The dispositif of prison sexuality: transphobic violence in a Mexican male prison

Abstract

Purpose The aim of this study is to analyze how the dispositif of sexuality operates toward trans women imprisoned in a male prison in Mexico City, to understand how sexual norms that come from the heteropatriarchal model so as from the “internal law” produce transphobic violence. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on the queer theory, Foucault’s works on sexuality and power, Segato’s theory about war against women’s bodies and on a fieldwork realized between 2015 and 2019 in Mexico City, with prisoners and former prisoners. Findings The sexuality dispositif works in a particular way inside prison. It is the result of the heteropatriarchal model and laws defined by both prisoners and prison workers, all involved in the Mexican war context. The effects are materialized through violence toward trans* women whose bodies serve for rape, male appropriation and exchange between powerful subjects. Research limitations/implications This paper produces knowledge about imprisonned trans* people, a very few developped field in prison studies, especially in Latin America. Practical implications The paper demonstrates how specific violence toward trans* women imprisoned in a male prison in Mexico City deepens violent dynamics that occur out of the prison. So, it questions the meaning of a sentence in the actual Mexican prison system. It may help to think about staff’s training/education to guarantee basic human rights for imprisoned trans* people. Additionally, the theorization of “internal law” could help prison authorities to rethink classification and treatment for prisoners. Social implications This paper provide specific knowledge on imprisonned trans* women and helps to think and act different with this people through the understanding of their special vulnerability. Originality/value There are only a few papers about imprisoned trans population throughout the world and fewer in Latin America and Mexico. Additionally, this paper aims to overcome the “internal order” as it is always theorized as proper of detainees. It wants to show that the prison order in a Mexico City prison, borns from the meeting of cultural specificities from outside and inside, and from both prisoners, organized crime and prison staff.

Mujeres, cárceles y feminismos

“…Estudian la necesidad de forzar un cambio radical con políticas penales alternativas, que cambien la dirección del endurecimiento de las sanciones penales a las mujeres -para reducir la población femenina en las cárceles (Gelsthorpe & Morris, 2002)-, o directamente para abolirlas (Davis, 2003), con un rol protagónico de las propias mujeres presas para que ellas mismas se impliquen en el debate y propongan sus estrategias y alternativas. Asimismo, analizan si perduran los estereotipos positivistas o se está construyendo un nuevo tipo de "mujer criminal y delincuente" con estereotipos más contemporáneos (Constant, 2020). Examinan los perfiles de las mujeres encarceladas, sus delitos, condenas y también sus voces, experiencias, relaciones y sexualidades, con trabajos cualitativos e historias o etnografías de vida.…”

“…Asimismo, a la hora de analizar las resistencias de las mujeres privadas de libertad, alejándose de las visiones que las consideran como personas totalmente desempoderadas, hay que incluir también los diversos ejes de interseccionalidad, tal y como ya argumentaba Bosworth a finales de los noventa: las identidades individuales y colectivas de las mujeres son activas y cambiantes, en constante formación e incompletas. Y son las mujeres presas, en su condición de agentes, y en función de los factores de género, raza y clase que las condicionan, las que van a ir estableciendo sus diferentes estrategias de resistencia (Constant, 2020). Empleando diferentes elementos de esas nociones dominantes de identidad (femenina) fortalecen su propia visión de sí mismas y desafían diferentes aspectos del régimen penal y penitenciario (Bosworth, 1999), usando diversas prácticas de resistencia, incluso el silencio (Romero-García, 2021).…”