Stories from all over
Protesters on Ipanema Beach in January. (AP)
'I don't deserve to be raped' campaign responds to shocking Brazilian survey
Stories from all over
Protesters on Ipanema Beach in January. (AP)
Shocking Brazilian survey fuels 'I don't deserve to be raped' campaign
According to a recent survey, 65.1 percent of Brazilians think that if a women “dresses provocatively” she deserves to be “attacked and raped.‘I don’t deserve to be raped’ campaign responds to shocking Brazilian survey
Women
who belong to the Bastardxs Movement hold protest signs on Ipanema
beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014. Protesters
said they were demonstrating against physical and psychological violence
against women by wearing a range of clothing, from fully covered to
almost nothing, to make the point they have the right to wear whatever
they want. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Source: Dossiê Mulher 2013, Brazil’s Institute of Public Safety. Graphic: Tobey – The Washington Post.
News of the Institute for Applied Economic Research survey fueled an existing movement and unleashed a tidal wave of new outrage. It crested with the hashtag #ninguemMereceSerEstuprada — I don’t deserve to be raped — and crashed across all forms of social media. Many tweeted photographs as emotive as they were triumphant. Depicting women in various states of undress, they juxtaposed sensuality with strength. Some women were topless, expressions austere, clutching a poster condemning the survey’s results.
The survey and the resulting backlash highlight broader tension in Brazilian society over gender equality and the role violence can play in domestic relationships. The findings are, however, in some ways paradoxical. Brazil’s president is a woman. So is the head of national oil company, Petrobras. The nation, which will host the World Cup in June, has special police stations that are staffed almost exclusively with women. And according to this telling New York Times article, “there is a general view that holds women as equal, fully capable of excelling in even the most powerful posts.”
But there are also cultural fissures. In 1830, the Brazil penal code eliminated the death penalty for rapists and introduced a qualifier of whether the victim was “honest” or “dishonest.” Rape of an “honest” woman was met with a prison term of three to 12 years. But the rape of a “dishonest” women only meant one month to two years in prison, according to a 1991 Human Rights Watch report.
In 1991, more than 160 years later, problems remained in enforcing sexual assault law. One officer who worked with victims told Human Rights Watch researchers, “Most cases happen because the woman consents, because she wants it. Then she regrets it and comes to play victim, comes [and] reports. Many women create favorable conditions for the crime.”
Today, reports of rape and sexual assault continue to increase in cities like Rio de Janeiro. According to the U.S. State Department, the number of instances reported surged there from 1,996 in 2009 to 4,796 in 2010 after a federal law was enacted broadening the definition of rape. Then in 2012, the figure in the city jumped up to 6,029 reports of rape, the Institute of Public Safety reports. That’s an average of 16 per day.
To be sure, every country struggles with sexual assault. But recent anecdotes in Brazil have endowed the country with a special distinction.
Once, a man pressed a gun to the head of a 30-year-old woman while he raped her on a bus barreling down Rio’s main avenue. In another shocking instance, a blue-collar woman was captured and raped inside a transit van while it navigated busy roads. The police only investigated after the same men captured an American woman a week later last March and did the same to her in an assault that captured international attention.
The increase in rapes, not to mention the results of the recent survey, has stirred alarm in the highest echelons of Brazilian office. Late last week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff tweeted, that the country has “a long way to go on combating violence against women.”
Earlier this week, after the local journalist who started the “I don’t deserve to be raped” campaign claimed she had received messages threatening her with sexual assault, Rousseff rose to her defense again. She “deserves all my solidarity and respect,” the president said. “No woman deserves to be a victim of violence, whether it be physical or in the form of intimidation.”
Terrence McCoy is a foreign affairs writer at the Washington Post. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Cambodia and studied international politics at Columbia University. Follow him on Twitter here.
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Conversation Paused
Not everyone in the world self-identifies first by political party-race-gender, as is the tradition of the left in the USA.
If women are judging other women harshly in Brazil, they may self-identify on appearance, economic class, social class, education, home location or some other common grouping.
If women are judging other women harshly in Brazil, they may self-identify on appearance, economic class, social class, education, home location or some other common grouping.
What
a shame. Brazil wants us to believe that they are no longer a third
rate third world country, then you read stories such as this, and
realize it's just not true.
I wonder if the police still gun down homeless children who create a "nuisance" by stealing food from street vendors. Seems like Brazilians have a habit of abandoning their children to the streets like they do their dogs when they are no longer wanted.
I wonder if the police still gun down homeless children who create a "nuisance" by stealing food from street vendors. Seems like Brazilians have a habit of abandoning their children to the streets like they do their dogs when they are no longer wanted.
Can women carry guns there? Might be hard to conceal them depending on what they're wearing.
In any case Brazil, get your act together. You're hosting the Olympics and not making yourself look like an Olympic-level country.
In any case Brazil, get your act together. You're hosting the Olympics and not making yourself look like an Olympic-level country.
The correct translation of the hashtag "#ninguemMereceSerEstuprada" is NOBODY DESERVE TO BE RAPED.
Nothing in that survey is a whopper.
You don't know "all Brazils" that exist in Brazil.
See some data from the people who the questions were asked:
Less than primary education: 41.5% - note that 66.5 % of Brazilians have less than primary education
Primary school : 22.3%
High school : 30.8%
Higher education : 5.4%
Household income per capita average: US $ 220.00 -medium is US$560.00 - more poor US$77.40 (2012)
Assault is assault. The proper response to assault is self defense. If that means killing the assailant, so be it.
9:39 AM GMT-0300 [Edited]
Brazil, India, whatever, same same.
Third World thinking...
Third World thinking...
To
anyone who has spent time in Brazil this is not shocking at all. In a
country ruled by men living under laws made by men it is actually legal
to murder your wife. That's right. In addition - using Rio de Janeiro as
an example we witnessed and subsequently learned the police rub the
prostitution business and are the worst, most vicious pimps on the
planet. In addition they also run the black market for human organs.
Proof? A hotel guest disappeared and they found his remains two days
later in a seedy hotel room. He had been solicited by two teenage girls
for $30, taken to a hotel, drugged, and then "had all of his salable
organs removed - eyes liver. lungs, heart, etc. and the police run the
whole program" - Manager, SwissHotel, Copacabana Beach. Brazil is a dark
and very dangerous place, one to stay far away from despite the allure
of its beauty.
10:00 AM GMT-0300
OK. I agree that "many places" in Brazil are very dangerous.
But the story that a "guest disappeared etc ..." I never heard. And I live here many many years.
But the story that a "guest disappeared etc ..." I never heard. And I live here many many years.
10:07 AM GMT-0300
I
have a friend who manages a canning plant there. He's American. He has
to have a body guard for his kids so they don't get kidnapped.
Btw the Huffington Post has this story with the warning NSFW - not safe for work.
If we're so cautious of how others (co-workers, employers, FISA courts) will react to our web behavior, why aren't we cautious of how others (rapists) will react to our behavior? Maybe Not Safe For Living In A Dangerous, Evil World
Acting with caution is not a statement of the other person acting justly. You don't 'deserve' such treatment. You do deserve to be safe. And we should be building a world where exploitation and abuse is prosecuted and discouraged and found morally and socially repugnant. However, we all must be conscious of those that take liberties and act prudently to reduce harm to ourselves.
If we're so cautious of how others (co-workers, employers, FISA courts) will react to our web behavior, why aren't we cautious of how others (rapists) will react to our behavior? Maybe Not Safe For Living In A Dangerous, Evil World
Acting with caution is not a statement of the other person acting justly. You don't 'deserve' such treatment. You do deserve to be safe. And we should be building a world where exploitation and abuse is prosecuted and discouraged and found morally and socially repugnant. However, we all must be conscious of those that take liberties and act prudently to reduce harm to ourselves.
"Because they wish to dress as they choose?"
Just because you choose yourself to do something has nothing to do with also having some screws loose.
Just because you choose yourself to do something has nothing to do with also having some screws loose.
"Men"
- are NOT responsible for "rape". Predators are. And otherwise
mentally ill individuals. What this minority of women in Brazil are
saying is; "It's my god-given right to go walking -blindfolded- through
the Amazon jungle, where I know there are jaguars- and smear my body
with bacon grease beforehand. Hey, I use bacon grease to keep the
mosquitoes away. The jaguars have NO RIGHT to eat me- just because I'm
incredibly stupid.." Good luck with that.
9:41 AM GMT-0300
You
are confusing animal behavior with civilized human behavior. A woman
can walk down the street completely naked and STILL means she is not
subject to sexual assault. If you use the animal behavior to human
behavior analogy, that makes you the animal and not the human.
9:51 AM GMT-0300
There
is very little logic in the "teach men not to rape" meme. It assumes
that all men are rapists unless they're taught NOT to be. This is simply
not true. This is the logical equivalent of children holding up signs
that say things like "Don't tell me not to take candy from strangers,
teach strangers not to offer me candy" or "Don't tell me not to play in
traffic, teach the drivers not to hit me". It assumes that there is no
such thing as personal responsibility for your own safety or your own
behavior. It isn't a matter of victim blaming, it's a matter of common
sense.
9:56 AM GMT-0300
You've got to be kidding, right?
Brazil is a cesspool of violence, brutality, and inequity. I would never go there or take my family there, period.
9:11 AM GMT-0300
If you haven't been there then you don't know what you are talking about.
9:13 AM GMT-0300 [Edited]
You don't have to be crazy yourself to recognize it in others,52. Even though peace surely exaggerates somewhat.
9:38 AM GMT-0300
We have been there and yes, she does know what she is talking about - she is right.
9:25 AM GMT-0300
Just like DC, right?
10:08 AM GMT-0300
Surprised that the Olympics are going to be held there.
In reporting the apparent opinion that if a woman is “dressed provocatively” she deserves to be “attacked and raped.”...
It is probably more relevant to quote the 'deserves to be' part.
It is probably more relevant to quote the 'deserves to be' part.
9:06 AM GMT-0300
Good point. Thanks.
Dear Sirs, where is the comment I did at 8:14 AM GMT-300 ??? CENSORED????
10:21 AM GMT-0300
WaPo's
filters are very weird. You can't use technical terms for body parts,
and many slang terms. Basically, don't talk about genitalia at all even
if the story centers around them.
The
data is shocking to me. I think it represent a declining societal
structure. I'm afraid that the government has been so concentrated on
financing sports that they continue to forget about the people. The
Brazilian government is only willing to do quick, pacification attempts
at changing behavior and conditions, never applying concerted efforts to
reform and improve society and basic laws. I think Dilma Rousseff is
asleep at the wheel.
8:51 AM GMT-0300
Declining?
No, this is just another country slowly climbing out of the morass that
is Christianity juxtaposed with ignorant machismo. They are slowly
ascending just like the rest of us.
8:53 AM GMT-0300
Rape has been a problem since there were males and females.
9:39 AM GMT-0300
You mean animals and females.
10:21 AM GMT-0300
No, most men do not rape. They have control over themselves.
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I'm inclined to think that something was lost in the translation here.
8:49 AM GMT-0300
The Portuguese phrase they're display is "Ninguem (nobody) merece (deserves) ser estuprada (to be raped)."
Nobody deserves to be raped.
Not sure how much clearer the translation could be.
Nobody deserves to be raped.
Not sure how much clearer the translation could be.
