Transnational sexual and gendered violence: an application of border sexual conquest at a Mexico—US border

Drawing on transnational and postcolonial feminism, we discuss the phenomenon of border sexual conquest to highlight structural sexual and gendered violence that is exacerbated by the subjugation of local place and by the global political economy. While we have gained important insights from the literature on gender and transnationalism, the processes of sexual violence and gendered violence are underdeveloped. We focus our analysis on the Mexico—US border cities of Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, USA. We argue that what we call border sexual conquest confronts the feminicides in Juárez and the female proletariats on both sides of the border. Moreover, while structural violence approaches under theorize struggles over power, the perspective of border sexual conquest highlights how processes of conquest intertwine with women's resistance.