Expressions of Patriarchal Violence in Rural Women Adolescents

Abstract

Violence against women has been, in part, the expression of a patriarchal social system that has created devices of control and subjugation of women throughout history. The objective of this study was to recover the knowledge and experiences of female adolescents in high school about sexuality, sexual practices, and relationships with parents in a rural community in Chiapas, Mexico. From a qualitative phenomenological perspective, with a feminist analysis approach and using the focus group technique, 14 adolescent women between the ages of 14 and 17 were given a voice. In their speeches, the participants showed that the expressions of patriarchal violence occur through the romanticization of love relationships in heterosexual couples; the concealment, by parents, of relevant information to guide them on sexuality and sexual practices, and through three specific forms of submission to patriarchal norms: not falling into the misfortune of pregnancy at an early age, forced motherhood in the prohibition of abortion and confinement to the domestic sphere as a consequence of motherhood. It is concluded, from the most significant experiences expressed by young adolescents about sexuality, sexual practices, and their relationship with the adult guardians around them, that the reproduction of gender relations that have perpetuated the subordination of women to male power, typical of patriarchal societies, is still deeply present in the subjectivity and bodies of adolescent girls.