Sea of evidence. Pictures femicide and sadistic pornography in Ciudad Juarez

Abstract

This article is part of a master’s thesis in art history to determine whether the motives for the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, are connected to the sadistic pornography industry. I analyze radical images linked to gender violence, based on the methodology of G. Didi-Huberman. I also begin with certain images from visual arts—whose subject matter is violence perpetrated against women—and pornographic photos published in magazines and books, and on the Internet.These images were compared to the injuries described in forensic reports contained in the Special Report presented in 2003 to the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico. This analysis made it possible to find numerous connections between the female homicides with pornography, and to identify the underlying “radical cultural industry,”whose literary reference points may be found in authors such as the Marquis de Sade and Georges Bataille, among others, protected by widespread social tolerance and a process naturalizing violence against women. The article is also based on technical postulates by writers such as Adorno, Kant, Arendt, and Agamben.