Missing Women Within the National Project: A Transnational View Between Mexico and the United States
Program
Spanish Language
College
Arts and Sciences
Student Level
Master's
Start Date
10-11-2022 4:30 PM
End Date
10-11-2022 5:30 PM
Abstract
This investigation analyzes the ways in which the disappearances of women in Mexico have been used as a political tool of manipulation and oppression of the Mexican people (in particular, women of Indigenous descent). After the Mexican Revolution of the twentieth century, the country entered the modern era with the arrival of global conflicts and technological developments. This transition also brought about various social changes relating to gender, which were both beneficial and harmful for women and Indigenous populations. The construction of feminine identity-what it means to be a woman, in Mexico, in the twentieth century-and the social creation of the 'ideal' woman-the mestiza, of Indigenous and Spanish origin-operated together to diminish feminine power and construct gender structures that permitted the use of sex as a mechanism of domination. However, within this rigid social structure one must ask: what happens to the women that do not (or cannot) fit into this feminine role? The answers to this question illustrate how the politically motivated use of the disappearances of women maintained the images of gender/gender roles that the national state had imposed on the modern Mexican society. Furthermore, when addressing the themes of race and indigenous identity, certain parallels can be drawn between the ways in which the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women are managed in both Mexico and the United States, opening the conversation to a transnational dialogue about the disappearances and the violence. This investigation into the role of missing women and their place within (or outside of) Mexican society maintains a focus on the intersectionality of gender, race, and economic class, and the political weaponization of these social characteristics to increase the oppression of Mexican women. The disappearances of Mexican women are also comparable to those of Indigenous women in the United States, highlighting transnational views relating to women's bodies, indigenous oppression and social resistance.
Missing Women Within the National Project: A Transnational View Between Mexico and the United States
This investigation analyzes the ways in which the disappearances of women in Mexico have been used as a political tool of manipulation and oppression of the Mexican people (in particular, women of Indigenous descent). After the Mexican Revolution of the twentieth century, the country entered the modern era with the arrival of global conflicts and technological developments. This transition also brought about various social changes relating to gender, which were both beneficial and harmful for women and Indigenous populations. The construction of feminine identity-what it means to be a woman, in Mexico, in the twentieth century-and the social creation of the 'ideal' woman-the mestiza, of Indigenous and Spanish origin-operated together to diminish feminine power and construct gender structures that permitted the use of sex as a mechanism of domination. However, within this rigid social structure one must ask: what happens to the women that do not (or cannot) fit into this feminine role? The answers to this question illustrate how the politically motivated use of the disappearances of women maintained the images of gender/gender roles that the national state had imposed on the modern Mexican society. Furthermore, when addressing the themes of race and indigenous identity, certain parallels can be drawn between the ways in which the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women are managed in both Mexico and the United States, opening the conversation to a transnational dialogue about the disappearances and the violence. This investigation into the role of missing women and their place within (or outside of) Mexican society maintains a focus on the intersectionality of gender, race, and economic class, and the political weaponization of these social characteristics to increase the oppression of Mexican women. The disappearances of Mexican women are also comparable to those of Indigenous women in the United States, highlighting transnational views relating to women's bodies, indigenous oppression and social resistance.
