Sciences Po PSIA – Paris School of International Affairs [Master in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action] Taking the Law Into Our Own Hands – Female Vigilantism in India and Mexico Roxana Baldrich Master’s thesis supervised by Quentin Delpech, associate researcher at CEMCA and Carol Wise, Professor of International Relations at USC Academic Year 2013/2014 The copyright of this Master's thesis remains the property of its author. No part of the content may be reproduced, published, distributed, copied or stored for public or private use without written permission of the author. All authorisation requests should be sent to
[email protected] Roxana Baldrich – "Taking the Law Into Our Own Hands" – Sciences Po – PSIA – 2013-2014 1 Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 5 a) Violent Women: Mapping the current (theoretical) terrain ................................................. 5 1) Discourses of female violence: “The Beautiful Soul” …................................ 5 2) Discourses of gender stereotypes: “Mothers, Monsters, Whores” …............. 6 b) Vigilantism: Issues and preliminary definitional elements …........................................... 9 1) “Diana the Huntress”, continued …................................................................ 9 2) Preliminary