The Stigma Against Reporting Abuse
By Steffica Warwick
"Machismo may allow men to be the dominant gender, but it does not allow for expressions of victimisation"
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Photo by Fernando @cferdo on Unsplash
Another
key barrier to progress is the lack of reporting about abuses from female
victims. One study estimated that only around 5% of adult victims of sexual
violence in Latin America reported the incident to the police.
According to estimates by Ipea, a government-led think-tank, only 10% of sexual attacks in Brazil are reported to the police. Another study finds that only 14% of Colombian women report the incidents of rape or sexual assault. Many women and girls do not report instances of abuse due to fear of retaliation, lack of faith in the system, and acceptance that this is just the way it is. Reporting also depends to a great extent on the receptiveness of the state institutions that receive the reports, such as the police, public prosecutor‘s office, defensorÃa del pueblo (ombudsman offices) and medical institutions.
A keen
proactiveness to help is not always guaranteed, primarily because the system
absorbs and perpetuates myths about female sexuality. As just one example, up
until 1999, women in Chile had to have a good reputation in order for their
rape claim to be considered. This means that millions of women and girls in
Latin America are at risk of HIV/AIDS, Post Traumatic Distress Order, physical
injury, unwanted pregnancy, and suffer through it in silence.
Many
young girls also do not report their experience to adults. This is mainly due
to the belief that they will not be taken seriously by adults if they do, and a
feeling of shame which stems from the perception of girls going through puberty
as provoking sexual encounters.
This is in line with the double standard according to which women are often blamed for the promiscuity of men. Indeed, it was revealed in a survey questioning 3,809 households in Brazil that 58.5% of people surveyed believed that if women knew how to behave, there would be less rape.
In
some cases, young girls do not realise that the abuse they are receiving at
home is not acceptable. A recent survey of violence against teenagers in the
NTCA showed that ―there are issues that remain silenced, ignored, made
invisible, and are not being addressed. Girls, boys, teenagers and young people
are abused by their brothers and their fathers and they regard it as normal.
Particularly for young girls whose only interpretation of the world is through
the eyes of their family, normalisation is particularly dangerous.
STIGMA AGAINST NON-MACHO MEN
In
battling against a machismo culture, the population needs to become comfortable
with an alternative: non-macho men. However, the stigma against men who do not
adhere to society’s cultural norms is great, and many men are afraid to appear
anything less than the strong, dominant and virile sapiens they are conditioned
to be.
In
one interview with a Brazilian man, the interviewee explains:
‘social standing is determined by how much humiliation you can brush off. I‘ve felt sexually harassed on various occasions, by women and men. Cat calling, and groping on occasion - sometimes by superiors at work. But it‘s not an issue that‘s really seen to. I mean, I‘ve never talked to anyone about this before’.
In
the same way that females refuse to come forward about their experiences, men
are also afraid to display weaknesses. Machismo may allow men to be the
dominant gender, but it does not allow for expressions of victimisation. As the
interview described, it affects a man’s ‘social standing’ to not police his own
ability to adhere to the culture of machismo. Thus far from being solely a
structure which benefits men, the culture of machismo and the reign of the
patriarchy is just as repressive to men as it is to women.
Equidad,
a Mexican organisation promoting gender equality through policy proposals,
analyses evidence of violence against men in Mexico. According to statistics
gathered by Equidad, a certain growth in statistics shows how women‘s violence
toward men is increasing, although not by very much. A representative of the
organisation, Ben Wadham, shows how abuses perpetrated by men against men can
collaborate with the structure that silences most cases;
‘The fact that most of the research on domestic violence predominantly reports male violence against women, it is not a personal attack against men, but a representation of how male violence threatens the safety of women and men. […] Men who are abused by women may not report these attacks due to shame and tensions with ideas they have about masculinity, or because a police-man could laugh at a man who reported violence because ‘a real man would never let a woman hit him’’.
Not
only would a man not divulge his experience to a police officer, but it is also
unlikely that he would seek out professional therapy to analyse and root out
the emotions and traumatic feelings which stem from abuse. Research suggests
that men are far less likely to go to the doctor for treatment relating to
mental health issues than women.
They are also unlikely to seek treatment for
diseases such as HIV/AIDs, which challenge notions of hetero-hypersexuality.
And in the same way that male-to-female abuse is rooted in misogynistic
attitudes toward women, female-to-male abuse uses the same stereotypes to
oppress men, exploiting the idea of the capable and dominant macho figure by
shaming any part of a man that does not live up to that ideal. In this way, the
culture of machismo serves to inhibit both genders.
But whereas women do play a part in upholding notions of gender roles, violence against males is overwhelmingly carried outby other males, working to prove themselves more worthy in a society whichpersists to value machismo and the aggression it contains.
This article is extracted from the Research paper titled 'Silent Voices: Violence against the female body as a consequence of machismo' in Chapter 4 of the Safety Report by SAFIGI Outreach Foundation 'Safety First for Girls'.
The Safety Report by SAFIGI is a two-fold Open research on 'Core Issues Affecting Safety of Girls in the Developing World.' The first part of the Safety Report is a Research Paper. The second part is a detailed Data Analysis.
The Safety Report Research paper is titled: 'Core Issues Affecting Safety of Girls in the Developing World.' The paper starts with an abstract before focusing on subjects in the key regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. A total of 7 Research papers make up the safety Report (sans the introduction and conclusion), including:
The Safety Report Data Analysis is titled: 'Core Issues Affecting Safety of Girls. Results and Outcomes based on Zambia, Egypt, USA, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Namibia.'
SAFIGI Outreach Foundation Ltd, a volunteer-based and youth led NGO registered in Zambia, implemented the Safety Report in order to understand the multifaceted concept of safety and how it applies to the female gender in diverse settings. And therefore, further prove safety is intrinsic, and that vices in society stem from an intimate level of the human being before its manifestation. This way, when we create safety solutions, whether it be in a developing nation, conflict zone, refugee camp, or patriarchal society, the problem is resolved from a deeply rooted cause. Such that, we treat the disease itself and not mere symptoms.
This study is as a result of collaborative effort pursued in the spirit of volunteerism via UN Online Volunteers.
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