History of Gender Commons^™

From Carnivals To Red Light Districts: Mexican Gender Norms And Sex Trafficking, Kate Heath

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This paper explores how traditional Mexican gender norms greatly facilitate sex trafficking on the U.S.-Mexico border because of the normalization of violence. In turn, an acceptance of such violence facilitates manipulative practices as related to deception, psychical violence, and psychological manipulation associated with marianismo and machismo. Machismo enables traffickers to use violence against women, threaten their families and children, deceive them with ideas of romance and opportunities abroad, and exploit the benefits of patriarchy and female vulnerability. Meanwhile, marianismo enables trafficking when considering the manipulation of women’s toleration of violence, their strong connections to their families, their limited opportunities for …