Gabriela Wiener

Gabriela Wiener (1975 -- ) is a Latin American author, poet, and journalist best known for her novels that highlight women's issues related to their bodies and sexualities. Wiener has published several books, and is best known for Sexografias (2008) which pushes boundaries on what a woman's sexuality is and how visible issues relating to women's bodies are.

## Biography

Gabriela Wiener was born in Lima, Peru, in 1975, to her mother, Elsi Bravo, and her father, Raúl Wiener. She has two siblings, Elisa Wiener Bravo and Alejandra Wiener Buob. She is currently married to Jaime Rodríguez Z, a poet and journalist. Together they have two children.

She studied literature and linguistics at Universidad Católica de Lima, and earned her masters in Historic Culture Communications in Barcelona. After graduating she worked at the newspaper El Comercio in Peru, among many other newspapers she has contributed to. In 2003 she moved to Barcelona, and in 2011 she moved to Madrid where she has lived since.

## Impact of Works

Gabriela Wiener's works are mostly focused around the female body and the particular struggles women face when their bodies and sexualities do not conform to the traditional standard for women. Most critics characterize her work as either Gonzo journalism or crónica, due to its very personal account and its detailed chronicle of how women's bodies and sexualities affect their lives and how restrictions imposed upon women's bodies affect their lives.

### Sexografias (Sexographies)

Of Wiener's works, Sexographies is her most well known, having been translated into English from its original Spanish. This book, made up of several shorter pieces of varying topics, addresses male and female sexuality, BDSM, transgender relationships, female bodies, what it means to be a mother, and women's body images.

Though each section varies in topic, Sexographies focuses on how the physical body defines the human experience. In the first piece, "Guru & Family," Wiener explores the life of a Peruvian sex guru and his six wives and how each wife is affected by this set of relationships. The second piece, "In the Prison of Your Skin," focuses on prison tattoos in the Lurigancho Prison in Lima and how the tattoos tell the story of each prisoner. Another essay in the book, "The Greater the Beauty, the More it is Befouled," Wiener reflects on her own body dysmorphia disorder and how it has affected her body image, and thus her life. "Trans," while it focuses on the relationships of a trans-woman, also looks at Wiener's body and her frustrations with how physical bodies control lives. Wiener carefully examines her own relationship, a marriage in which they both have discusses bringing a third person into her relationship, in "Three" and what the emotional impacts of being in a threesome. In both "Goodbye, Little Egg, Goodbye" and "On Motherliness" Wiener delves into motherhood and her fears of being a mother and how the world is going to impact her children.

Each of these essays focuses on body-politics in a way that allows the reader to connect to the questions posed in the text and the issues that Wiener highlights. Her topics are not something that is normally addressed in main-stream media, but with Sexographies, Wiener is bringing these topics out of the shadows and normalizing discussing them. She poses honest questions about her own experiences and the experiences of others and is completely open about her answers, even if her answers don't really answer the question. Wiener is focused on making body-politics less of a taboo subject, and with Sexographies she has brought them further into the main stream and gotten more people talking about how the physical body defines the experience.

## Works

*Sexografias* (2008) Translated into English in 2018

*Nueve Lunas* (2009)

*Mozart. la iguana con priapismo y otras historias* (2012)

*Ejercicios para el endurecimiento del espíritu* (2014)

*Llamada perdida* (2015)

*Dicen de mí* (2017)

### Published In

*Antología de la crónico latinoamerica actual* (2012)

*Crónicas ejemplares* (2012)

*Selección Peruana* (2015)

*Solo cuento*

*Novísima relación*

*Matar en Barcelona*

*Mujeres que viajan solas*

### Newspaper Contributions

Wiener has written for many different newspapers throughout her career. While living in Peru she served as the editor in chief of *Primera Línea* in Spain. More recently, she was the editor of *Marie Claire* in Spain, however she left there in 2014 to focus on her novels. Currently, she works as a columnist for *La República* (Peru) and regularly contributes to *Etiqueta Negra* (Peru), and *El País* (Spain)*.* In the past she has also written for *El Comerico* (Peru), *Anfibia* (Argentina), *Corriere della Sera* (Italy), *Revue* X*XI* (France), *Virginia Quarterly Review* (United States), La Vanguardia (Spain), among many others.

## Sources

https://worldvoices.pen.org/speaker/gabriela-wiener/ -- Image of Gabriela Wiener

https://www.amazon.com/Sexografias-Gabriela-Wiener/dp/9584245406 -- Cover of Sexografias

https://restlessbooks.org/gabriela-wiener

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela\_Wiener

https://www.escritores.org/biografias/6775-wiener-gabriela

https://www.asymptotejournal.com/criticism/gabriela-wiener-sexographies/

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sexographies/Gabriela-Wiener/9781632061591