Paper short abstract:

For the social imaginary there is the idea of a natural womanhood alienated from war and violence. The indictments for woman warriors who 'live outside of the gender' resulted not only in the stigmatization by the public opinion, but also in the aggravation of the criminal penalties.

Paper long abstract:

The significant participation of women in the organitzation of the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path (CPP-SP) has puzzled many observers of this political and armed struggle in Peru.

The participation of women in the armed struggle has been seen as a threat. For the social imaginary of the hegemonic ideology -conservative- there is the idea of a natural womanhood forcibly alienated from war and violence. As a consquence, the figure of the woman warrior of the CPP-SP resulted in a contradiction with the hegemonic type of womanhood displayed by the Peruvian mediatic powers. They have developed a discourse of denigration of the image of the CPP-SP woman combatent. There has emerged a stereotype of an 'asexual automaton' and a 'nymphomaniac thirsty of blood", "a participant of the Shining Path orgy". These indictments for 'living outside of the gender' resulted not only in the stigmatization by the public opinion, but also in the aggravation of the criminal penalties (longer imprisonments).

Taking into account the ethnografic research developped for the last 3 years in the Maximum Security Prison in Lima, I want to show the ways in which the CPP-SP women have opposed to this stigmatization, and also the ways they have endeavoured to reshape their gender identity when facing their new existential conditions.