FEMICIDE AND THE MODERN COLONIAL GENDER SYSTEM: A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, COLONIALISM, AND ROMANTIC LOVE

Abstract

This work stems from questioning the constant presence of news reports about femicide crimes. Every day, new stories about women who have lost their lives due to femicide are broadcast on TV and the internet. Amidst so many stories, we examine those of two young women who survived after being brutally beaten by their boyfriends due to their jealousy. The stories of these two young women, whose faces were disfigured by their romantic partners, illustrate the connection between love and violence in the lives of Brazilian women. Considering that in a large proportion of femicides the aggressor has an intimate relationship with the victim, we seek to analyze how the practices of a feminicidal biopower are articulated with the devices of gender and romantic love. From a reading anchored in decolonial feminism, we understand gender as a modern and colonial system, intimately linked to the intersectionalities of race and social class. Our investigation concludes that the modern ideal of romantic love continues to serve as an axis of subjectivation in contemporary society, legitimizing beliefs and practices of desubjectivation of female subjects, and engendering a politics of death that turns female existences into a commodity to be enjoyed and/or discarded.