Women cannot take it in peace. There is no chance for us to live our sexuality freely, it is not right for us to explore our desire. It’s a terrible idea because if you do it and the world finds out, the humiliation is total. Not so with males. Of course, everything is different if you are not cisgender and heterosexual male. And although the fact most of the time two people participate, many men at that time are potential enemies of our sexual freedom. We saw it in Big Brother when Agustin told his friends that he keeps intimate photos of the girls he was with to viralize “in case they send some mucus.” To talk about this and understand some conflicting points, I interviewed Florencia Zerdá, lawyer, specialist in Cybercrime and member of GENTIC, an organization that promotes activism against Cyberviolence of gender.
The good thing about disasterIt is “barbaric” that this happens on broadcast television. The quotation marks are because not really, but yes. That it happens and that it goes viral along with thousands of repudiations in the networks speaks of this problem uncomfortable but still not enough. That is, that Augustine does not feel social shame when confessing what he confessed, makes it clear that much is missing. “It also serves to bring a discussion to the debate table. Big Brother is a mirror of society. Then we cannot cover the sun with our hands. I think boys have a hard time realizing that it’s wrong and that’s why suddenly this guy is encouraged to say it knowing that they are filming him. Because their behavior is criminal but they do not even consider it a crime and that is where we have to work, “explains the specialist. Sexual violence and rape culture are very complex problems because, to begin with, they are absolutely naturalized. Although among them they comment that those who share these images are “giles”, in that talk none marks Agustín the lack and nobody, in addition, speaks of the real violence that implies viralization without consent. In fact, they present it as “”, not to mention that there were already several comments endorsing sexual abuse in Big Brother and almost none was sanctioned. “Feminized bodies can circulate publicly as if they were an object of consumption, but not only that, they can also threaten and extort this dissemination knowing the damage it causes, because they know the damage it causes to women’s lives. In fact, they do it for a reason,” he adds. In that dialogue in which no one intervenes, the famous macho pact is clearly noticeable where everyone protects themselves because either many did or would do something similar or they are afraid to intervene since it is likely that they will be judged by their companions and treated as “pollerudos” in the best of cases. That infamous society that is me But that is not the only problem, the other complexity comes from the hand of the taboo. Of a society that can’t stand to see a woman enjoy catching. The famous Freudian dilemma of mother or whore is in very good health. And when we talk about society, we talk about us, right?” When this type of news of cases of diffusion or sextortion comes out, what we notice, although it has been decreasing over the years, that there have even been more comments reproaching the woman for the behavior of having filmed or photographed, than a reproach to the behavior of the aggressor, “summarizes Zerdá.Audrie and Daisy is a documentary that tells the life of two girls who had to move locality, Changing schools and modifying her whole life because someone had viralized videos or photos of her intimacy. This content clearly shows how social behavior imposes shame on them for enjoyment. And of course, those who viralized the images had zero social consequences in this regard. In fact, Audrie committed suicide in 2020 since her aggressor was released and thus joined a long list of fatal victims for this crime. “What happens in analog violence that is transferred to digital violence is that not only the sexual life of women is judged, but they are also alleged. Because once everything that happens spreads and happens, the consequences it has on women’s lives are tremendous. And the idea that reigns is that this is what happens to women who film themselves. ‘Look at it because it can happen to you too,'” says the lawyer. It is cliché the phrase that men can be with many women and are capos and women, for that reason, are whores. And because it’s cliché, it’s commonplace. This is how the social rod continues to function with respect to the sexual. Equally, and because not everything is darkness, feminist movements manage to question these truths with increasing force and it is women and dissidents who have moreMistakes when it comes to defending ourselves. What to do in the face of horror We live in a world that teaches us to take care of ourselves but does not teach them not to do violence. We know. Even so, taking precautions is good to save us, precautions of the style if you send a sexy photo to a boy, try not to see your face or tattoos. But what happens when you come across an Augustine? What can you do when someone viralizes or shares your privacy without your consent? There are tools, there are networks and also bills that seek to criminalize this problem.
“A girl who is going through these situations has to know that she can report it. Whether they threaten to disseminate intimate content or extort it, which is when they ask for money in exchange for not disseminating it, when they coerce you to, for example, send more photos or to withdraw a complaint you have made. These three crimes are legislated, they are included in our Criminal Code and they are reportable,” explains Zerdá. Any woman who suffers from it can approach a prosecutor’s office, a police station or get advice and call the 144 line. They can also approach the gender-based violence office and ask for protection measures,” she adds. In Congress there are two bills that seek to punish these crimes in a forceful way. The project known as “Olimpia Law” proposes to incorporate digital gender violence as another form of gender violence of Law 26,485. In addition to the creation of protection measures for survivors and public policies aimed at digital education and the prevention of these aggressions. The second, “Belén Law” aims to incorporate digital violence as a crime, and to punish the non-consensual obtaining and dissemination of intimate material and / or nudity, pornographic montages, among others, with an adequate gender perspective. Although the Argentine Penal Code recognizes sextortion in Article 155, the amendment seeks to increase the penalty of fine and incorporates a prison sentence of two months to two years for those who publish this type of content.
