Citation

Hume M. Lat. Am. Perspect. 2008; 35(5): 59-76.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0094582X08321957

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Empirical data gathered in El Salvador indicate that knowledge about violence there is built upon an exclusionary and highly masculinist logic. Violence has come to be perceived as normal through a political project that has actively employed terror to pursue its ends. This process has been made possible by a legitimization of violence as a key element of male gender identity. Political circumstances in El Salvador, principally the war, have both nourished and reinforced a sense of gender identity based on polarization, exclusion, and hegemony.