Violence and Activism at the Border: Gender, Fear, and Everyday Life in Ciudad Juarez by Kathleen Staudt

“Between 1993 and 2003, more than 370 girls and women were murdered and their often-mutilated bodies dumped outside Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico. The murders have continued at a rate of approximately thirty per year, yet law enforcement officials have made no breakthroughs in finding the perpetrator(s). Drawing on in-depth surveys, workshops, and interviews of Juarez women and border activists, “Violence and Activism at the Border” provides crucial links between these disturbing crimes and a broader history of violence against women in Mexico. In addition, the ways in which local feminist activists used the Juarez murders to create international publicity and expose police impunity provides a unique case study of social movements in the borderlands, especially as statistics reveal that the rates of femicide in Juarez are actually similar to other regions of Mexico. Also examining how non-governmental organizations have responded in the face of Mexican law enforcement’s “normalization” of domestic violence, Staudt’s study is a landmark development in the realm of global human rights.”

Culture and Globalization by Angela H.

Kathleen Staudt examines violence against women with a global and cultural perspective. She analysis how violence against women “has become so common as to call it ‘normalized’ behavior in the Americas” (Staudt 30). She argues that violence against women is a custom of male dominance that has survived through the pass of time and is “legitimize by government inaction” until recently (Staudt 30). To support her argument Staudt takes into account cultural aspects such as the machismo culture argument and the links between child victimization and interpersonal violence.

Staudt also argues “violence against women is connected with the large society that is amenable to change, depending on economic context and public intervention”(Staudt 34). This can be attributed to arguments such as the Malinche myth, which represents women as traitors to men. Women are also seen chingadas, both as a state of being and personal trait. These ideas lead to a “historical justification for and anguish about violence against women, against the mother or wife who abandoned and/or betrayed the son or husband” (Staudt 36).

Staudt also argues that violence against women, especially in Juarez, is a result of the growing labor market that created jobs for women and low paying jobs for men. By working, Mexican women are challenging cultural obligations, such as homemakers and motherhood. She concludes that “perhaps male rage against cheapened wages under the global economic regime produces backlash and revenge, but they exercise that rage against an easier target than the global political-economic octopus; their partners” (Staudt 46).

Personally I agree with Staudt, being from a border town where the maquiladora industry has created job opportunities for women. As a former illegal maquiladora worker, I recall many of the women that I worked with feeling frustrated. The couple of women that I had the opportunity to work and become friends with were the only financial providers and their husbands/partners were unemployed or alcoholics, making these women feel the multiple pressures of financial instability and cultural compliance.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus — Face Down

 

 

Domestic violence is represented in the media everyday, this song makes a stand against domestic abuse. Music is a great way to spread awareness, I will endeavor to find more clips like this one which reference preventable violence.