Sexualized Violence in Peru Cultural Inf PDF

Sexualized Violence in Per: Cultural Influence in the Law
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

MASTER OF ARTS
in
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
by
Kari A. Young
December 13, 2013
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this
thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree.
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5
A. The Why - Motivation ........................................................................................................... 8
B. The What -Main Concerns and Aims....................................................................................10
C. The How - Structure of the Research .................................................................................... 13
RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................................................... 16
A. Types of Data ....................................................................................................................... 16
B. Limitations.............................................................................................................................19
LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................... 22
Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths .......................................................................................... 24
Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System ....................................................................... 35
Continuum of Violence .............................................................................................................. 42
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 50
CASE STUDY .............................................................................................................................. 52
Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths ...................................................................................... 53
Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System .................................................................. 61
PERUVIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT ................................................................................... 73
The Beginning of the Movement .............................................................................................. 74
The Missing Piece & the Continuum of Violence ..................................................................... 84
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 86
WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................... 93
Abstract
This research looks closely at the way rape is defined and codified within the legal
system, drawing on the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code as the prime example. It is
argued here that culture is a key variable in rape law. In order to investigate this
issue further, this research looks at: 1) rape within the context of cultural attitudes
2) rape and sexualized violence within the legal system and 3) rape within a
continuum of violence. I use various feminist literature to analyze the realm of
sexualized violence and the link between culture and rape definitions in the law. I
compare the definitions of rape in the United States and Per and I use Article 178
of the Peruvian Penal Code and its reform to discuss the connection between culture
and law. I analyze three main themes of Peruvian culture that have had an influence
in their legal system: (1) machismo; (2) marianismo; (3) familismo. Further, the
feminist movement in Per laid the groundwork for the reform for change of the
1924 penal code. Through analysis of the Peruvian feminist movement, both past
and present, I have found that while they are challenging these harmful cultural
aspects that influence the law, additional legal reform needs to take place. However,
in order to change the current definition of rape they must analyze rape in three
ways: (1) through a cultural lens; (2) through a legal lens; (3) through a feminist
lens: within a realm of sexualized violence. My final argument indicates that a
feminist definition of rape should be implemented, including not just rape but all
forms of violence within the continuum of sexualized violence.
In order to live in the world, we must name it. Names are essential for the
construction of reality for without a name it is difficult to accept the existence of an
object, an event, a feeling.
D. Spender, Man-Made Language
In the past, what happened to men was political, but what happened to women
was cultural. The first was public and could be changed, and the second was private, off
limits, even sacred. By making clear that sexualized violence is political and public, it
breaches that wall. It admits that sexualized violence can be changed.
Gloria Steinem, Q&A: Gloria Steinem on Ending Rape in War
INTRODUCTION
After independence in 1821, the first draft of the Peruvian penal code included a
section on sexual offenses titled, Violencia hecha a las mujeres (violence against
women).1 This section included a legal code (Vidaurre 1828, Law 5) that was enacted in
order to protect the virginity of women.2 In instances of rape and to serve as a
punishment for the perpetrator, the victim was required to enter into marriage with her
rapist. In 1924, almost a century later, this legal code was still being implemented and a
15-year-old girl, Nancy, became a victim of this harmful law. 39-year-old perpetrator
Toms Macedo Coritupac proposed to the girl, on the advice of his lawyer, in order to not
be punished.3 She unwillingly accepted due to social pressure not only from her family,
but from societys patriarchal norms and culture of machismo. Toms was subsequently
released from prison and when she insisted on divorce after several years of mistreatment
and abuse, Nancy suffered a final beating that killed her.4
Cases like these, unfortunately, are not uncommon. Many countries practice this
belief that a victim should marry her rapist, whether or not its written into legal codes.
Currently, the government of Mozambique is deciding whether or not to include the
marriage clause, similar to that of Perus, within its rape law.5 The story of Nancy is a
prime example of the way in which cultural attitudes towards rape, sexualized violence6,
Jaris Mujica. Violaciones sexuales en el Per 2000-2009: un informe sobre el estado de la situacin.
(Lima: PROMSEX, 2011), 19.
2
Mujica, Violaciones sexuales, 19.
3
Beatriz Merino. Matrimonio y violacin: el debate del Artculo 178 del Cdigo penal
peruano. (Lima: Movimiento Manuela Ramos, 1997)
4
Merino, Matrimonio y violacin, 47.
5
"Mozambique: Marrying Your Rapist is not Justice." Amnesty International.
https://amnesty.org/uk/actions/mozambique-womens-rights-rape-bill (accessed March 14, 2014).
6
I use the term sexualized violence rather than sexual violence in order to make the point that violence is
not sexual, rather it is something that has become sexualized. Gloria Steinem indicates that sexualized
violence is a better term to use, because theres nothing sexual about violence. Sex is about pleasure.
and womens roles are defined. Nancy was seen as being ruined because of the fact that
she had sex before marriage. She was no longer seen as pure by her family or society
and in order to redeem herself and her familys honor, she had to marry her rapist. The
fact that those same underlying cultural factors were embedded within legal texts in Per
illustrates the ways in which culture influences law. When women live in a culture of
violence, and the laws are endangering them as well, it becomes important to take into
consideration a cultural context of the country behind the legal system.
Per, situated in western South America, is a multiethnic country with one of the
fastest growing economies in Latin America.7 With a bustling population of 29.8 million,
nearly 30% of inhabitants live in the capital city of Lima.8 According to a June 2013
report by the Peruvian Ministry of Economics and Finance, Per is one of the most
rapidly growing economies in South America. Additionally, according to the Ministry,
economic growth in Per has allowed the sustained reduction of poverty and the growth
of the middle class.9 At the same time, Per also currently has the highest prevalence of
sexualized violence in South America and ranks 16th in the world.10 According to
statistics from several Peruvian institutions, including the police, emergency centers, and
the Ministry for Women and Social Development, 68,818 reports of sexualized violence
Violence is about pain. Nature tells us whats good for us by making it pleasurable, and whats bad for us
by making it painful. To get those things mixed up usually requires a childhood in which people we loved
and depended on inflicted pain, and we came to believe we couldnt get one without the other.
7
"Comision de Economia del Congreso." Peru Ministerio de Economia Finanzas.
http://www.mef.gob.pe/contenidos/pol_econ/presentaciones/presentacion_comision_economia_congreso.p
df (accessed October 26, 2013).
8
"Background Note: Peru." Background Notes On Countries Of The World: Peru (December 2006): 1-8.
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2013).
9
Background Note: Peru.
10
Mujica, Violaciones sexuales, 51.
were received over the last 10 years, which averages about 18.8 cases reported per day.11
Additionally, Peruvian police received 95,749 reports of domestic violence in the year
2009 alone.12 It is also determined that 47% of women within in Lima alone had suffered
from some type of domestic violence.13 The International Womens Rights Action Watch
indicates in a 2009 report, that rape in Lima is reported nearly five times per day, but
only 1 in 8 of these cases are brought to justice.14
While these numbers are a start in understanding the drastic reality of sexualized
violence within Peruvian society, they are likely far from accurate. It is impossible to
determine the exact number of cases for many reasons, particularly because most women
do not report such violations. An overwhelming majority of women do not report not
Como no son reconocidas
only due to the
por la ley,
no denuncian (la ley da algo asi
como peso o aura
because not all
de realidad
stigma and the normalization attached to sexualized violence, but also

aspects of sexualized violence are reflected within the law or defined as
being violent behavior. A woman who experiences harassment on the street, who is raped
by her husband (within some legal systems), or is looked at, stalked, groped, or harassed,
may not be experiencing something that is legally defined as sexualized violence or even
as illegal behavior. This prevents many women all over the world from coming forward,
many simply defining their experiences as normal male behavior.
Sexualized violence is manifested within the cultural norms of societies, its laws
and its people. As Jacqui True indicates, violence against women is not limited to violent
11
Jelke Boesten. "The State and Violence Against Women in Peru: Intersecting Inequalities and Patriarchal
Rule." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 19, no. 3 (2012), 362.
12
Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Per, 362.
13
Magaly Noblega Mayorga. "Risk and Protective Factors for Physical and Emotional Intimate Partner
Violence Against Women in a Community of Lima, Peru." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 27, no. 18
(2012): 3644.
14
"Peru." University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, International Women's Rights Action Watch.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iwraw/Peru.html (accessed September 15, 2013).
conflict or war, but thrives in peaceful settings as well.15 With a society built on customs
and influences of the Catholic Church, Peruvian culture is characterized by traditions of
machismo and marianismo16, which both socially construct the way men and women are
supposed to behave. Further, this lack in defining and recognizing violent behavior within
so-called peacetime, both culturally and legally, is the basis of my research.
I will examine the case of Per to support my thesis that cultural norms are a key
variable in rape law. Research questions I will discuss in relation to this are: how do
gender traditions and cultural norms in Per influence attitudes towards sexualized
violence, particularly rape and how do they create an environment where violence against
women is tolerated? How then is this reflected in Peruvian legal codes? Finally, my main
research question draws on the need for cultural change: how are these norms on
sexualized violence and rape being challenged by the Peruvian feminist movement?
A. THE WHY - MOTIVATION
Sexualized violence against women throughout the world is high, perhaps higher
than its ever been or at least it is becoming more visible. The fact that most women in
their lifetime have experienced sexualized violence makes it a pertinent area to study.
According to True, in many parts of the world, violence against women appears to
becoming common and more egregious, despite significant civil, political and economic
advances.17 Violence against women affects women in every social group. Further, laws,
which hold women accountable instead of men who perpetrate violence, such as that of
Pers, are far from extinct. Countries around the world still have marriage clauses within
15
Jacqui True. The Political Economy of Violence Against Women. (New York, NY: Oxford University
Press, 2012), 12.
16
I will discuss these terms further in detail in the subsequent sections.
17
True, The Political Economy of Violence Against Women, 3.
their rape laws, while others are currently adding them as new pieces of legislation, like
in Mozambique.18 Why do laws like this exist? Why are they still being written today?
Why isnt there any universal definition or legal code on rape? What factors define rape
within the law and why do they vary from country to country? In order to answer these
questions, I had to begin with research.
Questions such as these are difficult to answer in only one way. Because of that, I
began this research with several questions in mind: Is there a continuing evolution on the
definition of rape?, Should culture or a societal context ever been taken into consideration
when defining rape?, Why and how are rape definitions in the law changing? While I
prefer a universal definition, culture must be considered when examining legal codes on
rape. The historical and societal context of a country must be taken into approach in order
to understand the various legal frameworks surrounding rape. This insight guides the
discussion within my thesis.
What I have found through my research is important in understanding how legal
definitions of sexualized violence are influenced by cultural attitudes. This research is
guided by my underlying sense that the definitions in the legal books are not only wrong
but they also tend to further harm women. My hypothesis is that legal definitions not only
reflect a societal context but they condone it. Definitions of sexualized violence, and of
rape in particular, should be universally applicable. To me, sexualized violence is
criminal, not cultural. Rape should be considered a criminal act in all parts of the world,
not just because the specific legal system says it is. However, due to harmful gendered
aspects of culture, some forms of sexualized violence, such as rape within marriage, are
18

https://amnesty.org/uk/actions/mozambique-womens-rights-rape-bill (accessed March 14, 2014).
not recognized as criminal in some parts of the world, such as China. Without the
harmful views and normalization of sexualized violence against women, these harmful
laws would not exist. This is because sexualized violence is something that has become
normalized, accepted, and prevalent within society.
B. THE WHAT - MAIN CONCERNS AND AIMS
To capture the complex issue, I will analyze the legal definitions of rape in Per
along with the 1924 Penal Code on rape. I analyze the legal definition and codes on rape,
compare it to Peruvian cultural norms, and relate this to material from the literature
review. In order to understand the findings within the case study, I first use material from
the literature review. The literature review helps to analyze the feminist perspective on
sexualized violence, recognizing that this type of violence is widespread, yet is specific to
each culture. I analyze the literature on sexualized violence and rape, in particular, and
find that three main themes develop to support my thesis: rape myths and victim blaming,
the discussion of rape in a legal context, and the existence of a continuum of violence.
The first two themes offer a way to analyze rape culturally and legally, while the latter
helps to view rape from a feminist standpoint as being linked to other forms of violence
against women.
I first analyze how rape law reflects cultural and societal attitudes on sexualized
violence in Per, particularly attitudes such as machismo, marianismo, and familismo.19 I
then analyze the Peruvian legal codes on rape through a social and cultural lens.
Machismo, marianismo, and familismo are all three highly valued social attitudes in
Peruvian culture. Machismo is the idea of male supremacy and is very prevalent not only
in Latin America but around the world. It is the Latin word to describe the global
19
I will discuss these terms further in detail in my case study.
10
phenomenon of patriarchy. A very powerful social construct, one of the main

characteristics of machismo is hypersexuality. The culturally preferred goal is conquest
of women...to take advantage of a young woman is cause for pride and prestige, not
blame.20 Octavio Giraldo describes machismo as: the bigger his sexual organs and the
more active his sexual life, the more macho he will be.21 In this case, Giraldo illustrates
machismo as the sexual conquering of young women.22 Further, this ideal fits in with
marianismo as women are socially encouraged to believe in male superiority.23 Further,
the Peruvian feminist organization Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer
(DEMUS) indicates that machismo is marked by two factors: men cannot control their
sexual impulses and that women are always ready and willing to satisfy the men, both of
which contribute to stereotypes and normalization of sexual violence against women.24
Marianismo teaches the young woman that her virginity is sacred, her opinions do not
matter, and that her number one priority in life is her husband and her family. Familismo
ties the two social ideas of machismo and marianismo together.25 Familismo is the idea
that the well-being of the family should be ahead of individual interests.26 While this may
seem harmless, it is the strong ideas of machismo and marianismo that condition the way
men and women are supposed to behave within the family. These cultural ideas are very
important in understanding Peruvian attitudes on rape and not only the way society views
it, but also the way the legal system views it.
20
Bron Ingoldsby. "The Latin American Family: Familism vs. Machismo." Journal of Comparative Family
Studies 22 (1985): 58.
21
Octavio Giraldo. El Machismo como Fenomeno Psicocultural. (Bogota: Fundacion Universitaria Konrad
Lorenz, 1972), 296.
22
Giraldo, El Machismo, 297.
23
Ingodsby, "The Latin American Family: Familismo vs. Machismo," 58.
24
"Un Hombre No Viola." DEMUS. http://www.demus.org.pe/publicacion/8db_un_hombre_no_viola%20%20copia.pdf (accessed August 14, 2014).
25
Ingoldsby, "The Latin American Family: Familismo vs. Machismo," 58.
26
Ingoldsby, "The Latin American Family: Familismo vs. Machismo," 57.
11
To supplement this discussion of cultural attitudes about gender roles, I analyze

the case study regarding the 1997 reform of Article 178 of the 1924 Peruvian penal code
and the feminist influence (led by Congresswoman Beatriz Merino) for its change. The
1997 reform consisted of a long legal battle, led by feminist organizations and protestors,
to overturn the 1924 Peruvian penal code that allowed a rapist to escape all charges if he
married his victim. I chose this case study in particular due to the fact that this 1924 rape
law put women at a significant disadvantage. Not only did this law endanger victims of
sexualized violence, but it did so in a legal way.
Further, I analyze the Peruvian legal definitions on rape. I compare the Peruvian
definition of rape to that of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations definition.
I use the FBIs definition as a way to compare and contrast the two because of the fact
that it was recently changed (due to feminist activism and pressure) to encompass a wider
range of sexualized violence. Looking at the definition of rape in Per and comparing it
to cultural attitudes on sexualized violence helps to understand how those definitions
were developed.
I then look closely at the Peruvian feminist movement and give a historical
background on the issues faced, accomplishments, and activism. I then use the idea of a
continuum of violence as a way to approach definitions of sexualized violence within the
legal system of Per from a feminist standpoint. By analyzing the 1924 case, along with
the legal definitions of rape, through a feminist perspective, I provide a different
approach to looking at the problem of legally defining sexualized violence in Pers legal
system. A feminist perspective encompasses a wider range of violent behavior that is
sexualized, yet is not described within the law.
12
The socially constructed gender roles for men and women in Per play a
significant role in understanding sexualized violence. Until 1997, the law in Per
provided no protection for victims of sexualized violence and rape, which is extremely
pertinent due to the prevalence of such violence. Despite this, the new and reformed
version of this law is still limited in providing protection to victims of sexualized
violence. Further, the struggle to put an end to the old law was a long battle between
feminist protestors and patriarchal lawmakers. The feminist influence took place within
the context of a male dominated society and a male-oriented definition of rape. These two
premises made it very difficult for feminists to argue against the penal code. By
analyzing how gender traditions and cultural norms influence attitudes on sexualized
violence, it will provide a more thorough understanding of how culture plays a key
variable in rape law. In order to successfully change the law and its effects, one must
challenge cultural norms. Because the reform of the 1997 rape law was changed due
solely to the influence of the feminist movement, it helps to better understand the
relevance of my main research question: how are these norms on sexualized violence and
rape being challenged by the Peruvian feminist movement? What I have found is
important to our understanding of not only the prevalence of sexualized violence in Per,
but a social and cultural understanding of it as well.
C. THE HOW - STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH
To begin, I first analyze rape within the broader realm of sexualized violence by
trying to define it. In the literature review, I look at four authors who have contributed to
the study of sexualized violence: Joana Bourke, Susan Brownmiller, Ann Jones, and Liz
Kelly. Brownmillers 1975 publication Against Our Will, was one of the first of its kind
and has been credited with changing public attitudes on rape. It was the first book which
13
addressed the reality that rape is not a victims fault. When Brownmillers insights are
combined with material from Bourke, Jones and Kelly, we can detect three broad themes:
(1) rape myths and cultural attitudes, (2) the discussion of rape in a legal context and (3) a
continuum of violence. Looking at sexualized violence as a continuum of violence is a
way to see it as a social phenomenon, as Kelly notes.27 Most women face some sort of
sexualized violence within their lives. Rape is on the more extreme and, says Kelly,
legally more likely to be recognized, end of this continuum.28 By not addressing and
recognizing other types of sexualized violence, legal codes completely disregard the
entire realm of violence against women.
I use the literature review as a way to analyze the realm of sexualized violence as
a whole. I look at the literature on cultural attitudes and rape myths to further understand
cultural ideas on sexualized violence. Brownmillers work, as well as that of Bourke and
Jones, helps to analyze the social phenomenon surrounding sexualized violence and rape.
I discuss rape myths such as victim-blaming, which is very prevalent in the wording of
legal codes. Then, through the work of Brownmiller, I give a brief historical background
of rape within the western legal system. This illustrates how, historically, rape laws have
always been harmful to women, and women have, arguably, always been unequal before
the law. Lastly, I use Kellys theory of a continuum of violence to illustrate how Western
feminist activists view sexualized violence, as well as Peruvian feminists view on
sexualized violence. It becomes clear that there is a difference between the two. Many
Peruvian women do not recognize forced sex as part of violence, thus seeing it
normalized. I use this theory, along with Jones concept of normal love, to illustrate how
27
28
Liz Kelly. Surviving Sexual Violence. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 150.
Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 150.
14
we are living in a rape culture. I use each of these three main themes and I relate them to
the issues at hand within Per, along with literature written specifically on the context of
Per by Jelke Boesten. This literature illustrates how, using the case study, cultural
attitudes of sexualized violence within Per are reflected within the Peruvian legal
system. I identify how the Peruvian feminist movement has mobilized around these
issues and use the continuum of violence as a way to further their cause.
Once I diagnose the problem at hand, I focus on the struggle for reform by the
feminist movement, the challenges they faced when facing a patriarchal congress, the
publicity received and the outcome of the reform. By doing this, I can then examine the
current definitions of rape set forth by the laws. This illustrates how, despite the reform
of the 1924 penal code, the law on rape still needs a lot of improvement. The analysis of
the 1997 reform for change is a story of partial progress for the penal codes on rape.
While the Peruvian feminist movement was successful in challenging and removing a
harmful law, the law on rape is still inadequately defining and codifying ways in which
women are sexually violated. More work is needed in the areas of challenging social
norms and reforming definitions of rape in order to address the above-noted issues.
15
Research Methods
Feminist research within the social sciences is pertinent in understanding the
social status of women. Feminist research enables researchers to see those people and
processes lost in gaps, silences, margins, and peripheries.29 Feminist research is research
on women, for women.30 Additionally, using feminist research methods allows
researchers to explore absences, silences, differences, and oppression while being
suspicious of recurring themes.31 Research within the social sciences, in general, is
important in understanding the functionality and socially constructed behaviors within
society. Applying a feminist approach, not only criticizes, but helps to look closely at the
ways in which women are marginalized and oppressed within a patriarchal society, such
as that of Perus. This especially becomes pertinent when researching topics such as
sexualized violence.
Types of Data
My research on this topic uses both secondary and primary sources. The literature
review looks at the issues of rape and sexualized violence and determines that they are
culturally constructed. I go further to propose that there are some aspects within
sexualized violence that transcend culture, yet they take on culturally-specific forms.
Victim-blaming and rape-myths, for example, seem to be prevalent universally and
within the particular legal codes. I then take this insight and apply it to the cultural-legal
context of Per. I find that three main themes describe this context with regards to
29
Brooke A. Ackerly., Maria Stern, and Jacqui True. Feminist Methodologies for International Relations.
1st ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 22.
30
Sotirios Sarantakos. Social research. 3rd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
31
Ackerly, Stern, and True, Feminist Methodologies, 23.
16
sexualized violence: machismo, marianismo and familismo. All of these enhance victim
blaming and rape myths.
I use secondary sources to analyze the culture of Per in regards to sexualized
violence. Through this analysis, I examine the three themes within Peruvian society of
machismo, marianismo and familismo and find a great deal of cultural attitudes towards
sexualized violence, and a prevalence of rape-myths and victim blaming. I complement
these findings with statistical data from demographics data such as population and crime
statistics relating to rape and sexualized violence. This data shows the high relevance of
sexualized violence, indicating the importance of this research. I further use statistical
data from an ethnographic study conducted in Per on spousal violence, as well as a
study conducted on non-consensual sexual experiences. Both studies revealed high levels
of sexualized violence within Per, as well as the normalcy of this type of violence within
relationships. Rape myths and victim blaming were seen commonly throughout both of
these studies as a means to justify the violence. These findings help to shape my analysis
that cultural attitudes towards sexualized violence and rape influence the law, thus
making them a key variable.
In addition, I also use primary sources to explore rape within the law. I use the
Peruvian Penal Code of 1924 to examine the harmful marriage clause within the legal
system. I look at the varying aspects of this legal code and link in to themes within the
literature review. I analyze it in terms of cultural aspects that reflect ideas about women
and their positions with society and the family. I also use primary sources to examine and
analyze the legal definition of rape. I compare the 1997 Peruvian Penal Codes definition
of rape to that of the recently changed United States Federal Bureau of Investigations
17
definition. By doing so, I can compare and contrast the definition in Peru to that of the
United States because both were changed due to feminist activism. Doing this will
highlight the different ways in which both laws were able to change from feminist
activism.
I then use primary sources to research the campaign for change against the 1924
penal code. I analyze articles from various sources such as The New York Times, the
Inter Press Service News, the Los Angeles Daily News, and the Latinamerica Press, all of
which covered the change, in order to determine the events that led up to the reform. I
looked heavily at international newspaper headlines. Additionally, I used one of the only
texts written on the subject, by Beatriz Merino, to further develop my case study on the
feminist reform debate of the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code.
I also draw on historical material of the feminist movement in Peru to support my
analysis. Finally, I use the findings from the case study, along with the findings from the
Peruvian feminist movement as well as from present-day feminist organizations to
address how norms on sexualized violence are being challenged. To do this, I conduct
both a historical and present-day analysis of the Peruvian feminist movement using
secondary sources. I trace common debates that the feminist movement focused on in
regards to activism and rape laws. By doing this, I am able to answer questions such as:
did the feminist movement address patriarchal structures? Did it address cultural aspects
such as victim blaming and rape myths? These questions all relate back to my main
research question: how are norms on sexualized violence and rape being challenged by
the feminist movement?
18
By doing all of this, I am able to read the silences and inductively reason what
the Peruvian legal system is lacking in its codification and laws on rape. This required me
to study what is not contained within the text, or studying what is not there. Bina
DCosta discusses the power of silences within research. She explains how there are three
types of silencing: by government or dominant groups, by the women being affected, and
silencing done by researchers themselves. She also explains how, The power of
dominant groups to define and address the concerns and interests of marginalized groups
makes it impossible for those groups to put their own needs on the public agenda.32 The
importance of reading silences helps to uncover what was never researched or never
addressed. The importance of this research lies in the fact that research on sexualized
violence within Per is scarce, however, the reasoning behind this is uncertain.
Limitations
There were many limitations when gathering secondary research. One of the
limitations was the fact that any data I am using was collected with a specific purpose or
aim already in mind, common to anyone elses reliance on statistical data. It is important
in my case because I use the term sexualized violence within my research, which
encompasses a wider range of violence that women face than what most statistics on
rape, sexual assault or domestic violence capture. This impacts the findings within my
research as the definitions I use differ greatly from the definitions used to collect data I
have to rely on. In order to produce accurate statistics on sexualized violence, one would
have to collect data not just on one end of the continuum of violence or to separate it into
fixed categories. If not all types of sexualized violence are addressed or if only some are
32
Bina DCosta, Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True. "Marginalized identity: new frontiers of
research for IR?." in Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), 143.
19
looked at based on preconceived notions of rape, the results are more limited. This is a
major issue when addressing or researching any type of sexualized violence
Interviews with Peruvian citizens on their ideas of sexualized violence and rape
would have contributed significantly to my research, thus it would have been best to
conduct this research first-hand. A first-hand interview with Beatriz Merino, who was
primarily responsible for the 1997 penal code change, would have been a viable asset to
my thesis. Further, interviews with various Peruvian feminist organizations would have
further helped to address my main research question: how are norms on sexualized
violence and rape being challenged by the Peruvian feminist movement? Because of the
inability to access these sources due to financial reasons and the inability to travel, I
conducted my research primarily through the use of secondary sources.
Another major limitation was the lack of secondary sources on the Peruvian and
Latin American feminist movement. The literature review was based on material written
by Anglo-American researchers and various Peruvian feminist organizations because
research on these topics from Per and Latin America overall proved difficult to find. I
was also limited in the sense that the only publications discussing the actual change of the
1924 penal code was written by Beatriz Merino herself, the main contributor and leader
of the campaign. I found very little mention of the 1924 law in any of the other research
on the Peruvian feminist movement that I reviewed. However, one might also note that
this shortage of secondary sources within Per further illustrates the need for my
research. The lack of Peruvian research on a very harmful law that was detrimental to
womens rights demonstrates the need further.
20
I decided to use media outlets such as newspaper articles to collect information on

the penal code because there was no literature written on the change that I could find. I
was not able to access any newspapers in Per that published the change that was
happening in the 1924 law. The only way to access publications on the 1997 reform of
Article 178 was through archives that could be found only in the Biblioteca Nacional del
Per located in Lima, which I was not able to access. Instead, I use newspaper articles
from the United States because there was virtually no mention of the penal reform from
media outlets in Peru that I was able to find. This put a limit on my research because it
was not articles being written in the context of the country where the change was
happening, thus they took on a different aim or point of view. Articles written within the
United States were being written from an entirely different cultural context. This can vary
greatly with the terminology used to describe the law, as well as the way in which the
terms sexual violence and rape are used.
Lastly, my literature review is lacking in the areas of literature on sexualized
violence within Per. This is because research on sexualized violence, as far as I could
discern, is scarce. Research that has been done on this topic, especially research that is
available in English, addresses mostly the high prevalence of rape within violent conflict,
e.g. the work of Jelke Boesten, a European feminist.
21
Literature Review
Susan B. Anthony can be considered a grandmother to the U.S. feminist
movement. The first wave of feminism, starting in the 1840s, consisted of key issues
such as the Equal Rights Amendment, the right to vote, and anti-slavery movements. Into
the 1870s, Anthony became the most popular woman in America by voting illegally and
thus being arrested. Fast-forward to the 1960s and birth-control pills were introduced,
the Civil Rights Act was passed, and Roe V. Wade legalized abortion. This was also the
time in which Susan Brownmiller published Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.
She has been credited for opening the public discussion about sexualized violence and
rape, though her work was deemed highly controversial at the time and continues to elicit
criticisms.
The public discussion on rape and sexualized violence began in the late 1960s and
was accelerated by the release of Brownmillers controversial work. Anglo-American
feminists began to theorize about rape in a variety of different ways, linking it to other
sources of violence, to social inequalities of power, and to race and gender relations. As
rape began to be explained in many different ways, one thing that all theorists had in
common was the desire to put an end to sexualized violence.
How do we end sexualized violence? The first step, for most Anglo-American
feminists theorizing on rape, is to look at it as a symptom of a patriarchal society. Yet,
feminists also realized that it is harder to achieve broad, lasting change of the underlying
structures of societies and cultures, but it might be easier to pass laws on sexualized
violence. Where do these laws come from and how are they made? What role do feminist
22
activists play in their making? These are important questions to ask when the laws on
sexualized violence throughout the world vary greatly.
I have found several key themes from the research I have done on sexualized
violence, both with Peruvian and U.S. feminists. Much of the research conducted on
Pers prevalence of violence against women is within the context of violent conflict.
Jelke Boesten illustrates how sexualized violence during conflict in Per stems from
underlying social codes and gender norms.33 If we address the idea of rape, linking it to
cultural and social factors, we can better understand the cultural influence behind rape in
Per, both in and out of conflict, specifically its laws and definitions of rape.
The first step in analyzing laws on rape is to look at rape as a social and cultural
phenomenon. Through this literature review, I found three common themes in the
discussion of sexualized violence: cultural attitudes (i.e. victim-blaming and rape-myths);
(2) rape in the legal system and (3) the existence of a continuum of violence. These three
research themes have led to the inevitable conclusion that definitions of rape in the legal
system is influenced by cultural attitudes on sexualized violence. When the cultural
context is profoundly patriarchal (as it is to differing degrees around the world), laws on
rape are inherently misogynistic in that they reinforce rape myths and victim-blaming
tendencies. Therefore, based on the idea of a continuum of violence, legal systems should
adopt a more feminist definition of rape and sexualized violence. While these key themes
are based primarily on my reading of Anglo-feminist research, they can be seen through
Peruvian feminist work and relate significantly to the issues at hand in Per.
33
Jelke Boesten, Marrying Your Rapist: Domesticated War Crimes in Per, in Gendered Peace:
Women's Struggles for Post-war Justice and Reconciliation. ed. Donna Pankhurst et al. (London:
Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2007), 205.
23
Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Culture plays a very important factor in defining rape, which is why definitions
vary so greatly from country to country. Because of this, it is important to study views on
rape within different cultures in order to understand the varying definitions. Brownmiller
describes that it has been observed in the monkey world that males cannot mate with
females without her invitation and in monkey society, rape does not exist.34 The human
male rapes because he can, says Brownmiller: For if the first rape was an unexpected
battle founded on the first womans refusal, the second rape was indubitably
plannedrape became not only a male prerogative, but mans basic weapon of force
against woman, the principal agent of his will and her fear.35 She suggests that man was
thus seen as a natural predator and woman as the natural prey.36 Because of this,
Brownmiller theorizes that rape existed before culture existed and that no cultural
differences existed when the first rape between a man and a woman took place.
Brownmillers argument is quite controversial on many levels, being that humans
are fundamentally sociocultural creatures. This biological, natural predator description
that Brownmiller lays out is conflicting with the ideas that culture largely impacts the
realm of sexualized violence as well as definitions of rape both legally and culturally. As
Denise Thompson illustrates, mans basic weapon of force against woman is not about
biology, but about meaning and morality, about a social construction appended to a bit
of anatomy overloaded with significance.37 By stating that rape is purely biological in
nature, it disregards patriarchal ideologies and the socialization of men as predators. This
34
35
Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), 13.
Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 14.

37
Denise Thompson, Reading between the lines a lesbian feminist critique of feminist accounts of sexuality.
(Sydney, Australia: Lesbian Studies and Research Group, Gorgon's Head Press, 1991), 112.
36
24
is important to realize when discussing rape laws and cultural attitudes on rape. If rape is
seen as something biological, as Brownmiller discusses, then it cannot be changed.
However, many other Anglo-American feminists offer a different view on sexualized
violence. Many feminist researchers discuss the prevalence of rape myths as a main issue
within the social and cultural understanding of rape.
Anglo-American Feminist Views on Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Rape myths are beliefs regarding the incidence as to why the rape occurred: the
victim was dressed provocatively, she was drinking alcohol, or she was alone in a
dangerous place. Rape myths justify the action of the attacker by putting the blame on the
victim. Often, these rape myths are worded into the legal codes as a way to put
limitations on the definition of rape. This not only causes more harm to the victim but it
also denies the existence of an entire realm of sexualized violence and affects data on
such. Examining the sexual history of the victim does not help to further explain the
prevalence of sexualized violence and rape, it chooses to ignore the existence by
justifying single acts by the behavior of the victim. This is seen in all aspects of society
and has become so engrained that it can be said we are living in a rape culture.
Further, Ann Jones explains how normal love is constantly evolving to include
aspects of violence.38 Television, movies, and music all perpetuate this culture that
fixates on sexy violence and violent sex, completely disregarding the prevalence of
sexualized violence that actually occurs. Jones explains how this blur between violence
and love is an excuse for assault for both men and women: I did it because I love you so
much and he did it only because he loves me so much.39 Journalism is also guilty of
38
39
Ann Jones, Next Time, She'll Be Dead: Battering & How to Stop It. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).
Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead, 122.
25
describing rape, assault, and murder in the name of love. Jones explains how these
misconceptions lure us into thinking that a certain amount of fighting is normal in
relationships, just as a certain amount of swatting and shaking children passes for
discipline.40 Where do we draw the line? When violence and sex become intertwined, it
creates a powerful yet confusing message not only for women, but for all of society,
causing a media and a culture more acceptable to violence.
Joanna Bourke discusses several rape myths in her book, Rape.41 These include
myths such as: fully matured women cannot be violated against their will, it is physically
impossible to rape a woman, rape requires a minimum of at least three men to take
place and that the average rapist would be repelled by violence.42 Stereotypes and myths
such as these are detrimental when fighting to change the definition of rape, both legally
and culturally. She further describes how it was thought that the female body was
designed to defy rape and that a man must fight hard in order to penetrate.43 She explains
how the myth that it was impossible to rape a resisting woman was one of the most
trenchant myths of rape throughout the twentieth century.44 These rape myths, as
Bourke discusses, are strategies for less powerful members of community to be further
marginalized such as children of the poor, hysterics, unmarried women,
menstruating/menopausal women and discontented wives: these groups needed to be put
in their place less they usurp some of the power of their (male) betters.45 Bourke
indicates the most important aspect of rape myths in society: they created cultural
40

Joanna Bourke, Rape: Sex, Violence, History. (Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007).
42
Bourke, Rape, 26.
43
Bourke, Rape, 26.
44
Bourke, Rape, 26.
45
Bourke, Rape, 48.
41
26
sympathy for the sexual abuser, never-mind the victim.46 They were simply used as a way
to explain and justify acts of violence.
Victim-blaming is one of the most frequently used justifications of rape. Jones
describes how victim blamers often turn their attention towards the victim and try to
justify the crime committed against them by digging into their past.47 Does she have a
history of many sexual partners, does she frequently consume alcohol, and what was she
wearing? These are all questions heard not only within society but also in courtrooms.
Rape myths, like victim-blaming, are so embedded within society that most men who
admit to forcing sex would not label or define it as rape.48 The myths become so
engrained that people misread what rape actually is without trying to link it to some
external factor such as alcohol, clothing, or other various factors like the victim herself.
More frequent, however, is the question; why doesnt she just leave? If she is
being abused, if she is being raped, beaten, tortured, why doesnt she just leave? Once
again, this question perpetuates the cycle of victim-blaming. Further, as Jones notes, this
line of questioning does not actually ask a real question but rather makes a judgment,
turning a social problem into a personal problem.49 The problem lies not within the
victim and not within her responsibility, yet time after time it is seen this way. Even when
women do leave, this question is still asked: if she actually left, then how did she get
raped again, beaten again?50 As Jones asks, What does it mean to leave? How far does
a woman have to go? And how many times?51 Societal standards of how men are
46
Bourke, Rape, 48.

48
Bourke, Rape, 48.
49
50
51
47
27
supposed to behave normalize their actions, thus triggering the notion for people to pose
the question: why doesnt she just leave? In this case, violence is seen as acceptable and
expectable from a man and unpreventable only within the hands of the victim. She is
responsible not only for her own actions, but also for the actions of the perpetrator and of
society. This is the basis of victim-blaming. It denies the existence of a larger social
phenomenon of sexualized violence and pins the blame solely on the victim, making it
seem as though it was just another extreme case of violence on one end of the spectrum.
This question, as Jones describes, suggests two ideas, both of them being false:
that help is readily available to all worthy victims (which is to say, victims who leave),
and that this victim is not one of them. 52 However, help is not readily available to all
victims, especially legal help. More often than not, victims turn to violence as a last resort
of defense. For example, after Karen Straw had her husband arrested for abuse both
within family court and criminal court, notified the police several times, and even moved
away from him, he still attacked her.53 Using self-defense as a last resort, Straw killed her
husband after he raped her at knife point. Stories like these are not uncommon, leading
women to not only be victims of abusive husbands but of weak criminal justice, of a
system that again and again failed them until it was finally too late.54 If the problem is
her fault and the solution her responsibility, then neither the criminal justice system,
which we might expect to come to the aid of crime victims, nor other social institutions
can do anything about it.55 Straw was a victim of a criminal justice system that not only
denied the magnitude of violence against women, but further harmed her by denying
52

54
55
53
28
assistance. Moreover, Brownmiller describes how rape is the only crime of violence
where the victim is expected or required to resist.56 If she does not resist, it is seen as
consensual sex. In a Pennsylvania study, as discussed by Brownmiller, police were more
willing to believe victims who had screamed out against their attackers than victims who
fought a silent struggle.57 Victim-blaming, along with many other rape-myths, is an
overwhelming factor within the legal system and in the language of the laws, both
significantly contributing to rape culture, which I will demonstrate within the cultural and
legal context of Per.
Helen Reece indicates that one of the main controversial topics within victimblaming and other rape myths is the boundary between rape and sex.58 She claims that
this is because when a man urges his female partner to have sex, this cannot be called
rape.59 This argument demonstrates the difficulty in defining rape, specifically within
the law. However, Reece not only fails to address consent but also loosely uses the term
urge. To urge someone to have sex could be done within the context of threats or
violence. Because of this, her argument regarding the boundaries between rape and sex
are not justified by the example given. Boundaries between rape and sex can be
considered to be socially constructed.
Rape myths are strategically worded into the legal codes and definitions in order
to inflict limitations on the definition of rape. This denies the bigger realm of sexualized
violence that we live in today. First, these myths make it easier to disregard individual
acts of violence rather than think structurally and realize that sexualized violence is a
56

58
Helen Reece, "Rape Myths: Is Elite Opinion Right and Popular Opinion Wrong?." Oxford Journal of
Legal Studies 33, no. 3 (2013).
59
Reece, Rape Myths, 454.
57
29
gendered social problem. The socially constructed hierarchy of gender, which places
power in the hands of the men, has led to the subordination of the woman, resulting in a
high prevalence of sexualized violence against women.60 Secondly, as Jones,
Brownmiller, and Bourke all describe, we are living in a society that normalizes violence
in both relationships and sexual activity. The media portrays violent sex, a certain amount
of violence within relationships is seen not only as okay but is expected, and the legal
system perpetuates this by denying the needed assistance to rape victims. This rape
culture that we live in is detrimental when trying to change the definition of rape. It not
only creates various social levels of inequality, but it creates the mass amounts of
sexualized violence that women face today, trickling down into the legal system and
personal relationships. While Brownmiller, Bourke, and Jones may have been analyzing
rape and sexualized violence from an Anglo-American feminist standpoint, their ideas
and theories directly relate to Per.
Peruvian Feminist Views on Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

While researching the culture of Per, drawing on the work of these AngloAmerican feminists, using Jelke Boestens work on sexualized violence within conflict in
Per, and the work of several feminist organizations in Per, I found various key beliefs
that help in understanding Peruvian culture and its prevalence of sexualized violence.
They are: machismo (idea of male supremacy), marianismo (idea of purity and chastity of
women), familismo (strong identification with the family), all of them having had a direct
effect on the lifestyles and attitudes of Latin culture. With the existence of social beliefs
such as these, it is not surprising that sexualized violence is highly prevalent. Machismo,
60
Lisa Webley, "Gender, Hierarchy, Power and Inequality: What Sociological Theory Adds to our
Understanding of Sex-Discrimination." West Minister Law Review 1 (2012): 42.
30
marianismo, and familismo as concepts all stigmatize women, marginalize them, and thus
put them at a disadvantage both economically, socially and culturally.
These Peruvian cultural aspects of machismo, marianismo, and familismo all
result in a culture of how women are supposed to behave. Machismo reinforces ideas of
gender inequality by placing the emphasis on men as head of the household, the supreme
leader of the family.61 Marianismo puts the responsibility on the women to be pure, clean
and chaste; familismo further encourages these women to be strongly identified with the
family, rather than claiming an identity of her own.
When women step out of these cookie-cutter ideas of femininity, blaming the
victim for instances of rape and sexualized violence becomes that much easier. If they do
not put their family first, if they disobey their husbands, if they are in the wrong place at
the wrong time or are wearing the wrong clothing, all of which goes against
marianismo, they are subsequently held responsible for any abuse or violence that
happens to them. Laura Bunt describes how deeply the social stigma attached to rape is in
Per. Women, as she explains, were persuaded to commit suicide as a solution to their
violation.62 She further explains how when rape cases are taken to trial, judicial rulings
claim that a dishonest woman, or a woman who is not a virgin, cannot physically be
raped and further blaming them by saying they should not have been out alone.63 This ties
in directly with the rape myths described by Bourke.
61
Bron Ingoldsby, "A Theory for the Development of Machismo." National Council on Family Relations,
(1985): 13.
62
Laura Bunt, A Quest For Justice In Cuzco, Peru:Race And Evidence In The Case Of Mercedes
Ccorimanya Lavilla." PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 31, no. 2 (2008): 290.
63
Bunt, A Quest For Justice, 290-291.
31
Further, machismo thrives off of marianismo in the sense that men carry out their
macho roles through domination of woman.64 Can there be a macho without a virgin to
seduce, an inferior to protect, a submissive to dominate, other men to protect one's sisters
from?65 In a study on war-time sexualized violence in Per, it was noted that soldiers
who refused to participate in raping, victimizing, and the domination of women would
subsequently be punished and humiliated by their officers.66 This illustrates how
machismo is used against men in order to persuade them in victimizing and raping
women. Machismo is a harmful social practice that thrives off the subordination,
domination and violence against women. Magaly Nblega Mayorga, a Peruvian feminist,
explains further that these three cultural practices contribute significantly to domestic
violence.67 She explains how machismo, particularly male jealously, is a main contributor
to domestic violence.68 Familismo then creates a high regard for family unity, keeping
women locked in abusive relationships in order to preserve the family.69
Jelke Boesten argues in her work on Pers conflict that sexual violence during
political conflict is often framed by social codes and gender norms which make such
violence acceptable, tolerated, and often justifiable both in war and peace.70 She
explains how events of sexualized violence during conflict become domesticated, not
because they are not harmful, but because the victim, the victims community, and
society more broadly can perceive and frame such violence within existing norms and
64
Ingoldsby, A Theory for the Development of Machismo, 7.

Ingoldsby, A Theory for the Development of Machismo, 6.
66
Michele Leiby. "Wartime Sexual Violence In Guatemala And Peru." International Studies Quarterly 53,
no. 2 (2009): 459.
67
Mayorga, Risk and Protective Factors, 3646.
68
69
70
Boesten, Marrying Your Rapist, 205.
65
32
legislation that incorporate the rape and subordination of women as part of daily life.71
She further argues that these instances of sexualized violence need to go beyond war-time
and look deeply into social norms.
According to several publications done by a collection of feminist organizations
in Per, sexualized violence in Peruvian society is linked directly to cultural factors. The
main contributor to sexualized violence against women is patriarchy.72 The patriarch, or
the boss of the family, is the owner of the womans life, his children, and their
sexualities.73 One of the most important aspects of machismo is Catholicism. Because
Per is a society built on Catholic traditions and customs, machismo thrives in Peruvian
culture. Machismo iterates the idea that the womans body exists in order to satisfy the
sexual needs of a man and that women do not have sexual desires.74 Violence against
women, as explained by Peruvian feminists, is a way for men to control womens bodies,
sexuality, and reproduction.75
Further, according to a study conducted by DEMUS, 61.6% of Peruvian men
believe that a woman should not be offended when receiving comments on the street,
while 41.1% of Peruvian men believe that as long as you do not make contact, sexual
harassment should be allowed.76 Another study conducted in the southern part of the
country indicated that 24.9% of people believed that a woman was to blame for her own
71

"Libres de violencia." DEMUS.
http://www.demus.org.pe/publicacion/f2d_separata_libres_de_violencia_vcm.pdf (accessed August 14,
2014).
73
"Libres de violencia."
74
75
76
"Un Modelo de Atencin Integral en casos de violencia contra las mujeres." DEMUS.
http://www.demus.org.pe/fotos/446_doc_modelo_aten_integral.pdf (accessed June 5, 2013).
72
33
rape because she had provoked the man, while 87.3% of women reported that they would
feel shame from their family and friends if they were a victim of rape.77
When a culture like Pers experiences high rates of sexualized violence, it
becomes pertinent to study the underlying reasons. Studying a culture and its attitudes
towards women can help to explain the prevalence of violence against women. Pers
harmful practices associated with machismo, marianismo, and familismo all directly
relate to the theories and ideas laid out by Brownmiller, Bourke, and Jones and are
further enforced by the literature and studies from Peruvian feminist organizations. Rape
myths and victim-blaming are ideas that the women were not behaving properly, thus
causing sexualized violence to happen. Marianismo can be described as a rape-myth in
itself, stigmatizing a woman if shes not pure, clean and chaste. Further, when rape myths
become embedded as a cultural attitude, they are worded into legal codes as limitations
on the definition of rape and other forms of sexualized violence. The Peruvian Penal
Code of 1924 justified rape if the victim later married her attacker, forgiving the act of
rape because the attacker was her husband. Lastly, machismo relates to the idea that
Bourke discusses when she explains that most men who forced sex would not describe it
as rape. Normalized violence in relationships is a direct concept of machismo, justifying
a males actions because he is the head of the household and has supremacy. These
concepts, which are prevalent in the culture of Per, help to explain societys attitudes
towards women and sexualized violence. Understanding these cultural ideas can help to
further understand the reasoning behind the Penal Code of 1924. Researching the works
77
"La Violencia Sexual es un Grave Problema que Afecta a las Mujeres y Nias." DEMUS.
http://www.demus.org.pe/publicacion/0a6_un_hombre_no_viola2%20(1).pdf (accessed August 14, 2014).
34
of Brownmiller, Bourke, and Jones and applying them to Per demonstrates that culture
is pertinent in understanding a countrys issue on sexualized violence.
Victim-blaming, along with cultural attitudes, and most legal codes,
individualizes the problem of sexualized violence instead of looking at it through a
structural lens. Through the Peruvian feminist movement, women have gained their right
to vote, created feminist organizations, protested against violence, yet the structures that
exist which enable marginalization are still very much prevalent. This further enabled
patriarchal structures such as that of the legal system to prosper, as I will detail in my
case study.
Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System

Another way of analyzing sexualized violence is through the legal system.
Sexualized violence within the legal system is defined through the help of social and
cultural influences, including rape-myths and most prominently, victim-blaming. Because
of this, it is important to study the legal system of a society in order to better understand
its culture, as the two are inherently connected. Further, the study of a societys legal
views on sexualized violence and its definition and codes helps to understand sexualized
violence within the context of that country. I will first look at the study of sexualized
violence in the legal system through a Anglo-American feminist standpoint.
Anglo-American Legal Traditions

Arguably, women have always been considered unequal before the law.
Sexualized violence first entered into the legal system as a crime of property of one man
against another man.78 Ancient Babylonian and Mosiac law was codified on tablets
78
35
indicating the property and subjugation of women. Criminal rape, as fathers viewed it,
was a violation, a theft of virginity, and an embezzlement of the daughters price on the
market.79 Rape was not considered to be a crime or even a violation against a woman.
Rape did not violate a womans body, mind, or spirit, it was considered a crime of
property. The problems that exist today can be explained by these first real legal
codifications of rape. Brownmiller describes how these legal codes did not reflect a
matter of consent or refusal, rather, it demonstrated that women were the property of the
men. A violation against her, was, in reality, a violation against him.
Brownmiller discusses the historical background of sexualized violence within the
law. The legal codes and punishments on sexualized violence demonstrate how laws
within the legal system are inherently sexist and harmful to women. Many legal scholars,
such as William Blackstone, Matthew Hale, and John Henry Wigmore, were more
interested in pointing the finger at the female victim, in particular her motivations and
reputation:
If she be of evil fame and stand unsupported by othersif she concealed the
injury for any considerable time after she had the opportunity to complain, if the
place where the act was alleged to be committed was where it was possible she
might have been heard and she made no outcry, these and the like circumstances
carry a strong but not conclusive presumption that her testimony is false or
feigned.80
These legal codes helped to perpetuate a culture that focuses on victim-blaming, rape
myths, and in particular, the purity of women. They allowed justice only in the instance
that the woman was pure, untouched by others. What about the justice of raped women
who were not virgins? The legal codes incorporated so many limitations within the
79
80

36
definition that it made it virtually impossible for a woman to ever see justice. Moreover,
these definitions and legal codes did little to define the actual instance of rape and
instead, made it seem as a crime not against a woman but a crime that she helped to
perpetuate, thus blaming her. These first legalized definitions and codifications of
sexualized violence could have led to the idea and prevalence of victim blaming.
While violence against women, particularly sexualized violence, has always been
a prevalent issue, perhaps it was these legal geniuses of Hale, Blackstone, and Wigmore
who shifted the point of blame from the rapist to the victim. There always seemed to be a
need to define it with as many limitations as possible. As long as the woman made
significant force, if she was evil and not supported by others, if she had a detailed sexual
history; is it any different today?
Liz Kelly explains how, in order to make the victims case believable, there could
be no evidence or clues that marked the rape as being something consensual. She
explains that a classic rape exists when the assailant is a stranger and violence is used.81
In order for a case to seem believable, it should correspond to the parameters of this socalled classic rape. This definition prevents many women from defining their
experiences of forced sex as rape.82 On the other hand, Kelly describes that cases were
likely to be dropped if the victim had gone with the rapist, if she was unmarried but
sexually experienced, had emotional problems, if she was calm when reporting the rape,
and if she knew the rapist.83
Bourke also discusses sexualized violence within the legal system. She describes
how the consumption of alcohol is viewed as making women more responsible, and that
81

83
Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 35-36.
82
37
the legal system tends to reflect the view that by choosing to get drunk, women increase
their risk and should be prepared to face the consequences. 84 Rape is the only crime
where provocation is an acceptable defense: the woman was dressed provocatively, she
wanted it, or she was asking for it. Dorothy Klein, as explained by Dripps, maintains that
a feminist definition of sexual violence must distance itself from legal codes which
focus on the extreme and less frequent forms of violence, obscuring the subtler and more
pervasive forms of abuse of women which are woven into the fabric of our society.85
Current definitions of sexualized violence, which are biased in favor of men, are what
make up the laws. They perpetuate underlying stereotypes regarding sexualized violence
and only draw on the extremes within the continuum, which I will discuss further in
detail in the next section.86 These laws completely disregard the prevalence of sexualized
violence, maintaining that rape is a heinous crime occurring under the worst possible
conditions. Because laws reflect our society, cultural values, rape myths, and victim
blaming are reflected within the law, which can be seen in Pers legal system as well.
Peruvian Legal Traditions

If rapists in Per could be exonerated, despite the fact that their legal system
defines rape as involving violence or serious threat, it then justifies rape and forgives it
through marriage. This makes the legal definition an imminent danger to women by
stating that it is acceptable for a husband to rape his wife. In order to accept and
understand the construction of reality, such as an object or an event, one must name it.87
When the law fails to name rape in a realistic manner, it becomes difficult to understand
84
Bourke, Rape, 67.

86
87
85
38
and accept that rape is a real occurrence, an endemic, and a cultural endemic. Often
times it is explained as: rape is x, y, and z but only under certain conditions, i.e. the
victim was in serious harm or the rapist used violence.
In Per, the legal definition of rape has changed significantly since its first legal
coding in 1859. While this is progress for feminism in Per, the research on sexualized
violence through a legal standpoint is lacking. Feminist activists, both in Per and in the
United States, have been successful in challenging the definition the law provides to
encompass a wider range of sexualized penetration. From 1859 through 1924, the legal
coding of rape in Per changed three times. The first draft of the criminal code had a
section pertaining to sexual offenses titled, Violencia hecha a las mujeres (violence
against women), which indicated that the main objective for this legal code was to protect
the virginity of women and that the appropriate punishment would be determined
accordingly if the victim was a virgin or not.88 Further, the legal code would mitigate
punishments if the woman was a widow. However, if the woman was single and not a
virgin or if she was a slave, rape would not be considered a sexual act of violence. In
1924, all factors, such as the virginity of a woman and her marital status, were excluded
from the penal code and for the first time, all women could be a victim of rape, except for
inside of marriage.89
Boesten illustrates how the absence of prosecutions and sentences for sexualized
violence has a significant impact on culture.90 The failure for the legal system to punish
perpetrators of sexualized violence results in attitudes that this type of violence is not a
88
Mujica, Violaciones Sexuales, 18.

Mujica, Violaciones Sexuales, 20.
90
Jelke Boesten and Melissa Fisher. Sexual Violence and Justice in Postconflict Peru. (Washington, DC:
U.S. Institute of Peace, 2012), 5.
89
39
human rights violation and is not worthy of judicial attention.91 In addition to women not
reporting due to the social stigma behind rape, the judicial system in Per fails to report
or proceed with cases for three main reasons: (1) prosecutors and judges define rape as a
common crime, rather than a human rights violation, (2) lack of evidence because forced
sex cannot be proved, and (3) the perpetrators of sexualized violence often cannot be
identified.92 While this relates to Boestens studies on sexualized violence in war-time, it
relates to peace-time as well. The fact that the judicial system refuses to define rape as a
human rights violation illustrates how it decontextualizes sexualized violence from the
realm of violence against women, ultimately dehumanizing women. She further explains
that the issue of evidence is linked to the idea that a real rape only exists in concurrence
with visible physical harm.93 In the end, legal practices related to gendered violence and
rape are highly dependent on general perceptions of womens rights.94
While the transformation of the definition and legal codes in Per have advanced
significantly, they are still not fully being addressed or researched. It was not until the
1997 feminist reform that the clause of exemption from punishment by marriage was
removed. The legal codes today, which I will discuss further in the case study, are still
harmful to women. As can be seen by the research done by Brownmiller and Bourke on
the history of sexualized violence in the United States legal system, Per has had a very
similar history. What is the difference between the legal codes of Per versus the United
States, given the fact that they were very similar? In order to fully understand this
question, it is important to look at the influences behind the changing in the legal system.
91
Boesten and Fisher, Sexual Violence and Justice in Postconflict Peru, 5.

93
94
92
40
On September 13, 1994 the United States Congress passed the Violence Against
Women Act (VAWA) and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.95 VAWA was
designed specifically for the criminal justice system, after much feminist activism, in
order to prosecute crimes of violence against women.96 Women, along with their
children, were able to take advantage of social services, as well as improved law
enforcement. VAWA contained several key provisions that would help to combat not
only violence against women, but rape myths: it held rapists accountable for their crimes,
created a federal rape shield law which prevented the victims past sexual conduct to be
used against them in trial, it aimed to increase rates of prosecution, and to ensure that
police understand the realities of domestic and sexual violence.97 Additionally, since
VAWA has passed, more victims are reporting domestic and sexual violence, all states
have reformed their laws on rape, and all states have made stalking a crime.98
The Violence Against Women Act has significantly improved laws against
sexualized violence. It created a definition where one was lacking by naming experiences
that women face as both criminal and a form of sexualized violence (stalking), which, in
turn, gave women the confidence to report these instances to the police. It addressed the
issue of victim-blaming by creating the rape shield law. None of this would have been
possible without the activism from various feminist groups, especially those from the
battered womens movement and victim service organizations. Without this type of
activism, the law would not change for women. Feminist activism in the U.S. led the
legal system to adopt definitions and laws that recognized sexualized violence as a
95
Ann Jones, Women Who Kill. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2009, 5.
Jones, Women Who Kill, 5.
97
"Factsheet: The Violence Against Women Act." The White House.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/vawa_factsheet.pdf (accessed June 1, 2014).
98
Factsheet: The Violence Against Women Act.
96
41
continuum, rather than just isolated violent events. This needs to be addressed
significantly in Per as well.
Continuum of Violence
Until now I have discussed two main themes within sexualized violence: culture
and the law, the first reflecting the way society thinks while the second reflects the way
the law thinks and I found that they are deeply connected. A third way, which takes on a
more feminist activist view, is to discuss sexualized violence through the existence of a
continuum of violence. According to Kelly, the problem with the legal definition of any
type of sexualized violence is that many of the experiences that women consider abusive
are not legally defined or even considered crimes.99 This also poses a challenge within
the realm of sexualized violence. What is sexualized violence? Is it something that can
even be defined? Flashing, obscene phone calls, rape, sexual harassment, sexual assault;
where do we draw the line? The difference between sexual harassment and sexual assault
is a fine line. Sexual harassment is usually defined as involving visual, verbal and
physical forms of abuse while sexual assault is defined as always involving physical
contact.100 I will first look at Anglo-American literature regarding a continuum of
violence.
Anglo-American Views on a Continuum of Violence

The most important aspect is to understand that rape cannot be analyzed as a
separate act, which is the underlying basis of the continuum of violence. By placing
instances of rape outside of the realm of sexualized violence, incidences are then
examined as individual stories on one end of the spectrum instead as part of a larger
99

100
42
social phenomenon. Rape is connected to other forms of sexualized violence. Kelly

discusses the three main themes that characterize sexualized violence: (1) most women
have experienced sexualized violence, (2) theres a range of male behavior that women
experience as abusive, and (3) sexualized violence occurs in the context of mens power
and womens resistance.101 This range of male behavior that women experience as
abusive makes it difficult to determine and define exactly what sexualized violence is.
Kelly makes the point that many of the experiences women consider to be sexualized
violence are not even reflected within the law or socially defined as violent behavior.
Instead, they are understood through mens behaviors which is characterized as either
typical (unharmful) or aberrant (harmful).102 Thus, women who felt violated by
typical male behavior had no way to define or explain why typical male behavior felt
like aberrant male behavior.
A study conducted by Liz Kelly and Jill Radford discussed the remark that
women often make in regards to their own experiences of sexualized violence: nothing
really happened.103 The law, as they describe, focuses on the extreme forms of violence,
which discounts many of womens experiences. During their interviews with women,
Kelly and Radford discussed issues of stalking and other uncomfortable encounters with
men, in which they all linked the event to the possibility of rape.104 However, because
they were not raped, they all indicate that nothing really happened.105 As they both
evaluate, does intimidation, unable to safely be in public places, potential sexual assault,
101

103
Liz Kelly and Jill Radford. "'Nothing Really Happened': The Invalidation Of Women's Experiences Of
Sexual Violence." Critical Social Policy 10, no. 30 (1990): 39.
104
Kelly and Radford, Nothing Really Happened, 42.
105
Kelly and Radford, Nothing Really Happened, 42.
102
43
overt racism, and molestation really classify as nothing?106 The fact that these women
were not raped leads them to conclude that nothing actually happened, nothing illegal
anyways.
Men, in general, tend to benefit greatly from the lack of a clear definition of
sexualized violence. This gray area helps to distinguish a minority of deviant men from
the normal majority, which still might violate women.107 This relates back to the
limitations placed on definitions of rape in the legal system. The limitations allowed the
perpetrator to escape punishment only if the victim had been impure, sexually
experienced, and so on. Further, Kelly illustrates that many of the women with whom she
interviewed saw their own problems as being personal, not social. The lack of a social
definition can cause the feeling of isolation and moreover, denies the possibility of a
social cause to sexualized violence.108
As Jones discusses, what can even be considered normal love today?
Violence has become intermeshed in so many aspects of our lives today and sex is
the most common. These themes are seen repeatedly in music, movies, television
and even books. Jones describes how the science of sexology assures that men
find pleasure in inflicting pain on women and that women not only tolerate it, but
welcome it.109 This not only reinforces violent sexual acts, but it also normalizes
them. For this reason, the term sexualized violence is a more encompassing
description of the experiences that women face. The word sexualized helps to
distinguish the blurred line between love and violence. In this way, most violence
106
Kelly and Radford, 'Nothing Really Happened, 42-43.

108
109
107
44
in relationships can be seen in a sexualized way, rather than just violence within
sexual acts. Violence is not sexual, rather violence has become sexualized. As
Gloria Steinem discusses, there is nothing sexual about violence.110 The two are
completely separate from each other: violence is about pain and sex is about
pleasure.
Additionally, Jones explains how the concept of normal love is
constantly evolving to include aspects of violence. In an incident that led to court
action between Alan Matheny and his girlfriend, he had broken into her house,
beat and raped her, yet proclaimed it was out of love, and even used it as a
defense during trial.111 When Michael Cartier shot and killed his girlfriend, a
reporter was told that Michael, loved her a lot and it was probably a crime of
passion.112 The line between sexual activity and violence has been drawn very
fine in todays world. The case of Bernadette Powell is another powerful example
of this normalization within society. After her husband tied her up and raped her,
the prosecutor labeled the incident as sex and not violence. In addition, the
judge discounted all evidence of Mrs. Powells abuse throughout the years and
sentenced her to 15 years in prison for killing her husband in self-defense.113
Jones also discusses how psychologists have indicated that there are
beneficial effects of releasing aggression during sex and that keeping it inside can
cause more harm later.114 Other psychologists and authors advised that lovers
110
Lauren Wolfe, "Q&A: Gloria Steinem on ending rape in war." Women Under Siege Project.
http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/qa-gloria-steinem-on-rape-in-war-and-what-we-needto-do-to-stop-it (accessed October 2, 2013).
111
112
113
114
45
who exclude aggression from their bedroom cheat themselves of a total and
exciting experience... and that ...married men have no problem with
prostitutes with whom they are not afraid to be themselves and to behave
aggressively.115 Aggression is shaped by context, culture, and gender and men
behaving aggressively by expressing anger has been designated as the social
norm.116 The media has significantly shaped this norm into advertising that
violence is sexy and aggressive sex is simply passionate sex. If men are told, both
by the media and through the use of psychology, that behaving aggressively is
beneficial and women are supposed to think that this is a form of passion, where
do we draw the line on violence within sex?
As such, it is pertinent for sexualized violence to be examined and defined
through a feminist perspective. Kelly defines sexualized violence as any
physical, visual, verbal or sexual act that is experienced by the woman or girl, at
the time or later, as a threat, invasion or assault that has the effect of hurting her
or degrading her and/or takes away her ability to control intimate contact.117 This
definition of sexualized violence could encompass many variations, including
rape. However, what circumstances do we use when defining rape? Is it always
between a man and a woman? When so many countries, legal systems, and
cultures define rape differently it is hard to determine exactly what rape is. In
Afghanistan and China, as in many countries throughout the world, rape within
115

117
116
46
marriage is not considered rape,118 and according to Kelly, marital rape is the
most common form of rape.119 Furthermore, it was not until 1993 that the United
States made rape within marriage a crime, despite it being infrequently prosecuted
today.120
The biggest challenge for feminists fighting against the definition of rape is the
connection between the public male discourse and the silencing of women.121 Little
attention has been paid to how women define sexual abuse and violence and the most
crucial factor is the absence of a social definition of sexualized violence, causing women
to think that what had happened to them was actually not violence. The lack of a shared
definition allows stereotypes to flourish, which affect how most women define their
experiences. These stereotypes suggest that sexualized violence is not prevalent and takes
place on only one end of the spectrum, in extreme cases of violence.122 Brownmiller
explains it best when she says:
The real reason for the laws everlasting confusion as to what constitutes
an act of rape and what constitutes an act of mutual intercourse is the
underlying cultural assumption that it is the natural masculine role to
proceed aggressively toward the stated goal, while the natural feminine
role is to resist or submit. And so to protect male interests, the law
seeks to gauge the victims behavior during the offending act in the belief
that force or the threat of force is not conclusive in and of itself.123
Further, the terms, battered woman, domestic violence, sexual harassment,
sexualized violence, and incest survivor were only introduced in the past 40 years by
the feminist movement. Sexual harassment and violence have long been happening for
118
"Rape Laws: Crime and Clarity." The Economist, September 1, 2012 and Rachel Reid, "We have the
promises of the world": women's rights in Afghanistan.. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch, 2009.
119
120
"Marital Rape." Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. http://www.rainn.org/public-policy/sexualassault-issues/martial-rape (accessed August 20, 2013).
121
122
123
Kelly, Surviving
Sexual
Violence,
148.
Brownmiller,
Against
Our
Will, 385.
47
more than 40 years. Kelly describes how, naming involves making visible what was
invisible, defining as unacceptable what was acceptable and insisting that what was
naturalized is problematic.124 By creating a name for the many experiences that women
face, it recognizes that this is a social problem. Feminist activists recognized that
domestic violence was not a personal problem, but a social phenomenon of the realm of
violence against women. A lack of naming was the primary concern for feminists rallying
for a change in the definition of rape. This will continue until there is not only a unified
legal definition of rape, but also a unified societal definition of rape that reflects the many
ways women are violated in sexualized ways.
Our biggest problem, both within the law and society, is that rape has become
accepted as part of culture that is both expected and unpreventable. Rape has turned into
a battle of the individual versus society. Limiting legal and social definitions and
infrequent prosecutions all deny justice for victims of rape, which is also the case in Per.
The recognition of a continuum of violence is needed in Peruvian law.
Peruvian Feminist Views on a Continuum of Violence

In Per, Boesten demonstrates how a continuum of violence exists because
sexual violence precedes and survives conflict.125 Sexualized violence does not solely
exist in times of conflict and is used not only as a weapon of war, but also occurs during
peace-time as well, indicating that there is a cultural phenomenon of violence against
women. Further, Peruvian women within these conflicts had illustrated in a sense that
nothing really happened, in regards to their experiences of sexualized violence. Boesten
explains how most interviewed women (eight out of nine) said forced sex was part of the
124
125

48
domestic violence in which they faced, yet left it out of their formal denunciations and
thus saw it as normalized.126
Boesten also describes how sexualized violence is not something that should be
seen as ordinary to victims.127 Victims need to understand that what is happening to them
is part of a bigger realm of sexualized violence against women. Moreover, victims often
do not refer to their experiences as rape or violence but rather duties that they must
adhere to, which relates back to marianismo.128 The belief that the duties of a wife are to
provide sex to her husband regardless of her consent blurs the definitions of rape and
sexualized violence for Peruvian women. Lastly, certain forms of rape within the context
of violent conflict in Per was not seen as violence by community-members but were
considered proverbial collateral damage.129 All forms of rape, or rather all forms of
sexualized violence, should be seen as violent human rights abuses, and not expected
collateral damage that comes with conflict and war.
In Per, the major problems with the research on sexualized violence are
two-fold: (1) theories on why sexualized violence occurs is scarce; and (2)
research on sexualized violence against women, overall, is scarce. Because
research is scarce, this reflects the way society thinks about these types of issues
by the lack of addressing them. Documenting and analyzing all forms of sexual
abuse not only creates a more complete historical account but also offers scholars
new opportunities for theorizing about the causes of political violence and
126
Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Peru, 371.

Jelke Boesten, "Analyzing Rape Regimes at the Interface of War and Peace in Peru." International
Journal of Transitional Justice 4, no. 1 (2010): 115.
128
Jelke Boesten, Sexual Violence During War and Peace: Gender, Power, and Post-Conflict Justice in
Peru. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 12.
129
127
49
comparing the ways in which violent acts are committed differently.130 Rape is
being talked about, but not as a social phenomenon, not within a realm of other
related violence against women. They must dig down to the most basic level and
address issues such as street harassment, flashing, stalking, etc. This helps to
better understand sexualized violence as a symptom of culture, leading to the
more extreme forms that occur both within and out of conflict. The most
important aspect to take away is to understand that sexualized violence must be
understood in three ways: (1) through a cultural lens; (2) through a legal lens; and
(3) through a feminist lens: within a realm of sexualized violence. These three
areas are lacking in Peruvian feminist theory on sexualized violence.
Conclusion
This literature review discusses many important factors regarding the
prevalence and acceptance of sexualized violence in mainstream society. Cultural
attitudes significantly shape the legal system and can help account for the lack of
a clear definition of rape, as well as the prevalence and increase in rape myths and
victim blaming. Rape cases in the legal and criminal justice system illustrate how
women are harshly judged, ridiculed and further harmed by legal codes and
definitions of rape, creating a vicious cycle between cultural attitudes and the
legal system. Kellys insights regarding the existence of a continuum of
sexualized violence helps to illustrate why rape is so hard to define. Additionally,
the legal system is not only failing to adequately define rape, but is failing at
defining and addressing all types of sexualized violence that women face.
130
Leiby, Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru, 447.
50
Definitions of rape need to clearly highlight the ways in which women are being
violated in a variety of sexualized ways.
Looking at sexualized violence as a social and cultural phenomenon helps
to explain rape myths and victim-blaming tendencies within the legal system. The
three common themes in the research on sexualized violence are: cultural attitudes
(i.e. victim-blaming and rape-myths); (2) rape in the legal system and (3) the
existence of a continuum of violence. The fact that research is limited leads me to
draw on the cultural norms and history of the Peruvian feminist movement. It is
my contention that being a conservative Catholic country, Per focuses on the
practices I discussed earlier: machismo, marianismo and familismo. To illustrate,
when early feminist activist Mara Jess Alvarado Rivera131 was imprisoned for
her progressive ideas on womens equality, it demonstrates how the criminal
justice system disregards these types of issues.
In addition, cases of sexualized violence in the legal and criminal justice
system illustrate how women are further harmed by legal codes and definitions of
rape, creating a vicious cycle between cultural attitudes and the legal system.
While these key themes are based on research done by Anglo-American feminists,
they relate significantly to the issue at hand in Per. These gendered aspects of
Peruvian culture help to promote an environment where sexualized violence is
normalized, especially within the law. The fact that feminists in Per campaigned
for the change of a harmful penal code illustrates how wrong the law is. Without
the feminist movement, would society change (for women)?
131
I will discuss her in further detail in the case study.
51
Case Study
This section looks closely at the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code that allowed rapists to
escape punishment through marriage. In order to understand how culture is a key variable
in rape law, it is important to look at the legal definitions and laws through a cultural and
social lens. The first step in doing so is to analyze laws on rape as a social and cultural
phenomenons. As discussed in the literature review, rape and sexualized violence are
culturally constructed. While there are some aspects that transcend culture, the realm of
sexualized violence takes on culturally specific forms. This is especially true in Per as
victim blaming and rape myths can be seen in the beliefs of machismo, marianismo and
familismo, which then influence legal codes.
Studying social concepts can help to evaluate harmful gender norms embedded
within society. As Jones explains, when the idea of how women are supposed to behave
is different from reality, rape myths and victim-blaming are then used to justify the
occurrence of incidences such as rape.132 These harmful cultural ideas of men and
womens behavior create the notion that sexualized violence is not only common but
expected.
Following the themes from the literature review, I first look closely at the cultural
aspects of Per in regards to sexualized violence. I analyze Pers culture focusing on
three main themes I found within my research: (1) machismo, (2) marianismo, and (3)
familismo. These three themes all directly relate to victim blaming and rape myths.
Second, I analyze rape within the legal system in Per by looking closely at the 1924
Peruvian Penal Code which allowed rapists to escape punishment through marriage to
132
Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead.
52
their victim. By analyzing this penal code through a structural and social lens, it
demonstrates how beliefs about women in Peruvian society are reflected within the legal
system. Furthermore, I look closely at the definition of rape in Pers legal system and
compare it to the United States definition. I then illustrate the impact of Pers feminist
movement in changing the penal code by highlighting the obstacles they faced. This
illustrates the way in which cultural attitudes of rape are defined legally. Doing so helps
to illustrate my theory that legal definitions of rape not only reflect a societal context, but
condone it. Lastly, I look closely at the influence of the Peruvian feminist movement
from 1924-1997. I detail their accomplishments, obstacles, and key issues of activism.
The Peruvian feminist movement has come a long way and has achieved a tremendous
victory by the abolishment of a harmful law. A key issue to address in order to push
further would be to consider the idea of a continuum of sexualized violence. Finally, I
draw on Kellys theory of this continuum to suggest a course of action for the Peruvian
feminist movement.
Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

An ethnographic study of 33 Peruvian women indicated one thing: sexualized
violence in Peruvian culture is very prevalent.133 Flake and Forste, in their 2006 study
found that the rate of spousal violence in Per was 39% and that one in every two women
between the ages of 15 and 49 had experienced spousal violence.134 This spousal violence
is deeply rooted in gender norms, intersecting with religiosity within Per. Several key
concepts play an important factor in understanding these gender norms in Peruvian
133
Rebekah Deboer and Luke Tse. "Sexual Abuse Experiences of Women in Peru: An Exploratory Study."
Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research 5, no. 2 (2010): 68.
134
Deboer and Tse, "Sexual Abuse Experiences of Women in Per, 69.
53
society: machismo (idea of male supremacy), marianismo (idea of purity and chastity of
women), and familismo (strong identification with the family).135
Machismo
The study of machismo is characterized by two concepts: aggressiveness and
hypersexuality.136 Aggressiveness is met not only with the use of fists and weapons in
order to uphold the reputation that machos are masculine, strong and powerful, but also
with the domination and subordination of women.137 Hypersexuality within machismo is
characterized by the conquest of woman, and not just one woman, but many. As Bron
Ingoldsby describes, some men will commit adultery in order to prove their macho-ness,
which is further followed by bragging and storytelling as ones potency must be known to
others.138 Further, machismo means that a mans relationship with his wife should be that
of a protector. The woman loves but the man conquers---this lack of emotion is part of
the superiority of the male.139
A man must protect his wife, along with other female relatives, from other men
in order to uphold the idea and practice that women must be virgins when they marry.
Because of this, the macho does not allow his wife many liberties in order to uphold her
purity, as that is considered his responsibility.140 This relates to the practice of
marianismo where the womans sole responsibilities are her husband, her family, and
maintaining her purity. In order to feel superior, the macho must demonstrate
characteristics and traits of superiority, which more often than not involves the
135

Ingoldsby, A Theory For the Development of Machismo, 1.
137
138
Indoldsby, A Theory For the Development of Machismo, 3.
139
Giraldo. El Machismo como Fenomeno Psicocultural.
140
136
54
subordination of the female. In order to overcome feelings of inferiority, the male must
become aggressive, dominant and all-powerful. Since the macho knows that other men
are like himself, as Ingoldsby describes, he must assert his domination over the weaker
sex, being females, in order to prove himself to other men. Without machismo, would
violence against women be as prevalent in Per and would harmful laws against women
exist?
Marianismo
Marianismo is often thought to be the opposite of machismo, the idea of female
supremacy. To my understanding, marianismo could not exist without the concept of
machismo. This idea stems from within the Catholic Church that women should, in all
aspects of life, replicate characteristics and behaviors similar to that of the Virgin
Mary.141 Marianismo requires that the male ego be the center of attention within the
family and that mothers, sisters, and daughters all cater to the man of the
household.142 Arguably, marianismo is not an empowerment tool for women, it is merely
an ideology that further marginalizes women. It permeates the ideas that women should
be modest, virtuous, and sexually abstinent until marriage. Further, the ten
commandments of marianismo dictate that women, wives in particular, should never
forget their place, to never be unhappy with their man, no matter what he does to you,
and to never wish to be anything except a housewife.143 The attitudes surrounding sex
and virginity have had a significant impact on Peruvian societys response towards
sexually violated women. For example, in the 2006 study by Flake and Forste, women
141
Karen Englander, Carmen Yez, and Xochitl Barney. "Doing Science within a Culture of Machismo
and Marianism." Journal of International Women's Studies 3 (2012): 69.
142
Englander, Yez, and Barney. Doing Science, 69.
143
Rosa Maria Gill and Carmen Inoa Vasquez, The Maria Paradox: How Latinas Can Merge Old World
Traditions with New World Self-Esteem. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1996).
55
described their relationships with men as sexually exploitive and subjugated. Women are
conditioned by cultural influences to be submissive, obedient, and endurable to abuse
from their partners and that sexual pleasure was for men, not women. This line of
thinking ties in with the concept of marianismo because women were thought to endure
the suffering since they were seen as spiritually inferior to men.144
Familismo
The last belief prevalent in Per which I will discuss is familismo. Familismo
centers on a strong identification with the family. It is often thought to be the flip-side to
machismo in terms of family living. Familismo places the needs and development of the
family above ones own interest. Familismo is thought to be a positive aspect of Latin
American culture. As Ingoldsby describes, the Latin American family helps its members
far more than in individualistic anglo families.145 While this may be true, there are still
certain characteristics within familismo that further harm women and trigger instances of
rape-myths and victim blaming. Due to familismo, women are pressured, both in terms of
dating and marriage, to remain within their ethnic and religious groups. Daughters are
supposed to be supervised while on dates and practice complete abstinence before
marriage.146 Along with marianismo, women are then pressured to have a strong
identification with the family. Both marianismo and familismo pressure women to remain
pure before marriage. When this is not the case, particularly in regards to sexualized
violence, victim blaming becomes extremely prevalent in Peruvian society.
These cultural aspects of machismo, marianismo, and familismo all result in a
culture that dictates how women are supposed to behave. Machismo encourages the
144
Gill and Vasquez, The Maria Paradox, 69.

Ingoldsby, The Latin American Family: Familismo vs. Machismo, 57.
146
Ingoldsby, The Latin American Family: Familismo vs. Machismo, 58.
145
56
subordination and domination of women; marianismo reinforces this by encouraging

women to be submissive, pure, and to cater to the man of the household; familismo both
encourages women to remain strongly identified with the family and to remain sexually
abstinent and pure. All three of these beliefs further harm women and allow instances of
victim blaming, as well as other rape myths, to prosper. Cultural ideas of the way women
are supposed to behave, combined with rampant amounts of sexualized violence, and an
unjust legal system contribute significantly to victim-blaming and other culturally
specific rape myths.
Victim-Blaming, rape myths, and cultural attitudes
A womans sexual activity is more often than not discussed when questioning the
validity of her attack. As Jones described, the basis of victim-blaming is to turn the
attention towards the victim, not the attacker, by looking for things in her past such as
sexual partners, alcohol consumption and clothing.147 Further, the stigma against sex
before marriage in Per is strongly linked to the idea of marianismo and that women who
had sex or were sexually violated before marriage were thought of as worthless, or worse,
that they had caused or provoked any sexualized violence that may have happened to
them.148 Cultural perceptions of a sexually violated woman were that she was seen as
ruined and this would put her at an even higher risk to be violated in the future.149 This
is illustrated by Jones when she discusses how the victim is responsible not only for her
own actions, but also for the actions of the perpetrator. Consequently, societal
expectations of the behavior of men, in this case machismo, normalize violence against
women, pinning the blame solely on the victim.
147
Jones, Next Time Shell be Dead 137.

149
148
57
When DeBoer and Tse interviewed many women about their first encounters with
sexualized violence, it became clear that the conditioning of young boys and girls by their
parents included the acceptance and expectation of sexual activity at a young age. Many
women recounted the story of a mother taking her sons to a brothel for their first sexual
experience. This right away becomes engrained into the minds of young boys and girls
that women are sexual objects, at the disposal of men, whenever and wherever they
want. Further, DeBoer and Tse illustrated how the openness towards sexual activity and
pregnancy of young girls was deemed inevitable. Therefore, many times the parents
would choose the man with whom their child of 15 years would begin her sexual life.150
Because of this, in reference to the 1924 Penal Code, a former president of Limas
superior court stated that if you changed the rape law, half of Per would go to jail.151
This not only perpetuates acceptance towards sexualized violence, but it also shows how
the state defends such acts, further supporting my hypothesis that culture is a key variable
in rape law. As Boesten explains, the fact that practices such as these are legitimized by
law reinforces the idea that rape is embedded in existing social structures.152
In the cases of machismo, marianismo, and even familismo, the action of sex is
thought of as something that men do and that women receive. Machismo implies that
the man has sexual prowess, dominance, aggressive behavior, and most importantly, a
male standard that encourages unfaithfulness.153 Marianismo constantly reinforces the
idea that women should remain pure until marriage, to wait for a husband to which she
150

Laurie Goering. "Marriage Option In Peru Rape Law Is Challenged -- Law Allowing Rapists To Avoid
Prison By Wedding Victims Is Called `An Abomination'." The Seattle Times.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970320&slug=2529732 (accessed
September 1, 2013).
152
Boesten. Marrying Your Rapist, 221.
153
Patricia Hernandez. "The Myth of Machismo: An Everyday Reality for Latin American Women." St.
Thomas Law Review 15 (2003): 859.
151
58
can be faithful. Mens sexuality is not repressed; however, it is celebrated, as something

that is an unstoppable instinct154, a part of his masculinity and strength. In the instance of
wartime rape in Per, Boesten illustrates how Peruvian military leaders described rape as
a result of minor errors due to male temptation.155 Mothers blaming their daughters
for cases of incest, women being questioned of their sexual activities, the too-often asked
question of why doesnt she just leave? when referring to abusive husbands, and, more
often than not, men receiving impunity from cases of rape, are all scenarios of the bigger
part of the realm of victim-blaming within Per. As Jones illustrates, the question of: why
doesnt she just leave?, does not ask a real question but rather judges the victim. This
turns a social, cultural problem into a personal problem by basically asking: whats
wrong with her? In these scenarios, it is seen not only as acceptable, but also expected, to
shift the blame to the woman.
According to a study conducted in Per by Carlos Cceres on sexual experiences
of non-consensual sex, the perception is that men are not to be blamed if they perpetrate
non-consensual sex on women, as they are responding to the urges of their bodies,156
while female victims were perceived to have provoked the aggressive incident.157
Respondents even went as far to say that the families of the victims were to be blamed for
lack of protection, virtually drawing any blame away from the perpetrator, which ties in
with familismo and the familys idea that women should remain abstinent.158 These are
traditional biological explanations which completely disregard feminist research that
154
Hernandez, "The Myth of Machismo.

156
Carlos F. Cceres, "Assessing young people's non-consensual sexual experiences: Lessons from Peru."
In Sex without consent young people in developing countries. (London: Zed Books, 2005). 136.
157
Cceres, Assessing young people's, 136.
158
155
59
sexualized violence is about power, not sex. This is seen not only in Lima, but around the
world. Court proceedings within the United States have frequently focused on the sexual
activity of the victim: what she was wearing, her sexual behavior, etc. Rarely is the
opposite done towards the perpetrator. Cceres found that young males, by and large,
focused the blame predominantly on the victim, declaring that it was her lack of
responsibility that caused the rape.159 Additionally, men also tended to justify these
violent acts if women were being difficult or if they unfairly denied sex to them.160
The study also revealed how men seemed to portray a sense of entitlement to force sex,
including group sex, upon women who had been drinking.161 One respondent indicated
how deceiving a girl into engaging sex by drugging her was deemed as acceptable and
common, as indicated in the interview:
Tell me, are there several ways to have sex, or just one?
There are several ways.
Tell me about them.
Well, put a pill in her soda and you pick her up.162
This was seen over several in-depth interviews with young men and seemed to be
a recurring theme. The men interviewed seemed to lack any feelings of responsibility or
guilt, and furthermore, implied that this was a normal, acceptable way to engage in sex,
not rape. The absence of responsibility, in my understanding, is triggered by the cultural
practice of machismo in the sense that men are owed sex by women. Furthermore, the
women who experienced non-consensual sexual experiences (i.e. rape) tended to face
social stigma as well as discrimination within their families.163 This study illustrates the
159

161
162
163
160
60
impacts of machismo, marianismo, and familismo in Peruvian culture. Men were

socialized to think that they were owed sex by women, therefore it is their right to
conquer them. The women then faced social stigma by failing to maintain her virginity,
thus ruining her family honor. The majority of the men in the study declared that it was
the victims fault due to her lack of responsibility, that she was not behaving in an
appropriate marianismo way. Moreover, the men in the study also declared that the
families of the victim were to blame, further tying into familismo and its pressure for
women to remain pure and untouched.
This relates back to Bourkes research on rape myths. She explains how rape
myths have become so ingrained into culture that men who have admitted to forcing sex
would not define it as rape. If men who are raping do not realize they are doing it, how
will the law be able to distinguish this? This study is just a brief synopsis of the overall
ideas that exist in society, not only in Lima, but worldwide. It demonstrates how the
cultural practices of machismo, marianismo and familismo directly relate to instances of
victim blaming and rape myths. It is these problems and ways of thinking that trigger the
need for a feminist definition of rape, one that encompasses all forms of sexualized
violence and deters away from victim blaming.
Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System

The 1924 Peruvian Penal Code exonerated a rapist if he offered to marry the
victim and she accepted.164 The 1924 law, which originated in the mid 1880s, was later
164
Luis Loaiza. Nuevo Cdigo penal: Decreto legislativo 635-3/4/91: exposicin de motivos del nuevo
Cdigo penal. Ed. no oficial. ed. Lima, Per: Departmento Legal y Asesora Jurdica, 1991.
61
modified to absolve co-defendants in a rape case if one of them marries the victim.165
This law, which was later repealed in 1997, was used not only in Per, but also in 14
other Latin American countries. Particularly in Costa Rica, the law exonerates a rapist
simply if he offers to marry the victim, regardless of her acceptance.166 This law was
created in order to protect the honor of not only the victim, but also her family.167 This
law, offensive and legally sound as it is, also causes families to put pressure on the victim
to accept the marriage offer and thus marry her rapist in hope to restore the familys
honor, relating directly to the themes within familismo.168 Furthermore, when the victim
denies the marriage offer, families often use the threat of the law, stating that it is
required of her to accept the proposal.169
The 1924 Peruvian Penal Code considered rape as a crime against honor to not
only the victim, but also her family.170 Because rape was considered to be a crime against
honor, cases were dealt only within family court, thus denying that rape was a criminal
act.171 If and when a case was moved into criminal courts, a physician had to validate that
the victim had been severely hurt. However, to be considered badly hurt, a victim had
to have spent no less than 10 days resting to recover from the physical abuse. If less than
10 days were needed, the case remained in family court.172 Furthermore, if the case did
proceed to criminal court, the judge typically ordered jail terms from three to five years,
which, according to the Peruvian Defensora del Pueblo, were usually annulled by a
165
Calvin Sims. "Justice in Peru: Victim Gets Rapist for a Husband." The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/12/world/justice-in-peru-victim-gets-rapist-for-a-husband.html (accessed
October 4, 2014).
166
Sims, Justice in Peru.
167
168
169
170
Boesten, "The State and Violence Against Women in Per, 370.
171
172
62
suspended sentence.173 These limitations put on rape relate to Bourkes description of

rape myths. A real rape, as Bourke describes, would often take at least three men and
that the average rapist would be repelled by violence. Further, she illustrates how this
real rape must consist of severe violence and that the average womans body was
equipped to ward off violations such as rape.174 However, according to Kelly, most rape
takes place within the context of marriage, and roughly 66% of rapes are committed by
someone known to the victim.175 Once again, this illustrates how cultural attitudes of rape
myths are engrained into legal coding and definitions.
This penal code condoned rape, indicating that it could simply be resolved by the
act of marriage.176 The law was seen as pathological by the Peruvian Womens Mental
Health Association, stating that it was inconceivable for a victim to couple with her
attacker, constantly repeating the humiliation and sexualized violence by submitting her
anew to rape.177 Moreover, if the law stated that marriage absolved the act of rape, is this
indicating that rape within marriage is acceptable? Until 1997, with the overturn of the
1924 Penal Code, this was the case.178
What is rape? Rape in the Peruvian Legal Context
The 2005 study by Cceres demonstrates how the socially constructed definition
of rape tends to be varying. Despite the 1997 reform, the social definition of rape varied
between two extremes, one being simply the act of forced penetration to the other being
173
Boesten, "The State and Violence Against Women in Per, 370-371.

Bourke, Rape, 26.
175
"Statistics | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network." Statistics | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and
Incest National Network. http://www.rainn.org/statistics (accessed September 1, 2013).
176
"Rapists Who Marry Let Off By Per Law: Feminists Campaign For Change," Los Angeles Daily News,
March 16, 1997.
177
Abraham Lama. "Peru - Human Rights: Demands for Rape Law Reform." Inter Press Service News
Agency. http://www.ipsnews.net/1997/02/peru-human-rights-demands-for-rape-law-reform/ (accessed
August 2, 2014).
178
Stephanie Boyd, "Rape laws offer women scant protection." Latinamerica Press, July 24, 1997.
174
63
any episode of forced sex, including within marriage.179 Further, many of the young men
within the study admitted that there were various ways to have sex with women,
including drugging her. They portrayed a sense of entitlement to force sex with women
who had been drinking because it was her fault from lack of responsibility. This varying
social definition illustrates how difficult it is to define rape. As Kelly explains, most
incidences of rape are seen outside of the continuum of violence, consisting of extreme
violence, which denies sexualized violence as part of a larger social phenomenon.180 This
also ties in directly with the study conducted by Boesten where many wives did not think
of rape as something outside of their normal relationship with their husbands, but rather a
duty that they must adhere to.181
Furthermore, the men in the study knew what rape was and that it existed in a
variety of different ways (i.e. between couples, between strangers, violently, etc.), yet
they denied that what they were doing was rape. This ties in with Bourkes idea that
many men who admit to forcing sex do not label it as rape.182 Ideas become so engrained
that people misunderstand what rape is and in the context of Per, these ideas stem from
machismo and marianismo. Machismo tells men that their goal is the conquest of women
and marianismo tells women they must remain pure. Adhering to these practices, it
becomes difficult for men to accept the blame and for women to come forward about
their rape. Differing from the social definition, the legal definition in Per is more
detailed, including aspects of violence or threat, and including sexual intercourse by way
of vaginal, anal, or oral, and with objects or parts of the body. The socially constructed
179
Cceres, Assessing young peoples 133.

181
Boesten, Sexual Violence During War and Peace, 12.
182
Bourke, Rape, 48.
180
64
idea of rape rarely matches that of the legal definition. And, in turn, the legal definition is
rarely applied to real cases, but that is another story.
When comparing the definitions of rape in Perus Penal Code to that of the United
States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) definition, it is pertinent to look at the
words used to describe the action of rape. I use this definition to offer a comparison
because of the recent change in U.S. law. This change was triggered by intense feminist
activism with the Rape is Rape Campaign started by the Feminist Majority Foundation
in 2011.183 The change takes on a more feminist definition of rape, highlighting various
ways in which women are sexually violated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation states
that rape is the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body
part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of
the victim.184 However, in the Penal Code of Per, rape is defined as:
Article 170, Sexual violation, states that He, with violence or serious threat, compels a
person to have sexual intercourse by way of vaginal, anal, oral or performs other similar
acts by introducing objects or parts of the body, shall be punished with imprisonment for
not less than four and nor more than eight years.185
In the United States, the FBI describes rape using the words, penetration, no matter how
slight and most importantly, without the consent of the victim. Furthermore, the
Peruvian Penal Code entirely leaves out the clause regarding consent of the victim and
states that rape must occur only under violence or serious threat. These two definitions in
themselves could be taken as entirely different acts. Boesten describes how in Pers
legal system, rape is only rape when there is lasting and visible physical harm done.
183
Francesca Tarant. Press Releases - Feminist Majority Foundation." Press Releases - Feminist Majority
Foundation. http://www.feminist.org/news/pressstory.asp?id=13402 (accessed June 1, 2014).
184
"UCR Program Changes Definition of Rape - Includes All Victims and Omits Requirement of Physical
Force." United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis-link/march2012/ucr-program-changes-definition-of-rape (accessed July 21, 2013).
185
Loaiza. Nuevo Cdigo penal.
65
This excludes the threat of force or other obvious uses of force.186 This completely
denies the use of psychological force, weapons, or other forms of coercion, as well as
mental and psychological harm. Therefore, in correspondence with current Peruvian law,
a woman can only be raped when she is brutally beaten and carries the evidence on her
body.
These current definitions of rape, along with the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code are
harmful to women. They do not adequately address the ways in which women are
sexually violated and the old penal code further endangered them by forcing them to
marry their rapist. It became clear to me, through the analysis of rape in a Peruvian legal
context, that the countrys cultural norms are reflected in rape law. In 1924, cultural
norms clearly influenced the legal system. In 1997, these norms, disguised as legal codes,
were being challenged by the feminist movement. Change, both within the law and
society, for the betterment of women would not have occurred without feminist activism,
thus making it important to examine the contributions of the Peruvian feminist
movement.
The Feminist Campaign for Change in the Law
In the spring of 1997, the Peruvian Congress, with the rally and support of women
worldwide, abolished Article 178 of the 1924 Penal Code that allowed criminals to
escape conviction by marrying their victims.187 This was made possible primarily through
initial activism from Peruvian Congresswoman, Beatriz Merino. Since 1991, feminist
organizations were trying to abolish this law, without success.188 In 1995, a paper
presented by the Ministry of Justice made clear that the Peruvian legal system was
186

Merino, Matrimonio y Violacin, 24.
188
187
66
significantly lacking in its efforts towards combatting violence against women and that in
fact, the laws were only further harming women.189 This was followed by representatives
from several Peruvian feminist organizations attending the International Conference of
Women in Beijing, China, demanding significant change in their legal system for the
betterment of women in Peruvian society. Because of this, Peruvian feminists were
finally able to begin their campaign.
The campaign ignited furiously in 1996 with the rape of a 17-year-old girl in
Lima. When Maria Elena was on her way home from work in the Villa El Salvador
district of Lima, she was raped by a group of drunken men in their 20s. 190 Her family,
initially furious, immediately changed their outlook when one of the rapists offered to
marry Maria Elena, thus saving the family honor and condoning the rape. After intense
social pressure from her family and from the men who raped her, Maria Elena married
her rapist and three months after their wedding, he abandoned her.191 The story of Maria
Elena is very similar to that of Nancys which I discussed previously. Because rape
within marriage was legal in Per, the family saw this as a way to save their daughters
honor, thus saving the familys honor. This relates to the practices of both marianismo
and familismo in which the young woman is to remain pure before marriage.
Feminist organizations and womens groups throughout Per began to rally for
abolishment of this offensive law. The Peruvian Womens Mental Health Association,
Movimiento Manuela Ramos, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Women, Estudio
para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS) and the Bar of Lima are some of
189

"Rapists Who Marry Let Off By Per Law
191
Caryn Neumann. Sexual Crime: A Reference Handbook. (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 94.
190
67
the organizations which came together to campaign for change.192 Merino initiated a bill
to the Congress of Per that would abolish Article 178. After this, a war of the sexes
broke out.193 The all male members of Congress were not in favor of the repeal. Facing
much antagonizing from congressmen, Merino recalls their statements: Id have tried it
myself if Id known it was so easy to get out of trouble, referring to the raping of women
and escaping through marriage.194 These jokes were evidence of the need for change of
the law, according to Merino.
The campaign for change was difficult for Merino and the several feminist
organizations in support. The sole purpose for maintaining the law was to defend the
moral integrity of the family head. Members of Congress were more concerned with the
shame that a sexually violated woman would bring to her family, specifically her father.
Relating to familismo, no shame could be brought upon the family and female members
of the family must remain untouched before marriage. By keeping this law intact, they
could absolve instances of rape through marriage. Therefore, Merinos first attempt at
abolishing Article 178 failed in December 1996, thus keeping the law intact.195 Voices of
protest began to rise when headlines made newspapers, print media, and radio that
Congress decided to maintain the exemption from punishment to rapists who marry their
victims.196 Protests and activism from feminist organizations such as DEMUS and the
Movimiento Manuela Ramos (who focused primarily on the advancement of women and
the dismantlement of patriarchal ideals) helped to involve the public, making them aware
192
Lama. "Peru - Human Rights: Demands for Rape Law Reform."

Ana Mara Yez, Quotas and Democracy in Per, The Implementation of Quotas: Latin American
Experiences. Paper presented at International IDEA Workshop, Lima, Peru, February 23-24, 2003.
194
Goering, Marriage Option in Per Rape Law Is Challenged.
195
196
Merino, Matrimonio y Violacin, 54-55.
193
68
of the issue at hand, through the use of the press, radio, television, and Internet, using
direct communication in the streets, supermarkets and even public transportation.197
Voices of women across the country had joined in. Merino initiated a repeal to the
rejection. To strengthen the campaign, feminists gained the support of Consejo Nacional
de Derechos Humanos (National Council of Human Rights), La Red Nacional de
Promocin de la Mujer (The National Network for the Advancement of Women) and also
the expertise of Dr. Csar San Martn Castro, a criminal lawyer.198 Because of this,
Merinos case caught international attention and articles in newspapers in the United
States began to discuss the issue of Pers penal code. An article from the The Los
Angeles Daily News titled, Rapists Who Marry Let off by Per Law: Feminists
Campaign for Change, told the feuding story between Merino and Peruvian
Congressmen who were in favor of the law. Now the Peruvian Congress is engaged in a
bitter debate over how best to reform the law. Feminists argue that the law should be
removed from the criminal code because it is degrading to women and legally
unsound.199 Several other headlines made U.S. newspapers that indicated the trouble that
Peruvian women were facing in regards to their legal system: Law Allowing Rapists to
Avoid Prison by Wedding Victims is called an Abomination,200 and In Peru Victims
Forced to Marry Rapist.201 The dramatization and choice of words within the headlines
made sure to catch international attention.
When the Peruvian Penal Code debate appeared on CNN, BBC, and newspapers around
the world, it was clear that the use of the press by the feminist organizations were a great
197

199
200
Goering, Marriage Option in Per Rape Law Is Challenged.
201
198
69
success. The international community was concerned not only about the harmful
Peruvian Penal Code, but also about the international human rights of women.202
The National Council of Human Rights expressed that Article 178 of the penal
code was in need of absolute urgent attention to be removed. Further, the National
Network for the Advancement of Women, which brings together 500 institutions and
non-governmental organizations working for the promotion of women nationwide,
supported the campaign for the removal of Article 178. Despite the overwhelming
support Merino and her campaign received, they were still met with a long list of
oppositions.
The Reform Debate
The justifications in favor of the penal code were endless. One of the legislators,
Oscar Medelius, justified the penal code by stating that marriage repairs the mistake and
returns the honor of the raped woman, in such a way that the crime disappears.203 Its
all about cultural values, and a woman feeling a husband is the most important thing to
have in life, economically as well as socially, stated Gina Yanez, a lawyer with
Movimiento Manuela Ramos. Defenses of the penal code were only defending the
cultural values of machismo, marianismo and familismo. These views and reactions
illustrate how cultural aspects are directly linked to legal definitions and codes.
The main opposition of the Congress as a whole spurred from the relationship
between a woman and her family. Her first obligation was to protect the family honor
through her virginity and her motherhood. Therefore, the head of the household should
negotiate the marriage offer with the rapist, not to solve the situation of the victim, but to
202
203

Lama. "Peru - Human Rights: Demands for Rape Law Reform."
70
save the honor of the family and, principally, the honor of the patriarch, or the machisto.
The need for a change in law stems from the cultural acceptance of rape and the desire to
save the womans honor as encouraged by familismo and marianismo. This penal code
did not exist in order to secure the marriage between a husband and wife, it existed on the
sole purpose to control a womans sexuality. As Jones describes, we are living in a
society where violence within relationships is normal.204 A rape in Per was not fixed by
punishing the criminal, however, it was fixed by securing the woman into marriage,
maintaining her status of marianismo, therefore making the rape seen as consensual sex
between a husband and wife. Because rape within marriage was legal until the removal of
Article 178, a marriage between a perpetrator and his victim absolved the rape.
As Brownmiller describes, the first real legal codes on rape focused on the purity
of women, not the heinousness of the crime. The cultural aspects of Per are a trigger for
the existence of this type of law. To uphold the practice of machismo, men could not be
held responsible for their actions. The macho was a rampant sexual being, whose goal
was the conquest of woman. Further, the purity of women and the pressure on them to
remain virgins until marriage illustrates the need for this law within Peruvian society. A
culture fixated on controlling a womans sexuality, combined with rampant amounts of
sexualized violence, triggers a need for this type of law in order to maintain the practice
of marianismo. Since men were not to be blamed, and women must remain pure, it was
thought that rape could be fixed through marriage, which only further endangered
women.
The abolishment of Article 178 of the 1924 Penal Code became a reality in 1997
for Merino and the entire Peruvian feminist movement. However, the current definition
204
71
of rape in Per does little to recognize all forms of rape and sexualized violence that
women face. As Kelly states, in order to understand an event, one must name it.205
Without an adequate definition of the experiences that women face, this continues to
leave them in danger, both legally and culturally. Further, as Boesten discusses, Per
initiated a law in 1993 against family violence.206 Sexualized violence against women
falls within this law, categorizing this type of violence as familial instead of criminal.207
Because Pers legal system fails to recognize this type of violence as criminal, it denies
the underlying social structures that influence sexualized violence against women and
instead, links it to personal problems within the family.
My analysis of the campaign for change of the penal code illustrates how Merino,
with the help of several feminist organizations, created public awareness and attracted
international media attention, thus demonstrating that the feminist movement was
successful in changing the law on rape. As I stated before, change for women will not
occur without feminist activism. How were these issues being challenged historically? In
order to fully understand the impact of feminist activism and movements, it is important
to look at where it has been, what it has done and its accomplishments. This helps also to
determine future areas of activism for consideration that might be helpful. To do this, I
give a historical background of the Peruvian feminist movement.
205

207
206
72
Peruvian Feminist Movement

This section will detail the history of the Peruvian feminist movement as well as
womens rights development throughout the history of Per. In order to understand the
impact of the feminist groups activism, I will give a broad look at the feminist movement
in Per, focusing on its history, accomplishments, and obstacles. Did the feminist
movement address patriarchal structures? Did it address cultural aspects such as victim
blaming and rape myths? These questions relate back to my thesis question: how are
norms on sexualized violence and rape being challenged by the feminist movement? In
order for change to succeed, society must be changed. This is done not only by changing
the law, but also by challenging norms.
The feminist movement in Per has had successful gains, like that of the
abolishment of the 1924 Penal Code, yet harmful legal definitions of rape still exist.
Today feminism as an ideology has gained few supporters. In general, there is a low
level of consciousness on rights in Per and therefore little interest in identifying oneself
with any political ideology.208 The social context of machismo, along with cultural
norms of the Catholic Church are intrinsic in the culture of Per. Lacking a consciousness
of womens rights creates an acceptance or toleration of violations or unjust laws such as
that of the 1924 Penal Code. The creation, implementation, and use of the 1924 Penal
Code illustrates how women were at a disadvantage within society. Thus it is pertinent
that the feminist movement not only challenge harmful laws but also challenge the
underlying structures behind those laws: machismo, marianismo, familismo, and
patriarchy overall.
208
Violeta Barrientos Silva, "Feminism and Art in a Difficult Country: Four Decades of Literary
Production in Peru." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33, no. 2 (2008): 439.
73
First, I look at many characteristics of the feminist movement as well as the main
leaders involved, all of which have set the stage for feminist activists today. Without
these initial key leaders, many of the feminist organizations in Per would not exist.
Further, highlighting main aspects and struggles of the feminist movement gives a
cultural and societal background of women living in Per and what feminists have done
to change this. While many factors have contributed to the marginalization of women in
Per throughout the years, there are several key factors that have had a lasting impact. (1)
The inherent social context of machismo; (2) the overwhelming realm of victim-blaming;
(3) and the legal system, all of which relate back to the material from the literature
review.209 How are these aspects evident within the feminist movement, specifically in
regards to rape law? Has the feminist movement challenged these aspects in a culturallybased way? I begin by looking at the movement itself and finally suggesting a course of
action.
The Beginning of the Movement

Feminists in Per wanted the right to vote, the right to education and healthcare,
and they protested against violence. The feminist movement was characterized by
different types of protest and self-expression, writing in particular. Peruvian women
authors helped to develop feminism as an ideology, along with its impact on society.210
Women, as literary journalists, in the 1870s articulated the first known ideas about
Peruvian womens emancipation, denouncing the situation of public education and
209
Kristen Herzog, Finding Their Voice: Peruvian Women's Testimonies of War. (Valley Forge, Pa.:
Trinity Press International, 1993), 122.
210
Silva, Feminism and Art in a Difficult Country, 437.
74
womens working conditions.211 Their roles as journalists were seen as acceptable

because the work could be carried out within the home.212 These writings, as well as
tertulias213, contributed significantly to womens involvement in politics and literature.
The feminist movement was met by many obstacles and in the 1960s, Per experienced
a reform launched by the nationalist military regime, which specifically cut freedom of
expression.214 This was implemented as an effort to avoid Western contamination on
social ideas, particularly sexual issues.215 Throughout the years and into the present day,
the Peruvian feminist movement has faced many obstacles because of Pers patriarchal
society. A glimpse into the feminist movement, its main obstacles, accomplishments, and
types of activism illustrates a historical approach to Peruvian womens advancements
throughout the years.
Peruvian Womens Rights: A Glimpse into the Movement
The most pertinent figure in the beginning of the Peruvian feminist movement, who
would later be imprisoned for her activism, was Mara Jess Alvarado Rivera, a selfstyled and self-taught sociologist.216 Quitting school early, she embarked on a self-taught
reading program which paved the way for her progressive ideas on topics such as
education, health, prenuptial medical examinations, as well as her passion for the rights
of women, children and overall marginalized classes.217 Due to this uncommon aspect of
211
Elsa Chaney, "Old and New Feminists in Latin American: The Case of Peru and Chile." Journal of
Marriage and the Family 35, no. 2 (1973): 333.
212
Chaney, "Old and New Feminists in Latin America, 333.
213
Tertulias refers to a series of informal meetings. In this case, Peruvian women of the 1870s were
permitted to have regular and serious conversations with men regarding political ideas.
214
215
216
217
Chaney, "Old and New Feminists in Latin America, 334-335.
75
her activism, Mara alienated many of the more cautious activists who wanted to work
solely for womens rights to vote.218
Marias first public discussion regarding womens issues and rights took place in
1911 before the Geographic Society of Lima. She discussed various issues such as
vocational education, nutrition and health, the control of venereal diseases, the necessity
for a prenuptial medical examination, the opening of a free school for the daughters of
workers, and education reform, all of this in the context of women.219 It spurred mixed
responses from the audience as well as the press, yet left an everlasting impression on
others, specifically on the daughters of well-known Peruvian author Ricardo Palma:
Finally the woman has appeared who will liberate us from the oppressive subordination
in which we live.220
It was not until another three years later, in 1914, that Maras work led to her
opening Pers first womans organization called Evolucin Femenina, which gave
women the right to serve on public welfare committees.221 This new organization,
however, was thought by protestors to provoke a war between the sexes and would take
women out of the home, which would cause anarchy and dissolution of the family.222
By 1923, Mara Alvarado was working with North American suffragist, Carrie
Chapman Catt and together they created the National Council of Women, which grouped
and organized all womens organizations in Per under a single umbrella organization.223
Shortly after, the men protesting Marias activism decided that Mara had inflamed
218

220
221
Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology. (Garden City,
N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984), 549.
222
223
219
76
their women enough.224 Her proposal of a Civil Code Reform promoting the equality of
women led to her classification as a political troublemaker.225 This reform, which she
presented to the National Council of Women, would focus on giving equality to women,
specifically married women. Unin Catlica, a conservative Catholic womens group,
declared that promoting civil rights for women would be incompatible with the
principles of her institution.226 This illustrates how the influence of the Catholic Church
reinforced cultural beliefs such as marianismo and instead focused on the integrity of the
family. In December 1924, Mara was taken to the Santo Toms jail. Shortly after, La
Crnica declared that, when women meddle in mens affairs they expose themselves to
the necessity of suffering the consequences of their masculine acts.227 Right away, Mara
and feminism was seen as an attack against men, as meddling in mens affairs. This set the
stage for the way feminism as a whole would be viewed within Per by the majority of
society.
Positively speaking, Marias life and her successes are what paved the way for
Peruvian feminists today. Without her initial struggle in opening the first womens
organization, it may have been years before initial change took place. When women were
fighting for their rights, especially Maria, they were seen as behaving in a masculine, or
machismo, way. Standing up for what they believed in, defying social standards (thus
defying marianismo) and speaking out against society were considered masculine
because they were usually done by people in positions of power, men. Women were not
supposed to hold any power. Men and women in Latin America tended to agree upon
224

Morgan, Sisterhood is Global, 549.
226
227
225
77
certain boundaries for what was deemed proper activity for women.228 Because Maria
defied these standards (standards very similar to that of marianismo) by fighting for what
she believed in and making successful gains for women in Per, she was imprisoned.
This illustrates the difficulty in not only making changes for women, but talking about it,
analyzing it, and introducing feminism as a positive ideology.
During the 1930s, when Pers first modern political parties were being
introduced, the Communist Party and the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana
(APRA), women began to be marginalized from this stage of the social struggle.229
Neither of these popular political parties that swept Peruvian society supported female
suffrage and none of the female unions were invited to be a part of the first modern labor
union.230 For this reason, womens demands were silenced for the next forty years and the
only surviving womens groups were those who supported the womans domestic role
within society.231
Finally, by the mid 1970s, the womens movement in Per began to rise
again when the country went through a process of democratization, overthrowing
12 years of military government.232 Many feminist organizations were being
formed in Per. Women were beginning to demand abortion rights and feminism
was finally coming to the publics attention.233 In 1973, Ana Mara Portugal
founded Accin para la Liberacin de la Mujer Peruana (ALIMUPER).234
228

Virginia Vargas, The Women's Movement in Peru: Rebellion Into Action. The Hague, Netherlands:
Publications Office, Institute of Social Studies, 1990), 12.
230
Vargas, The Women's Movement in Peru, 12.
231
232
233
234
Nancy Gallagher, "Companeras in the Peruvian Feminist Movement." Journal of Feminist Studies in
Religion 11 (1995): 96.
229
78
Throughout the years, ALIMUPER organized several protests in promotion of

women's liberation including protests against the commercialization of Mothers
day and promotion of contraception and the right to abortion for every woman.235
The feminist movement had taken a shift from the early days with Maria Alvardo.
The focus was not only equality before the law, but also for liberation and the
fight against sexualized violence.
In 1978, the issues of sexualized violence as the main focus of feminist
groups began to grow and in 1979 feminist groups demanded governmentsponsored programs for woman who had been abused.236. Many politically active
leftist women came together to found the Movimiento Manuela Ramos (as I
discussed earlier as a leading factor in the campaign for change), which worked
with women from the pueblos jvenes (shantytowns surrounding Lima).237 This
organization actively worked with women from the pueblos on issues such as
violence and had a team of doctors and lawyers who assisted women.238
Furthermore, this organization is, by a large part, what made the removal of the
marriage clause of Article 178 of the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code possible. From
this point forward, womens groups began to multiply, either independently or as
part of political parties.239 Feminism was finally being recognized.
Women like Maria Alvarado, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Ana Maria Portugal
laid the groundwork for feminists organizing for womens rights. They demanded
basic rights for women, such as the right to vote, the right to education and the
235
Gallagher, "Compaeras in the Peruvian Feminist Movement, 96.

237
238
239
236
79
right to healthcare. They were responsible for bringing feminism and womens
rights to the public discussion. Maria Alvarado, specifically, started the first
womans organization. All three women defied social standards. Alvardo and Catt
laid the groundwork for Ana Maria Portugal, who was later able to focus the
feminist movement towards issues of sexualized violence and womens liberation.
Their lives and struggles for equality are what made successes, like that of the
1997 reform, possible for feminists.
Types of Activism
A prominent characteristic in the womens movement in Per was the use of art and
culture. Many campaigns used art, literature, and self-expression during times of protest.
Female writers played a very pertinent role in the development of feminism as an
ideology in Per as literature had been the most important and influential form of arts.240
However, literature as a form of protest was more likely because women were able to
hold roles as journalists, completing their work inside the home. They did not hold
positions of power, therefore they used what was available to them as a way to protest.
This type of activism carried through well into the 1980s, and art, as a form of
political protest and expression, did help women find their voice. Despite their outrage
against their marginalization, women at this time chose to protest peacefully. Declaring
that they were in search of something other than war, feminists protests during this time
were peaceful.241 More traditional forms of protest still exist in Lima, a majority of them
from women in grassroots organization who protest through marching, angry chants, and
240

Annalise Moser, "Acts of resistance: the performance of women's grassroots protest in Peru." Social
Movement Studies 2, no. 2 (2003): 185.
241
80
an often aggressive response by the police.242 Yet, many women preferred to protest in a
peaceful manner. One such woman makes a valid point when she explains:
How much violence do we women live with every day? Domestic
violence, violence in the street, the economic violence of
povertyAnd then we are supposed to go out in the street to
protest with anger, with violence, on top of all that we already
experience? Our protests need to be happy and positive, we need to
say what we want to say through music, through happiness,
inviting people to see something different rather than bombarding
them with more aggression.243
The use of violence while protesting against violence is contradicting in itself, which
was most likely the defense surrounding peaceful protests. Those who peacefully
protested were able to hide behind their forms of art in ways such as theatre. This
creatively deflected the responsibility away from the individual and allowed women to
say what was unsayable.244
The Peruvian Feminist Movement Today
Today, a prominent organization in the Peruvian feminist movement is the
Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS). DEMUS was created
in 1987 and is one of the few Peruvian feminist organizations dedicated to challenging
gender stereotypes and patriarchy, specifically. They address issues such as the
portrayal of violence against women in the media, womens rights to abortion and
contraception, mens roles as advocates for womens rights, and the overall rights of
women in Peruvian society. As stated in their mission statement: We are a Peruvian
feminist organization focused on issues such as sexism, misogyny, lesbophobia, racism
242
Moser, Acts of Resistance, 185.

Moser Acts of Resistance, 185.
244
Moser, Acts of Resistance, 185.
243
81
and all forms of discrimination and violation of the rights of women.245 Their
campaign titled, Un Hombre no Viola, (Real Men Dont Rape), focuses on the roles
of men as advocates for womens rights and what they can do to end a cultural of
sexualized violence against women.246
The main areas of achievements of DEMUS as an organization focused on
issues such as abortion, forced sterilization, sexual violence in armed conflict, and
sexual harassment. DEMUS sponsored the Case of Mara Mamrita Mestanza in
regards to her forced sterilization during the armed conflict. This case was heard at the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Peruvian state was found
responsible in the human rights violation of this woman and this was the first case of
forced sterilizations addressed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.247
Movimiento Manuela Ramos, celebrating its 36th year, is also still prominent in
the Peruvian feminist movement with its mission being: To contribute to the
empowerment and autonomy of women from a feminist perspective committed to
social justice, democratic values and respect for Human Rights.248 Currently, they
have campaigns addressing the culture of sexualized violence against women titled:
Basta Ya! El Machismo Mata!, (Enough Already, Machismo Kills!) and are actively
fighting for the decriminalization of abortion in instances of rape.249
Currently, the policy addressing violence against women in Per incorporates
sexualized violence against women within the realm of family violence. This law does
245
About DEMUS." Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer - DEMUS.

http://www.demus.org.pe/pagina.php?id=35 (accessed September 4, 2014).
246
"Un Hombre No Viola."
247
"DEMUS's Achievements." Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer - DEMUS.
248
"Misin y Visin." Manuela Ramos RSS. http://www.manuela.org.pe/manuela-ramos/mision-y-vision/
(accessed September 4, 2014).
249
"Misin y Visin."
82
not address gender relations and instead places violence against women as a family
problem, denying social structures as a key cause. This is evidence that familismo is
still highly prevalent in Pers legal system and culture. Boesten proposes that if
violence against women had been put into the public sphere, rather than the private,
more issues would have had to have been addressed such as: war-time sexualized
violence, workplace violence, and violence in other public spaces.250 She explains that
calling violence against women private, and intimate partner violence domestic
disputes keeps a highly political issue, the security and well-being of female
citizens...out of the public realm.251
Furthermore, a law passed in January of 2012 allowed the government to
regulate the functions and structure of the Ministry of Women, which is the main body
that actively works on legislative issues and policy issues concerning womens rights
and violence against women.252 This law allowed the government to change the name
of the organization to the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, which
feminist organizations fear that this risks a weakening of its focus on womens
issues.253 This illustrates how the state as a form of power still influences the
importance given to violence against women. Contrastingly, while the Ministry of
Women is known to focus on womens rights, in reality they focus more on familial
values. This state institution is the main body that actively works on legislative issues
in regards to women, which makes them a very influential group. However, because the
250
Jelke Boesten, "Revisiting democracy in the country and at home in Peru." Democratization 17, no. 2
(2010): 307-325.
251
Boesten, "Revisiting 'democracy in the country and at home' in Peru."
252
Cristiana Conte, "Women's organizations in Peru monitoring the new government." WomanKind.
http://www.womankind.org.uk/2012/02/womens-organisations-in-peru-monitoring-the-new-government/
(accessed May 31, 2014).
253
Conte, Womens organizations in Peru monitoring the new government.
83
Ministry of Women is based off of the Catholic Church, its programs refer to family
violence and its main goal is strengthening the family. This once again places violence
against women within the private sphere and denies the existence of the broader
continuum of violence against women.
The Missing Piece and the Continuum of Violence

Violence against women within the legal system is being addressed, however,
within a context of familial violence. The Peruvian legal system needs to specifically
address the cultural practices of machismo, marianismo and familismo, given that
sexualized violence takes on culturally specific forms, and to discuss sexualized violence
within a criminal aspect. Additionally, the legal system needs to change their definition
of rape to encompass all forms of sexualized violence that women face and to include the
clause of consent and remove the clause that requires physical force. Focus and education
needs to be put on both the men and the families of Peruvian society, dismantling the
practices of machismo and familismo.
Further, the feminist movement, both in Peru and the U.S., as well as the majority
of the world, needs to actively recognize the continuum of sexualized violence against
women that exists. Additional legal reform needs to be done to change the definition of
rape and to recognize violence against women as a criminal act and within the public
sphere. The Violence Against Women Act which was passed in the United States in1994
could be beneficial for the Peruvian feminist movement to campaign for. Looking at the
Rape is Rape Campaign ran by the Feminist Majority Foundation in the U.S. could help
Peruvian feminists to challenge the legal definition of rape. Further research within Per
to determine if the change in the 1924 Penal Code has influenced societal views on rape
84
would be beneficial. Since women are still being forced to marry their rapists through
social and family pressure, regardless of the law, it is my understanding that further
activism on a cultural capacity needs to take place.
85
CONCLUSION
While the abolishment of Article 178 of the Peruvian Penal Code was a huge
triumph for women in Per, and women in Latin America overall, the existing definitions
on rape do not adequately address the various forms of rape and sexualized violence that
women face. The current status of violence against women in Per is extremely high,
ranking it number 16 within the world, and number one within South America.254
Furthermore, impunity within Per is so high (90% of sexual crimes against women and
adolescents go unpunished)255 preventing most cases from ever seeing justice. This
further reinforces the realm of sexualized violence against women, by not only
dismissing it, but accepting it through impunity. Despite the reform on the 1924 Penal
Code, women are still being pressured to marry their rapists, in order to uphold the family
honor and her role within marianismo.256 These cases of impunity tie further back to
cultural aspects of victim-blaming, machismo, and marianismo.
While rape cannot be taken out of the continuum of sexualized violence, statistics
are collected differently on cases of rape versus overall cases of sexualized violence. As
of 2012 it is estimated that 35,000 pregnancies occur each year from rape and 1 in 5
women experience sexualized violence before the age of 15 in Per. 257 Further, in the
2009 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a total of 6,751 cases of
rape were reported in Per. Compared to that of Colombia with 3,149 and Bolivia with
254
Mujica, Violaciones Sexuales.

La Violencia Sexual es un Grave Problema
256
Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Per.
257
Francoise Girard, "In Peru, an Epidemic of Rape and Double Jeopardy for Rape Victims Seeking
Abortion." RH Reality Check. http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/12/19/double-jeopardy-rape-victimsin-peru/ (accessed June 1, 2014).
255
86
2,587, this number is very high.258 Despite this high number, it is also important to take
into consideration the amount of rapes that go unreported each day. These statistics help
to understand that in Per, with a population of nearly 30 million people259, sexualized
violence is extremely prevalent.
Sexualized violence within Per tends to be silenced overall. Boesten explains
how there has been no public discussion on the mass amounts of rape that took place
during Pers internal armed conflict.260 While feminist organizations are addressing
these issues in terms of care and reparations for the victims, the media has not come
forward to cover the topic. Furthermore, no cases have ever been brought to trial and
large parts of the Peruvian population are completely unaware of the mass amounts of
sexualized violence suffered by thousands during the internal armed conflict.261
In order for the feminist movement to successfully change the legal definition of
rape, they must not only challenge it, but they must define it through the continuum of
violence. Failing to do so separates rape from all other violent un-defined experiences
that women face. Further, rape tends to be individualized and not seen as part of a larger
social problem. The Peruvian feminist movement should address rape in three ways in
order to change the legal definition: (1) through a cultural lens; (2) through a legal lens;
and (3) through a feminist lens: within a realm of sexualized violence.
The most important aspect of the change in the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code was the
influence of the feminist groups. It is my contention that, without them, change would not
have been successful, therefore it becomes pertinent in understanding the movement
258
"Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics." United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime.html (accessed September 15, 2013).
259
"Peru Data." The World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/country/Peru (accessed June 1, 2014).
260
Boesten, Sexual Violence During War and Peace, 13.
261
Boesten, Revisiting democracy in the country and at home in Peru, 317.
87
itself. Through the examination of the 1924 Peruvian Penal Code, it became clear to me
that legal definitions on rape not only reflect a societal context, but they also condone it.
This was quite notable in the struggles met by the feminist movement with the patriarchal
lawmakers. Congress was in favor of the marriage clause within Article 178 in order to
maintain the practice of familismo by protecting the integrity of the family. The former
president of the Peruvian Superior Court even indicated that if the marriage clause was
removed, half of Per would go jail, further supporting my thesis that culture is a key
variable in rape law.262
The analysis of this law reform, along with the current definition of rape, is
helpful in answering my four main questions discussed earlier. To answer my first
question, how do gender traditions and cultural norms in Per influence attitudes towards
sexualized violence, particularly rape, it was important to look at factors such as
machismo, marianismo and familismo. These were helpful when examining the study By
Cceres on sexual experiences of non-consensual sex. The overwhelming results from
these studies were that men are not to be blamed, as they are responding to the urges of
their bodies, thus condoning rape in a cultural way. This leads to my second question:
how do these attitudes create an environment where violence against women is tolerated?
Machismo, marianismo and familismo all perpetuate victim-blaming. Sex is seen as
something that men do and women receive. As illustrated in the study by Cceres, it is
clear that when instances of sexualized violence become tolerated and justified, it then
becomes normalized. Drugging a girl to have sex is seen as just another way to engage in
relationships with women.
262
Goering, Marriage Option in Per Rape Law is Challenged.
88
Next: how are these normalizations by society reflected in Peruvian legal codes?
The 1924 Peruvian Penal Code is a prime example of how normalizations by society,
machismo, marianismo, and familismo are all reflected within legal codes on rape in
Per. Furthermore, not only did harmful penal codes such as this exist, but the current
definition of rape is significantly lacking in describing all forms of rape and sexualized
violence that women face, thus separating normalized forms of violence from legal ones.
Lastly, I address my main research question: how are these norms on sexualized violence
and rape being challenged by the Peruvian feminist movement? First, my analysis of the
campaign for the change of the penal code illustrates how Merino, with the help of
several feminist organizations, created public awareness and international media
attention, demonstrating that the feminist movement was successful in changing the law
on rape. They addressed the culture of machismo and patriarchy as key contributors of a
harmful law and this was further proved by the long battle against the patriarchal
members of Congress. It can be seen today through the efforts of various Peruvian
feminist organizations that culture, as a contributor to attitudes towards sexualized
violence, is being challenged. Campaigns promoting mens roles as advocates for
womens rights, the Un Hombre No Viola campaign, and the Basta Ya! El Machismo
Mata! campaign demonstrates how the feminist movement is actively addressing issues
of machismo and culture in the realm of violence against women.
Although the law will not stop the high rates of sexualized violence, it does reflect
the way in which society views the issues. When laws such as the 1924 Penal Code of
Per exist, which was in the books for more than 70 years, it certainly has an impact on
societys views on the issues not only of sexualized violence, but also of women in
89
general. Despite the abolishment of Article 178 of the 1924 Penal Code and various
feminist efforts towards greater gender equality, the Catholic Church still influences and
guides policies related to the family and sexuality, thus leaving Per under patriarchal
rule.263
Campaigning against law reform is definitely a starting point towards greater
gender-equality and a diminishment towards sexualized violence. Because cultural ideas
such as victim-blaming, machismo, and marianismo have an effect on the laws, a change
in the laws could have an effect on societys opinion. If rapists can no longer be exempt
from punishment through the act of marriage, can this cause society to re-think rape?
When the Federal Bureau of Investigation changed its definition of rape, it happened
through intense activism of feminist organizations within the United States. If Pers
feminist organizations could have the same effect on changing their definition of rape as
they did with the way they abolished the penal code, it could have significant impacts on
the way rape is viewed not only within society, but also within the courts. Defining rape
within a cultural context is to state that womens universal human rights vary from
country to country. To indicate that rape exists solely through force or other means
creates a lack in the understanding of the entire continuum of sexualized violence itself.
How can something that is criminal be defined in a culturally-relative way?
Because Pers definition on rape is blurred, it can prevent women from defining their
experiences of forced sex as rape. Victim-blaming, machismo, marianismo, familismo,
legal codes, and definitions all individualize the problem of sexualized violence, instead
of looking at it through a structural lens (or a patriarchal lens). The evidence from the
debate on the reform of Article 178 illustrates the defense of the patriarch in defining and
263
Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Per, 365.
90
codifying rape laws in favor of men. Even from the first feminist organization created by
Maria Alvarado, women were thought to be causing anarchy and dissolution of the
family.
So, how is the culture of Per reflected in its laws and definitions of rape? Its
reflected in the patriarch, in machismo, marianismo, and familismo, in the legal codes, in
the legal definitions, in the long-fight for gender equality, in victim-blaming, in rape
myths, and in being the country with the highest amount of sexualized violence in South
America. For a country that is rampantly growing economically, how can they
continually marginalize women culturally, legally, and socially? True explains how the
two are not connected and that sexualized violence is not an effect of low-income nations
or war-time conflict.264 As Jelke Boesten states, ...wartime sexual violence is not an
aberration or an exception but an exacerbation of existing violence and gender and racial
inequalities.265
Laws on rape should exist not to further harm women, but to help and support
them for the crime that has been committed against them. They should not reflect cultural
attitudes but they should rebel against them. I ultimately argue that a feminist definition
of rape and sexualized violence should be implemented, including not just rape, but all
forms of violence within the continuum of sexualized violence that women face. This
definition must distance itself from current legal codes focus on the extreme, less
frequent forms of violence, as Kelly notes.266 Instead, it must focus on the more relevant
and common forms of sexualized violence that women face. Without a legal and a social
definition, the denial of a social cause for sexualized violence will continue to exist.
264
True, The Political Economy of Violence Against Women.

Boesten, Analyzing Rape Regimes, 128.
266
265
91
Because of this, I am suggesting that what is needed most is both a strong legal and social
definition of rape. By doing so, a continuum of violence against women is recognized by
acknowledging the many ways in which women are violated in sexualized ways. The first
and most basic step in combatting sexualized violence against women is a strong social
definition and recognition of rape. This can help to identify culturally acceptable ways in
which women can become victims of violence: machismo, marianismo and familismo.
92
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Sexualized Violence in Per: Cultural Influence in the Law

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

stigma and the normalization attached to sexualized violence, but also

"Mozambique: Marrying Your Rapist is not Justice." Amnesty International.

I will discuss these terms further in detail in my case study.

phenomenon of patriarchy. A very powerful social construct, one of the main

To supplement this discussion of cultural attitudes about gender roles, I analyze

I decided to use media outlets such as newspaper articles to collect information on

Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 14.

Anglo-American Feminist Views on Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead, 122.

Bourke, Rape, 48.

Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead, 132.

Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 360.

Peruvian Feminist Views on Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Ingoldsby, A Theory for the Development of Machismo, 7.

Boesten, Marrying Your Rapist, 212.

Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System

Anglo-American Legal Traditions

Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 18.

Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 18.

Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 150.

Peruvian Legal Traditions

Bourke, Rape, 67.

Mujica, Violaciones Sexuales, 18.

Boesten and Fisher, Sexual Violence and Justice in Postconflict Peru, 5.

Anglo-American Views on a Continuum of Violence

Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 77.

social phenomenon. Rape is connected to other forms of sexualized violence. Kelly

Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 5.

Kelly and Radford, 'Nothing Really Happened, 42-43.

Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead, 110.

Peruvian Feminist Views on a Continuum of Violence

Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 139.

Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Peru, 371.

Leiby, Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru, 447.

I will discuss her in further detail in the case study.

Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead.

Cultural Attitudes and Rape Myths

Deboer and Tse, "Sexual Abuse Experiences of Women in Per, 68.

Gill and Vasquez, The Maria Paradox, 69.

subordination and domination of women; marianismo reinforces this by encouraging

Jones, Next Time Shell be Dead 137.

Deboer and Tse, "Sexual Abuse Experiences of Women in Per, 75.

can be faithful. Mens sexuality is not repressed; however, it is celebrated, as something

Hernandez, "The Myth of Machismo.

Cceres, Assessing young people's, 134.

impacts of machismo, marianismo, and familismo in Peruvian culture. Men were

Rape in the Legal and Criminal Justice System

suspended sentence.173 These limitations put on rape relate to Bourkes description of

Boesten, "The State and Violence Against Women in Per, 370-371.

Cceres, Assessing young peoples 133.

Boesten, The State and Violence Against Women in Peru, 368.

Merino, Matrimonio y violacin, 25.

Lama. "Peru - Human Rights: Demands for Rape Law Reform."

Merino, Matrimonio y Violacin, 60-61.

Merino, Matrimonio y Violacin, 62.

Jones, Next Time Shell Be Dead, 114.

Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence, 138.

Peruvian Feminist Movement

The Beginning of the Movement