Femicide
Femicide in Mexico: A National Cancer
“Maria Isabel, a 15-year-old student who worked in a shop, was raped and tortured; her body was found in a bag, tied with barbed wire, her face disfigured and her nails torn out.” (Prieto-Carron, Thomson, and Macdonald, p.25)
Throughout the history of the world, patriarchy has been rooted into the very essence of our lives, shaping our thoughts and actions. Patriarchy is present in virtually every society and unfortunately is the underlying problem to most violence in the world, particularly violence towards women. Patriarchy exemplifies the misogyny that has been ever-present since probably the beginning of every society. Whether it is discrimination towards women, lack of equal rights, or violence towards women, violence that stems almost entirely from patriarchal dominance is seen throughout most human societies past and present. Violence and fear have been used in many instances as forms of guidance, intimidation, and, most importantly, outright control.
Gender-based violence (GBV) seems to be heavily engrained in Mexican culture, especially in the post-Conquest era of undermining matriarchal confluence and relative social equality and replacing them with outright male dominance. The culture of violence that stems from this era reaches all levels of Mexican society and ranges from many forms of domestic violence to outright femicide (murder of females) but is most concentrated at the lowest levels of income and education. Although this culture of femicide has been widespread for centuries, it has taken its most blatant forms in such U.S-Mexico border cities as Matamoros, Tijuana, and especially Ciudad Juarez, where in the 1990s its most horrific examples reaches national and even international attention. This paper will use three different sources--scholarly, organizational, and popular--to examine the problem of femicide in U.S-Mexico border cities. I think that the scholarly source will be the most informative when
“Maria Isabel, a 15-year-old student who worked in a shop, was raped and tortured; her body was found in a bag, tied with barbed wire, her face disfigured and her nails torn out.” (Prieto-Carron, Thomson, and Macdonald, p.25)
Throughout the history of the world, patriarchy has been rooted into the very essence of our lives, shaping our thoughts and actions. Patriarchy is present in virtually every society and unfortunately is the underlying problem to most violence in the world, particularly violence towards women. Patriarchy exemplifies the misogyny that has been ever-present since probably the beginning of every society. Whether it is discrimination towards women, lack of equal rights, or violence towards women, violence that stems almost entirely from patriarchal dominance is seen throughout most human societies past and present. Violence and fear have been used in many instances as forms of guidance, intimidation, and, most importantly, outright control.
Gender-based violence (GBV) seems to be heavily engrained in Mexican culture, especially in the post-Conquest era of undermining matriarchal confluence and relative social equality and replacing them with outright male dominance. The culture of violence that stems from this era reaches all levels of Mexican society and ranges from many forms of domestic violence to outright femicide (murder of females) but is most concentrated at the lowest levels of income and education. Although this culture of femicide has been widespread for centuries, it has taken its most blatant forms in such U.S-Mexico border cities as Matamoros, Tijuana, and especially Ciudad Juarez, where in the 1990s its most horrific examples reaches national and even international attention. This paper will use three different sources--scholarly, organizational, and popular--to examine the problem of femicide in U.S-Mexico border cities. I think that the scholarly source will be the most informative when