Victim-blaming and Fertile Grounds for Murdering Women: Investigating Opposing Publics, Egyptian Feminicide and Macabre Masculinity

• In Event: 21058 - Masculinities

Abstract

In this paper, I theorize the concept of macabre masculinity to explain why some Egyptian men kill women they supposedly love in broad daylight knowing they will get caught and receive the death sentence or commit suicide after their murders. I analyze three murders that occurred in 2022 that spurred a nationwide uproar in Egypt as a case study to explore a distinct lethal masculinity and contemporary narratives of victim blaming, within mainstream publics on social and mainstream media. This paper asks: What motivations led these men to murder the three women? What pre-existing conditions enabled them? How did people and mainstream media respond? To answer these questions, I analyze news coverage and the framing of the murders and the published personal information on both the murderers and their victims. I discuss and analyze widely circulated victim-blaming rhetoric by two famous conservative male Islamic scholars and some state institutions, and the responses of everyday people on social media. I theorize macabre masculinity on the individual and the state/structural level and argue that it can only exist within the landscape of feminicidio/feminicide, which is a different form of violence than femicide, as it encompasses the state’s complicity in the mass murders of women. Therefore, I also argue that macabre masculinity is upheld by some men, women and the state. I engage with literature on Arab/North African masculinities and argue that macabre masculinity is a temporary lethal practice of masculinity with noxious and fragile masculinities as prerequisites. I also argue that Baltagga/thuggery in the Egyptian context is an important characteristic of this masculinity, and that while it overlaps with hegemonic masculinity in some respects, it is very different conceptually and practically. Finally, I show how some Egyptian men distance themselves from macabre masculinity and victim-blaming discourses.

Author

• Nehal Elmeligy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County