Abstract

RAMOS, Margarita Danielle. Reflections on the historical-discursive process of the use of the legitimate defence of honour in Brazil and the construction of women. Rev. Estud. Fem. [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.1, pp. 53-73. ISSN 0104-026X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2012000100004.

This work uses a gender perspective to analyse the discourse in six documents in the jurisprudence of Minas Gerais. The objective is to understand how lawyers appeal until the present date to the legitimate defence of honour in trials of men who have killed a woman in order to avoid punishment for their crime. The analysis is based on two sets of studies: the study of the legislation concerning the concept of honour since the colonial period in Brazil and the study of the struggle that the Brazilian feminist movement has undertaken to remove violence against women from the private sphere and turn it into gender violence. The work attempts to show that the murder of women is the final step in a chain of violations against women, which begins in the devalued way that women are produced in discourse.

Keywords : Gender Violence; Legitimate Defense of Honor; Murder of Women.