Feminicide – Femicide as a Sexist, Political and Colonial Phenomenon

The aim of the course is to explore femicide and femicide, not only as a crime, but as a structural, political, class and colonially constituted phenomenon, identifying its relationship with state impunity, racism, necropolitics and epistemicide. The course will focus on the analysis of femicide and femicide as a phenomenon directly linked to patriarchy, the colonial construction of gender and class inequalities through Western science, as well as the role of the state in shaping, legitimizing and reinforcing these phenomena, through a hegemonic masculinity and power. Through critical approaches and fundamental theoretical texts, we will examine how the state has used science, legal framework and political strategy to establish and manage violence against women and femininity, reinforcing patriarchal, class and colonial structures. We will analyze how the historical development of the concept of «feminicide» reflects the state’s ongoing effort to control «feminine» race, gender, knowledge and science, as well as the establishment of a «Third» world. We will explore how policies, legal regulations and practices of repression, such as patriarchal family law laws, demographic «problem» measures, policing and «moral control» campaigns against «common» femininity or sex work, have shaped the social field in which violence against women and femininity is legitimised or concealed. Finally, we will discuss how active forms of collective resistance and social claim, as well as theories such as abolitionist feminism, promote the abolition of all forms of oppression and violence, focusing on the dismantling of the radical structures that enable them.