Marianismo and the victimization of incarcerated women: alternative forms of exerting female power

Abstract

Marianismo is founded on the image of the ideal woman characterized by suffering, sacrifice, and abnegation. The constitution of womanhood inspired by the image of the Virgin Mary corroborates the traditional role of women as responsible for the domestic sphere, caring for the home and the family. In this paper we discuss how the Marianismo may be appropriated to simultaneously reproduce female traditional subjugation and to affirm ways of exerting power. The goal is to understand how sacrifice and abnegation sustain female victimized position, but also empower women in peculiar ways. Through the life trajectories of Brazilian incarcerated women, we show how their discourses carry the mark of suffering and violence recurrently experienced, as well as the power acquired through this same suffering.