Writing Terror on the Bodies of Women: Media Coverage of Violence against Women in Guatemala analyzes the scope and dynamics of violence against women in Guatemala and how it is represented in the print media. Using nearly two thousand Guatemalan newspaper reports covering murders and assaults on women, this book contextualizes violence against women within the history of violence in Guatemala; gender ideologies and patriarchal social structures; and the contemporary demands of the women's movement for social and legislative change. It shows that while some newspapers cover violence against women with investigative reports and editorials that use feminist analysis and language, these are overshadowed by the large number of individual reports that reproduce narratives of terror and conceal the gendered nature of violence against women by suggesting that "delinquents," "gangs," "unknown men," and inexplicably violent husbands are the main culprits, while simultaneously upholding dichotomous gendered narratives of "good" and "bad" wives and daughters.

Acknowledgments
List of Organizations and Acronyms
List of Tables

Part I. Framing the Problem

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Violence against Women and the Media: Theory and Methods

Part II. The Specter of Gendered Terrorism: A History of Violence and Violence against Women in Guatemala

Chapter 3. A Good Place to Commit Murder: A History of Violence in Guatemala
Chapter 4. The War against Women: A History of Violence against Women in Guatemala
Chapter 5. The Growth of the Women's Movement and Challenges to the Patriarchal State

Part III. Talk of Crime and Narratives of Terror Written on Women's Bodies: Blaming Gangs and Delinquents

Chapter 6. Visible Violence, Invisible Assassins: "Necrographic Maps" and Terror in Guatemalan Murder Reports
Chapter 7. "Easy Targets," "Cannon Fodder," and "The Wrong Crowd": Framing Women as Innocent or Guilty Victims of Gangs and Delinquents

Part IV. Blaming the Patriarchal Family and State

Chapter 8. "Violence lies in wait for women at home:" Framing VAW as Domestic Violence
Chapter 9. "For no apparent reason," "in a drunken state," "blinded by jealousy," "after an argument," and Other Stories of "love gone wrong" that Frame Domestic Violence Reports
Chapter 10. From Genocide to Feminicide: Blaming Patriarchy, Impunity, and the State for VAW

Conclusion
References
About the Author