based work of art that presents a culmination of a multicultural, multiethnic, and diverse female world that is built, or more precisely painted on the principles of inclusion, acceptance, and open-mindedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]