The Language of Gendered Violence and Sexual Aggression in the Spanish Civil War: Conceptualizations and Reassessments

Abstract This article examines the conceptual vocabulary through which violence against women during the Spanish Civil War has been interpreted, with particular attention to the longstanding predominance of the category ‘sexed violence’ ( violencia sexuada ). While this terminology played an important role in early efforts to highlight the gendered nature of violence and the symbolic targeting of women's bodies, it also introduced conceptual ambiguities that continue to inform historiographical debates. Drawing on contemporary feminist theory and international scholarship on wartime sexual and gendered violence, the discussion reassesses the analytical usefulness of the sexed framework and identifies its limitations, particularly its tendency to obscure the structural dynamics of gendered inequality. By situating the Spanish case within broader theoretical currents, this article argues that a shift toward the terminology of sexualized violence ( violencia sexualizada ) offers greater analytical precision and better captures the performative, symbolic and systemic logics that shaped female aggression during the Spanish Civil War.