Bad Bunny and The Feminist Park: Trojan Horse of Resistance?

What does it mean when activism becomes aesthetic, and how do we tell the difference between solidarity and strategy?

In this episode of Un/Seen Spaces: The Feminist Park Podcast - Designing for Liberation, we explore the cultural power and deep contradictions of Bad Bunny, one of the world’s most influential Latin music artists. Drawing on academic research on reggaeton, trap, gender performativity, and social critique, this conversation examines how Bad Bunny’s work can be read through a “double discourse”: on the one hand, he publicly supports feminism and LGBTQ+ rights; on the other, some of his lyrics have been criticized for sexism, misogyny, and the objectification of women.

We also look at how his music videos often carry the strongest social critique, using cinematic references and visual storytelling to challenge double standards that the lyrics alone may not fully confront. At the same time, the episode raises a bigger question about whether visible activism in global pop culture represents genuine transgression or a strategic branding of social justice for commercial gain.

This episode is not just about Bad Bunny. It is about how global music industries shape ideas about gender, power, race, sexuality, and resistance. Through a feminist and intersectional lens, we ask what it means when progressive messaging, anti-patriarchal aesthetics, and market success coexist inside the same cultural product.

For listeners of The Feminist Park Podcast, this conversation connects directly to the project’s mission: to examine how public culture, representation, and power shape the spaces we inhabit, and to ask who gets to define liberation, visibility, and belonging.

The research gives Feminist Park a strong example of how symbolic inclusion can coexist with harmful structures. Bad Bunny’s public support for feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, alongside lyrics criticized for sexism, mirrors a broader feminist urbanism problem: spaces and institutions often claim inclusion while still reproducing hierarchy. Liberation has to be measured by practice, not branding. A park, like a song or music video, can look progressive while still reproducing exclusion if the underlying power dynamics stay intact.

The article cluster connects gender, sexuality, race, colonial power, and commercial influence, which fits your project’s mission to understand how systems of domination operate across both space and culture.

Academic Sources:

• Interpretación de “Tití me Preguntó”, Felipe Covarrubias-Melgar, Mariana Martínez-Castrejón, Cristiana Verónica-Gasga
• Media event and Latin performance: Bad Bunny at Super Bowl LX and the symbolic reconfiguration of “America”, J.P. Pérez-Rufí
• “Esta es mi tierra/Esta soy yo”: Teaching US colonialism and Puerto Rican resistance through Bad Bunny, Vanessa Díaz, Petra R. Rivera-Rideau
• Bad Bunny Beyond Borders: Where the Plantation Meets the Platform, Keith Negus
• Bad Bunny’s Transgressive Gender Performativity, Luis Rivera Figueroa
• Bad Bunny Perrea Sola: the gender issue in reggaeton, Laura Álvarez Trigo
• Bad Bunny: masculinities or misogyny? ,Keylor Robles Murillo
• Subversión, postfeminismo y masculinidad en la música de Bad Bunny, Silvia Díaz Fernández
• Bad Bunny y Bach: mitos e imaginarios culturales, Francisco Castillo García
• Sociophonetic convergence of Bad Bunny and J Balvin, Elizabeth Naranjo Hayes
• Bad Bunny: identidad, idioma e intertexto, Víctor Maldonado Santiago
• Sociophonetics and lyrical codemixing of Bad Bunny and J Balvin, Elizabeth Naranjo Hayes
• Discourse and women’s objectification in Bad Bunny’s songs, Fabiana Molina Rojas, with related work by Romina Yris Rivera Bravo and Gessel Massiel Robles Meza
• Sapiencia: Una Revista Para La Academia, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2026), editorial board and assorted articles
• Bad Bunny: A Tale of Artificial Intelligence — Rita H. Pickler
• Nociones de género, música urbana y cultura popular — Sarah Platt

Against Artwashing: Artists in Solidarity with Housing Justice
Season 2 Episode:12. July 14, 2026
Exposes cultural co-optation in gentrification, guiding our commitment to authentic community arts partnerships that resist rather than enable displacement.
Summary: Investigates "artwashing" in Berlin, where developers use art to rebrand neighborhoods while planning the eventual eviction of communities.Connection: Rejects artwashing by paying local artists fairly and using cultural programming to support rather than undermine housing justice and tenant organizing.
Key Takeaways: • Real estate developers weaponize art and culture to facilitate gentrification• Artwashing represents profitable neoliberal urbanism that displaces communities• Artists face pressure to choose between co-optation and solidarity with housing justice• Artist-led resistance movements collaborating with housing activists offer alternatives• Cultural production can serve either capital accumulation or community empowerment
Keywords: Artwashing, Berlin, gentrification, real estate, resistance, urban geography.
Source: Artists and urban artwashing in 2020s Berlin: co-optation, gentrification, and resistance, Claudia Seldin
The Feminist Park is a pioneering intersectional feminist urban initiative that reimagines public green space through the lived experiences of women, migrants, LGBTQI+ people, and racialised communities. Rooted in care ethics, anti-racism, and queer theory, the project challenges the androcentric design of cities by co-creating inclusive, safe, and ecologically regenerative parks. By combining rigorous scientific research with grassroots feminist praxis, the Feminist Park advocates for the right to the city for all bodies,particularly those historically excluded from public space. Learn more and join the movement at www.feminist-park.org.

Feminist Plazas: Co-Creating Gender-Just Public Squares
Season 2 Episode: 11.
Provides models of feminist urban co-creation in Montreal and Montevideo, demonstrating how grassroots movements can transform public space through horizontal partnerships with municipalities.
Summary: Examines how feminist movements influenced urban planning to create gender-sensitive squares like Plaza las Pioneras.Connection: Implements horizontal governance where racialized and working-class women have decision-making power through feminist mapping and co-design workshops.
Key Takeaways: • Feminist urbanism requires securing the right to the gendered city• Social reproduction and safety must be prioritized over male-centered design• Horizontal partnerships between governments and feminist collectives enable transformative change• Visual storytelling and participatory methods preserve marginalized cultural knowledge• Collective sensemaking allows communities to resist external erasure of their narratives• Traditional knowledge systems maintained through craft and art require protection
Keywords: Visual storytelling, heritage mapping, weaving, participatory research, traditional knowledge.
Keywords: Feminist urbanism, public space, Montreal, Montevideo, gender equality, self-management.
Source: The creation of feminist urban public squares: The cases of Montreal and Montevideo, Charmain Levy and Sylvie Paré

Source: Visual Participatory Storytelling: An Art-Based Creative Mapping of Everyday Weaving Storylines, Meanings and Heritage, Muzeyi Yelyen and Godfred Amankwaa
The Feminist Park is a pioneering intersectional feminist urban initiative that reimagines public green space through the lived experiences of women, migrants, LGBTQI+ people, and racialised communities. Rooted in care ethics, anti-racism, and queer theory, the project challenges the androcentric design of cities by co-creating inclusive, safe, and ecologically regenerative parks. By combining rigorous scientific research with grassroots feminist praxis, the Feminist Park advocates for the right to the city for all bodies,particularly those historically excluded from public space. Learn more and join the movement at www.feminist-park.org.