Rethinking Femi(ni)cide Intersectionally: Between Definitional Boundary-Work and Transformative Practices in Feminist Activism

In 1990, Jane Caputi and Diane E.H. Russell coined the term femicide to render visible the most extreme form of violence against women, that which ends in death. Since then, hundreds of activist initiatives have emerged throughout the world to document, raise awareness about, and call to action against these crimes, also referred to as feminicides (D’Ignazio 2024). At the center of these feminist projects is, first and foremost, the need to define what is/is not femi(ni)cide and to categorize the multiple forms these killings may take. Unlike official state agencies, which often adopt “narrow” definitions limited to murders perpetrated by intimate (former) partners and/or family members, activist groups usually advocate for a “broader” definition that commonly characterizes a femi(ni)cide as the killing of a woman for being a woman (Corradi 2021). Departing from this generally accepted definition, this paper critically examines activist initiatives’ demarcation and categorization of femi(ni)cide from an intersectional and decolonial perspective that sheds light onto the inclusions and exclusions that this boundary-work (Pereira 2012) enacts. The analysis looks, among other questions, at how divisions within feminism with regard to what a woman is restrict the number of bodies that count as potential victims of femi(ni)cide, particularly transsexual and/or transgender women, and how the incorporation of categories seen as culturally specific (i.e. “honor killings”) serve to “Other” certain forms of fatal violence against women, which appear as inherently bound to particular ethnic/religious (often immigrant) communities. The paper also discusses ongoing activist efforts to further broaden the definition of femi(ni)cide by reconceptualizing it as not only the result of patriarchal but also capitalist and colonial violence, a transformative move that can contribute to more intersectional approaches to this violence. The presentation will draw upon materials gathered as part of a research project that comparatively analyzes state and non-state efforts to count femi(ni)cides in Spain and Colombia, as well as additional data from similar activist initiatives in other European and Latin American countries. References: Caputi, Jane, and Diane E.H. Russell. 1990. “Femicide”: Speaking the Unspeakable. Ms. Magazine 1(2): 34-37. Corradi, Consuelo. 2021. Femicide, its causes and recent trends: What do we know? Briefing requested by the DROI Subcommittee. European Parliament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/653655/EXPO_BRI(2021)653655_EN.pdf D’Ignazio, Catherine. 2024. Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pereira, Maria do Mar. 2012. ‘Feminist theory is proper knowledge, but …’: The status of feminist scholarship in the academy. Feminist Theory 13(3): 283-303.