Written by Ioana Horhoianu
In 2026, it should be possible to discuss women’s safety as a basic expectation. Yet two disturbing online debates about cases of violence against women, thousands of kilometers apart, expose the fragility of that expectation. The persistence of this violence, and the willingness to justify it, challenges the assumption that the passage of time itself guarantees progress.
One case concerns the killing of Valentina Ioana Tănăsie in Romania, whose body was discovered in a suitcase in the Olt River. The other pertains to allegations that seven men sexually assaulted a student at Cornell University in the United States. Both cases remain subject to ongoing legal proceedings. Alongside the reports, another disturbing reality has emerged: online responses that shift responsibility away from the alleged perpetrators and onto the women.
“Sigur a făcut ea ceva, cât o fi îndurat săracul”
(“She must have done something—imagine how much the poor guy had to put up with.”)
“A mințit iubitu și a primit-o.”
(“She lied to her boyfriend and got what was coming to her.”)
Comments originally in Romanian have been translated into English by the author.
These comments, reproduced by Romanian outlet G4Media, turn speculation about Valentina’s behaviour into a justification for her death. Across the Atlantic, according to IBTimes UK, TikTok creator Drayton Nay argued that the seven men accused in the Cornell case “did nothing wrong.”
The responses raise questions about whose experiences are believed, whose conduct is scrutinized and whose perspective carries authority. Such questions have long occupied feminist artists. Such questions still hold an undeniable relevance in the present.
Figure 1: “Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face)” (1981) by Barbara Kruger
The question of whose perspective carries authority also extends to the images through which we understand women. In Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face) (1981), the word “hits” turns looking into an act of aggression. The female figure addresses the viewer, challenging her position as a passive object of someone else’s gaze.
This struggle over who gets to look, speak and define another person connects the work to the responses discussed above: strangers scrutinize women’s appearance and behaviour, claiming the authority to decide whether they deserve sympathy or blame. Museums participate in shaping that authority, too. As the activists and artists Guerrilla Girls would ask: whose images do they legitimize; and how often are women recognized as the makers of culture rather than its subjects?
Figure 2: “Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?” (1989) by Guerrilla Girls
The poster made in 1989 resonates strongly even today. But even when such works are recognized, looked at, and celebrated, they remain appreciated at an institutional level. Kruger’s work continues to receive institutional attention, including a 2024 exhibition at Serpentine. Yet recognizing the importance of a feminist artwork also requires asking what its demands mean now. How might its challenge to women’s objectification inform the way we look at, discuss and judge women beyond the gallery?
Laia Abril’s On Rape and Institutional Failure, on view at New York’s International Center of Photography from 15 October 2026 to 11 January 2027, brings this question directly into the present. As part of her ongoing project A History of Misogyny, the exhibition combines photographs, testimony, archival materials, objects, sound and video to examine the structures that enable sexual violence. Abril shifts scrutiny towards the institutions and cultural assumptions that protect perpetrators, silence survivors and allow abuse to persist.
This shift offers a response to the online comments discussed earlier. Where those commenters use women’s behaviour for an explanation or excuse for violence, Abril asks how responsibility is displaced in the first place. Who is expected to explain themselves? Whose account is doubted? What allows an institution to avoid accountability?
The exhibition’s presence in New York gives these questions particular urgency. As the Cornell case draws scrutiny towards a university’s response to allegations of sexual violence, an exhibition in the same state examines institutional failure as a wider social problem. The two events should not be treated as interchangeable, nor does Abril’s work establish what happened at Cornell. It does, however, offer a way to examine the assumptions through which such allegations are received. When women’s behaviour is still offered as an excuse for violence against them, the questions posed by Kruger, the Guerrilla Girls and Abril remain painfully relevant. Time alone does not guarantee progress. Neither does recognition, unless we are willing to engage with what these artworks ask of us.
“Where is feminist art?” ultimately becomes a question about where we allow its arguments to matter. Feminist art is being made and exhibited. The challenge is to bring its questions into the public conversations that reveal how urgently they are still needed.
References:
AGERPRES. (2026, September 23). Vâlcea: Tânăra găsită decedată într-o valiză ce plutea pe Olt a fost identificată; un suspect e căutat. https://agerpres.ro/politica/2026/09/23/x–1596213
Ax, J. (2026, October 2). Explainer—What we know about the Cornell University rape investigation. Investing.com. https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/explainerwhat-we-know-about-the-cornell-university-rape-investigation-4930399
Cabrera, S. (2026, October 1). Cornell 7 case sparks backlash after man asks why woman drank 10 shots: ‘Men shouldn’t be trusted’. International Business Times UK. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tiktok-debate-cornell-7-allegations-investigation-reopened-1823054
Cristea, A.-M. (2026, September 27). Opinie | Și Valentina „și-a căutat-o”: Avem legea femicidului, dar femeile trebuie să dea în continuare teste de moralitate ca să merite să trăiască în social media. G4Media. https://www.g4media.ro/opinie-si-valentina-si-a-cautat-o-avem-legea-femicidului-dar-femeile-trebuie-sa-dea-in-continuare-teste-de-moralitate-ca-sa-merite-sa-traiasca-in-social-media.html
Folland, T. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face). Smarthistory. https://smarthistory.org/barbara-kruger-untitled-your-gaze-hits-side-face/
Guerrilla Girls. (n.d.). Naked through the ages. https://www.guerrillagirls.com/naked-through-the-ages
International Center of Photography. (n.d.). Laia Abril: On rape and institutional failure. https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/laia-abril-rape-and-institutional-failure
Serpentine. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger: Thinking of you. I mean me. I mean you. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/barbara-kruger-thinking-of-you-i-mean-me-i-mean-you/