Not Just “Another Woman”: Femicide and Representation in Guatemala

Abstract

ResúmenEste artículo analiza el fenómeno social del feminicidio, el asesinato de mujeres por su género, el cual ha crecido en Guatemala en los años siguientes al fin de la guerra. Basado en mi investigación etnográfica de un año en Guatemala, analizo las diferentes perspectivas que discuten el tema, tales como la académica, la oficial del gobierno, la del los medios de comunicación, y la de las organizaciones no gubernamentales. Además, contrasto los discursos “oficiales” sobre el feminicidio con las experiencias de una familia que actualmente sufre las consecuencias de la pérdida de un familiar, lo cual desenmascara las brechas entre las respuestas institucionales a la violencia y la vida diaria de los guatemaltecos. Finalmente, argumento que para entender mejor la profundidad y las consecuencias de largo plazo de la violencia feminicida, es necesario enfocar la discusión en las voces y experiencias de las mujeres, así como en las redes sociales.

Framing Feminicides—A Quantitative Content Analysis of News Stories in Four Colombian Newspapers

“…The media's portrayal of feminicides has not yet become an important subject of scientific research in Columbia, in Latin America, or beyond. The relevant studies that do exist focus on countries such as Bolivia (Suárez 2018), Chile (Neira Mellado 2013), Guatemala (England 2018;Godoy-Paiz 2012), Mexico (Gutiérrez Aldrete 2020; Jalomo 2021), Italy (Gius and Lalli 2014), and the United States (Branch 2019;Gillespie et al 2013).…”

“…Particularly striking is the lack of quantitative studies (for exceptions, see Aldrete 2020;Neira Mellado 2013). Most empirical studies-including many bachelor's and master's degree theses (Páez Benavides 2018;Vargas Bustillo 2019;Branch 2019;López Triana 2017;Suárez 2018;Neira Mellado 2013;Jalomo 2021)-employ qualitative approaches (Angélico et al 2014;Flores 2017;Páez Benavides 2018;Gallur Santorum and Orosa 2016;Bouzerdan and Whitten-Woodring 2018;Godoy-Paiz 2012;Rodríguez 2008), such as qualitative content analyses, discourse analyses, and qualitative interviews, but often show methodological deficiencies. All of these studies consider only a small number of articles or a short period of investigation, which clearly limits their ability to identify overarching patterns in news coverage.…”

Violated Women, Reason, andLo Políticoin the Imaginary of the Guatemalan Nation

“…I am arguing that the public rape of women – politically active women, for the most part, during the conflict – and particularly its reviewing during the armed conflict worked to constitute cultural scripts for women as victims/objects, a category that women still occupy. In the contemporary context, Godoy‐Paiz (), England (), Menjivar and Drysdale‐Walsh () among others have documented the ways in which everyday and symbolic violence in popular culture, the law and the home work in tandem with the institutionalisation of violence in the state.…”

“…Women's political possibilities are shaped by state‐sponsored histories of gender‐based violence and an enduring social and institutional acceptance of violence against women. In Guatemala, a past filled with the regular display of violated women's bodies and other forms of gender‐based violence has routinised a perception of women as bodies, objects or things to be rescued (Godoy‐Paiz, ). Gender‐based violence, understood as the purposeful use of force to deny a person their rights to life, bodily integrity and self‐determination because of their gender, is intimately tied to already functioning structural inequities of race, geography and class.…”

From Sparks and Embers: Concluding Reflections on Anthropology, Generation, and Central America

“…33Among them are Nicaraguan‐American Baron Pineda (2001) and Guatemalan‐Canadian Paula Godoy‐Paiz (2012). …”