To begin with, it is important to note the context of traditional gender roles that are existent in Latin American, but more specifically, Mexican culture. According to the National Library of Medicine, gender roles are internalized into daily lifestyles and manifestations. Gender-based cultural roles trace back to two primary gender roles prevalent in Mexican culture: Machismo and Marianismo. Within the role of Marianismo, Mexican women are portrayed as mothers and caregivers with emphasized traits of self-sacrifice and passivity (Jezzini, Guzman, Grayshield). On the other hand, Machismo reinforces the idea that in a household, the man is the leader and advocate (Sotello). Additionally, the traits that are emphasized for men within this gender role are those of bravery, honor, dominance, and hyper-masculinity. These two cultural gender manifestations are essential to understanding the reasoning behind feminicides.

To build this foundation, literature that we have examined that connects with the way, specifically, are portrayed is “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and Women with Big Eyes by Ángeles Mastretta. In both texts, women are not expected to show any type of resistance against men or a system of power. Kincaid writes “this is how you set a table for dinner” and “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like a slut, I know you are so bent on becoming.” The concepts within this text demonstrate how women are taught, even by other female figures, how to act in order to gain respect from society. To add, in Mastretta’s text, women are continuously painted in a negative light, like Berlin, when they go against societal norms.

1.2: The Backlash Theory

Now to connect these roles and frameworks to the crisis of feminicides in México, the backlash theory serves as an additional possible explanation. Feminist and journalist Susan Fauldi explains that the backlash theory is defined as a type of resentment toward a marginalized group of people for advancing either socially or politically in society’s hierarchy. This theory can be used to explain why men might feel threatened by women today who are increasingly often going against societal norms. For example, according to scholars Sonia Bhalotra and Manuel Fernandez, there has been a growth in women participation in the labor force, which go hand-in-hand with women accessing education at higher rates in the country. In this sense, women are being seen climbing up the social hierarchy in more overt ways. Fauldi’s theory can suggest that feminicides are occurring at higher rates because they are an effect of these changing norms, rather than just the gender roles themselves. For example, Fauldi writes “gender equality threatens men’s status in society; backlash or retaliation is manifested through social strategies aimed at controlling women and their achievement,” (8). A clear example of this theory using literature from class is Isabel Allende’s book The House of Spirits. Although not connected to feminicide, Esteban Trueba’s personality highlights how controlling his wife, Clara, as well as the other women in his family, is the immediate reaction he has when they show any slight resistance or independency.

In patriarchal institutions, modifying gender roles without changing mindsets has done more harm than good. Men need to be a part of the solution and not only be comfortable with the changing gender roles, but also be vocally active when others in society are holding resentment and resort to violence and mistreatment.

1.3: Activism

Additionally, another framework to explore within the feminicide crisis is that of social activism. For example, a video titled “Un violador en tu camino” demonstrates how México’s feminist movement against feminicides and women discrimination is bringing visibility to the issue. The framework of activism, either through protesting or social media, has spread awareness to feminicide cases, not only in México, but across the world. According to platforms like TikTok, the hashtag #NiUnaMas has garnered more than 82.8 million views on the platform. Other hashtags such as #SiMeMatan, which means #IfTheyKillMe, have emerged online as well. The organization of Ni Una Menos writes “We are here to take care of ourselves, accompany each other, transmit knowledge, know that we are complicit, attentive to the feelings of others” on their website. This frames a lot of the activists’ work ethic within the organization to organize their protests and social campaigns.

The notion of changing gender roles being an explanation of why feminicide cases are rising can be analyzed with the idea of increase women independency in the country in mind. Organizations like Ni Una Menos show Mexican society that women will not continue to be unheard and invisible; hence, men are fearful that they will lose their place in the social hierarchy because they see that women are becoming less afraid to stand up for themselves. For example, according to Animal Politico, six out of every ten Mexicans in the country believe that the country is patriarchal. Therefore, these ideas are very normalized in the country. The numbers of women marching on the streets or being less hesitant to go against gender roles, such as Marianismo, is demonstrating how these gender roles are evolving. However, this goes hand-in-hand with the idea of impunity that also cannot be ignored in this crisis. If gender roles are changing in Mexican society as new generations of women come, feminicide cases are continuing because these changing gender roles are not being met with a similar change in systems of the government.

3.2: Impact of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s attitude toward the crisis is important to analyze when thinking about the legal definition of feminicide and the high percentage of crimes that aren’t being punished. When media outlets asked him why the government had plans to revert the classification of feminicides to homicides, he replied by saying “much has been manipulated on this matter in the media, not in all of course, those who do not see us favorably take advantage of any circumstance to generate smear campaigns, of course, distortion, false information” (Lopez-Obrador). In his perspective, the involvement of media has only worsened the crisis, and his focus appears to be more on how the public sees him more so than the crisis itself. For example, the Center for Strategic and International Studies writes that he has proclaimed himself as a “humanist” and not a feminist. What rings as interesting to examine in terms of his reaction to feminicides is the fact that when he ran for president, he ran on a liberal platform. Many Mexican feminists like Maria Salguero share their frustration to how the president has responded. Salguero tells Mexican newspaper The Yucatan Times that “I feel betrayed, because I was one of those who voted for him. We trusted that things could be different — but now we are seeing that this is just more of the same.” It’s important to connect the causes of the rise of these cases with systems of power like AMLO. According to the idea of the sociological imagination presented by Mills, examining how these systems of power operate and behavior provide contextualization of social issues like this one. As Mills says the concept of the sociological imagination “enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals.”

Lopez-Obrador is a prime example of how the gender roles explored above manifest themselves into action, or in this case, inaction. During one of his matinee presidential conferences where he spoke about feminicides, he referred to women as “a group that did not have the capacity to defend itself when they have been victimized four times more than the other.” Inherently, the notion of women not being able to be a group that can stand up for themselves or raise their voices against discrimination display the harm of internalized gender ideologies. In connection, his negative attitude towards the feminist marches and protests makes sense because if under his eyes, women are a group that can’t defend themselves and solely are seen as “victims,” then the fact that women are uniting to protest is not “correct.”

3.3: Performative Activism

This perspective that is present in literature from inside our class also bring up the idea of how women resisting back to systems of oppression is worthless. This is an argument that is present in conversations of whether feminist activism is creating change. For instance, a conversation of whether social media activism is performative can come into play. Performativity is the action of saying or doing something not because you are genuinely educated on the topic or genuinely care about, but more so, because everyone is doing it. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement grew during 2020 after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. Through the vessel of resistance, many activists utilized social media to raise their voices against police brutality. On the other hand, a popular trend was posting a black box, which represented solidarity towards the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement. Professor Mariah Wellman at University of Utah and argued that these boxes fell into performativity, due to the fact not many individuals took time to educate themselves on the topic so by “posting black squares and utilizing a hashtag that had since been employed as a way of information sharing ultimately pushed down valuable information for Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors and suppressed images of those in the streets protesting police violence” (Wellman).

The Black Lives Matter Movement is another example of a social movement that works similarly to the Ni Una Menos social campaign. However, there is an argument to be made that although performative activism is existent, the resistance of women in México has caused change. For example, the Olimpia Law was created in honor of Olimpia Melo, whose sexual photographs were shared without her consent by her past romantic partner (Arroyo). This law now aids to regulate the spread of intimate content on the internet of women. Another example is the Ingrid Law, which was also passed in homage to Ingrid Escamilla. The law punishes police officers and government officials that leak any type of information —negative or positive — of victims of feminicide without their families’ consent (Picheta and Gallon).

Reactions to the rise of the anti-feminicide feminist movement in México can be attributed back to the impact gender ideologies have on a society and culture. The perspectives that Lopez Obrador and feminists bring showcase the disparity between those in power versus the women who are experiencing this treatment in their everyday lifestyles.

It all connects back to simple actions of how a feminicide case is talked about and reported on. Cases like that of Lesvy Berlin are tainted with negative details and examples of victim-blaming because it is easier to continue the cycle of casting women in a negative light than confront these gender roles and norms. Additionally, as the backlash theory illustrates, one would believe that as society progresses and more women are being comfortable in rejected these social norms, the crisis would diminish, but the opposite effect is occurring. My analysis and understanding leads me to think that the uptick in feminicide cases and women abuse in México has always been rooted in the fear of women using the power their voice has.

4. Conclusion