Chapter 29: Systemic Sexual Feminicide: Colonial Scars in Bodies and Territories

Book Publication

Executive Summary

Systemic sexual feminicide is a category that explains the disappearance, sexual torture, and killing of girls and women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico from 1993 to date. It grows out of the pioneering work of radical feminists such as Diana Russell, Jill Radford, Jane Caputi, Deborah Cameron, and Elizabeth Frazer; theorists of Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing (1992), The Age of Sex Crime (1987), and The Lust to Kill: A Feminist Investigation of Sexual Murder (1987). In this chapter, the category gains strength by intertwining the decolonial feminism of María Lugones and her proposal of the ‘Modern/Colonial Gender System’ with the ‘politics of pleasure’ of Saidiya Hartman and the ‘framework of disposability’ of Sherene Razack. They uncover the colonial historical legacy of various hierarchical systems of oppression—sex, sexuality, gender, race, social class, space, and nation. They also show the enduring bond between bodily and territorial penetration that manifests in the enjoyment and terror of sexualised violence against girls and women. Based on the ‘Feminicide Database’ in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (1993-2020), built from the concept of femincide and with sources from feminist organisations, the government, and local newspapers, this chapter answers the question: How the historical legacy of colonial power manifests in the body and the territory of systemic sexual feminicide in Ciudad Juárez?

Author(s)

Julia Estela Monárrez Fragoso

Link of Source

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003202332-34/systemic-s…

 

 

 

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