Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies Vol. 36; no. 71; pp. 293 - 295
• Main Author: Boesten, Jelke
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kingston Taylor & Francis 01.01.2011; Taylor & Francis Group LLC; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Americas; Argument structure; Bejarano, Cynthia; Book publishing; Feminism; Fregoso, Rosa-Linda; Gender studies; Nonfiction; Police; Politics; REVIEWS / RECENSIONS; Terror; U.S.A; Women; Women's studies; Womens studies; United States; Mexico; United States > US
• ISSN: 0826-3663; 2333-1461

As a whole, the book's strength lies in two main aspects: its geographical breadth and its discussion of different explanations for the murders that the variation in its specific case studies allows for. Several explanations are presented for the high rates of feminicide in Mexico. Some authors (Olivera, Monarres Fragoso, and Weissman) argue for an analysis that emphasizes the perverse impact of neoliberal reforms, capitalist structures, and the borderland economy. These authors contend that economic structures have a strong influence on political behaviour and institutional structures and thus make impunity for crimes against women possible. The argument is convincing and based on ample evidence. In a similar vein, Segato emphasizes the emergence and ubiquity of criminal gangs as a result of the changing political economy. Segato discusses the grip of such gangs on these Mexican borderland regions, and argues that the rape and murder of women serves to confirm power relations within and among gangs that are based on a particular kind of violent masculinity. Such masculinity, Segato proposes, provides the basis of loyalty and brotherhood within criminal gangs and, alarmingly, also within the institutions that allow them to thrive. Seen in this context, women's dead bodies are the "waste" of a continuous gang-based battle to maintain power. The complicity of state institutions in this battle may be simply implicit at times (i.e., when authorities turn a blind eye) or it may be active and explicit (i.e., police officers and prosecutors may themselves actually be involved in criminal activities, including the abuse and murder of women.)