The Normative Dilemmas of the Feminist Struggles Against (Trans-)Feminicide in Mexico

Abstract

This paper explores women’s and feminists’ struggles against feminicide in Mexico. The author analyzes the dominant notions of gender and violence at the core of the Mexican case. First, the article adopts a historical approach, highlighting some critical moments of women’s struggles to criminalize feminicide. In this section, the author briefly reconstructs the genealogy of the concept in the Americas, presenting the legal definition of feminicide and violence against women in the existing legal framework in Mexico. Second, the approach addresses the challenges and problems that trans feminicide poses to the current legal framework. This part discusses the violence emanating from a binary notion of gender-based violence and the binary conception of cis and heterosexual gender identity in the law. Here follows an introduction of two central concepts for the analysis of gender: cissexism and heteronormativity. Finally, the article addresses the structural dilemma of the criminalization of feminicide and the juridical strategy of framing women’s rights against gender-based violence as special rights.