What:

Mexico is particularly notorious for its many incidents of violence committed against women. The most extreme form of this violence is the femicide, which is the intentional murder of a woman because of her being a woman. Most femicides are the last consequence of ongoing domestic violence, which this thesis is about.

Why:

Reliable statistics and literature on domestic violence against women in Mexico are essentially unavailable, and if there was material available, there was a striking absence of men as subjects of analysis. This thesis has shown that the key to understanding the problem is to include men, but not as perpetrators, in order to complement the perspective of survivors. It became apparent that men’s behaviours arising from Mexican’s machismo culture, which views women inferior to men, are the main cause for domestic violence against women. Domestic violence against women is not solved by prevention methods targeted at women.

How:

In order to change men’s behaviour away from the paradigm of machismo culture, this thesis proposes a design intervention that focuses on enabling conversations between men about the issue, making them more self-aware and providing them with the resources necessary to help them. This is different to most research on violence against women that only include men in terms of perpetrators and not as part of the solution to the problem. The design intervention is a concept for an awareness campaign on beer labels. With this the topic would be literally put on the table. The labels would include provocative questions that trigger a conversation about the issue in order to not only break male silence but also male ostracism.

For Whom:

The intervention is targeted at Mexican men (18+; legal drinking age). If implemented accordingly, it will bear fruit sooner or later and will help women and girls, not only in Mexico, but all around the globe.