Abstract

This study seeks to analyze how social actors in Mexico and Argentina created terminology to frame gendered violence and the impact of the new frameworks on the legal responses to violence committed against women and transgender individuals. The premise of this study is the belief that how we communicate serious issues can have a real and observable impacts on if there is a legal response to a problem and how that legal response is crafted. This study investigates, first, the intentions of why social actors invented new terminology to refer to instances of gendered-violence and, second, the methods they used to introduce the terminology to the public discourse. In my analysis I find that the introduction of femi(ni)cidio and travesticidio had several observable impacts on the legal action pursued by the states involved. The conceptual frameworks posed in the definitions of femicidio and travesticidio are clearly present in the discourse and legislation connected to the issues. Terminology has strengths and limitations. New legal terminology alone is not likely to provoke legal action. For terminology to result in new legal action, it is likely dependent on if the term is adopted by an already existing domestic movement, international pressure, high-profile and relevant cases, and state willingness to act. This project provoked other questions about what societal factors or aspects of terminology could make it more or less effective. At the end of this study, I pose future research questions pertaining to what aspects of the introduction of femi(ni)cidio and travesticidio could have enabled the adoption of these concepts into social and legal discourse.

Advisor

Leiby, Michele

Second Advisor

Medina, Hernán

Department

Political Science; Spanish

Disciplines

Comparative Politics | Criminal Law | Latin American Languages and Societies | Law and Gender

Keywords

Femicide, Feminicidio, Travesticidio, Creation of Terminology, Framing

Publication Date

2023

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2023 Noah Leonard