Gender Violence and Eroticism. The cultural construction of rape in a comic of the seventies in Mexico

Abstract

This article explores the rape in Relatos del Jorobado a comic published in Mexico City during the 1970s, that was aimed an adult audience and focused on issues of melodrama, eroticism and violence against women. The narratives and representations of this comic are analyzed in light of Rape Myths which have contributed both to minimize and justify  rapist's act. The paper shows how the cartoon was full of sexist ideas and gender bias that allowed to feed the male sexual fantasies in a rape. All this in a cultural revolution context, where began to change the customs, mentalities and people could talk freely about sexuality, to see images of sensual bodies and women with little clothes that were spread around the world through the mass media.