In defense of women:

Oscar Yescas Dominguez

August 8, 2,019

Before reading this article, more than one person may ask: Can a man write an article in defense of women? I would answer that hypothetical question by saying yes because it is not a matter of gender to observe every day the disappearance, murder, rape and violence towards “our” women: mothers, wives, sisters, cousins, aunts, nieces, daughters, granddaughters, sisters-in-law , companions, neighbors, friends, etc. Violence against women not only affects them, but it affects us all in general and we are at a point where it is already impossible to be indifferent, to pretend that nothing happens, that everything "is normal".

Now, the title of this article does not attempt to introduce a macho connotation at any time, women can defend themselves and history has shown many examples of courage, determination and courage that women have shown to defend their rights and change history . In fact, without the participation of women, we would not have had the great changes recorded in history.

I chose this title because I think that the patriarchal culture is so ingrained in several men to the degree that many men despise the voice of women and pay more attention to the voice of a man, to that degree we have reached.

Having said the above, we go directly to the topic that I wish to highlight to draw public attention to a social problem not recognized by all of us who integrate our contemporary society.

Every day we read in the press, watch on television or find out through our main source of current information that are social networks, about numerous cases of abandoned, battered, beaten, raped, murdered, dismembered, beheaded, etc. , and little by little that feeling that such tragedies would not touch us or the women who are part of our family disappears.

In the not too distant past we thought that this kind of tragedy would only happen to unknown people, but in recent years and gradually we have lost the tranquility we enjoyed because we are seeing that attacks on women happen more frequently each time and every day we know cases of close people who have suffered some case of violence against women, so the feeling of insecurity grows every day for both men and women, because parents worry every time our daughters go out at night or our Wives are slow to arrive, our sisters are away from home, etc.

Only those who do not want to see what is in front of our eyes, that is, violence towards women, can remain indifferent to the anguish, fear and panic that hundreds of thousands of women experience when walking alone through the streets of our cities and colonies , feelings they experience either because they are aware of the multiple cases of disappearances of women, kidnappings, rapes, murders, sexual harassment, or because in their personal history they have gone through some experience of this kind.

If it is still thought that the problem is not so serious, we go to see the numbers of cases of violence against women. Internet is within our reach and any search engine provides us with information on this subject.

Mexico stands out in the figures

According to figures from the United Nations Organization (UN), one out of every three women in the world suffers physical or sexual violence, mainly at the hands of a sentimental couple being the most widespread abuse of human rights.

The official statistics of the National Public Security System confirm an alarming growth of feminicide in 2,019, especially in the last three months (May, June and July). Faced with this unstoppable panorama of murders, Amnesty International in Mexico has launched a #JuntasHastaLaVida campaign, which seeks to place the murders of women at the center of the country's public agenda.

In Mexico there is a daily average of nine feminicides, this means that every two and a half hours a woman is attacked in our country. It can be any woman, a stranger, a friend or a member of our family, but it should be noted that the greatest number of cases of violence against women is registered in population segments with greater social and economic marginalization.

Femicide is the most extreme form of violence against women, it is the expression of gender violence, from one gender to another, from men to women and this social problem has grown sustainably since 2015, to the extent that in 427 Municipalities in 17 states of the country have decreed the gender alert, which has not prevented the increase in the number of women killed by the hands of men.

To become aware of the problem of violence against women, it is only enough to give them a voice, ask them how they feel, what they think about these problems, if they have been subjected to some kind of aggression and I really tell them, men will surprise us with the answers we receive from women.

In the sex education class I taught at the University of Sonora before getting my retirement, we discussed issues such as street sexual harassment and asked my students (most of them women) to describe some personal experience related to street sexual harassment. When I read his work I was shocked and really moved by the description of feelings of anger, helplessness, fear, anguish and courage that the female students reflected when describing such an experience.

All my students without exception had been subjected to sexual harassment, a good percentage of them had suffered some type of sexual violence in the past or in recent history and kept it very hidden within themselves, so the exercise was cathartic for several because some affirmed that with the group discussion they had discovered that it was not normal to be the object of this type of aggression as the nearby people had told them at the time (mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc.), by asking them to remain silent, that they will not say anything, that "all women have a problem", that "men are like that", etc.

Of the multiple cases of street sexual harassment nothing is said in the press or television and most women suffer in silence this violation of their rights because if they protest immediately they face a social tendency to blame the woman for the actions of sexual harassment of the man since they are told that she is the one who is causing with her dress or way of walking that men approach her with sexual intentions.

That is why thousands of women do not denounce the aggressions they are subjected to, it is what is known as the “black figure” of violence against women.

About the murders of women we learn mainly through social networks because the press, radio and television keep an accomplice silent, and as good merchants they only prioritize those informative notes “that do sell”, that is, those news that they They can generate increases in the rating of readers or viewers.

A missing woman is not alarming news, some people think, perhaps she escaped with her lover, authorities say before the complaint made by her relatives about her disappearance, the body of a woman appeared, perhaps she sought it and tried to justify her murder, etc. Terrible and aberrant justifications that try to victimize women at all costs and avoid investigating the real causes of their disappearance or murder.

The insensitivity, indifference and impunity in the face of violence that receive multiple forms of violence against women has led us to a point where we have the sad privilege that Mexico tops the list in the Americas as the country that has the largest number of women killed per year.

The increase in murders of women in Mexico should be recognized as cases of femicide and therefore, the implementation of a gender alert by the authorities in several states of our country would proceed, but that does not happen efficiently and in a timely manner. that our women continue to run risks every day and every hour they leave their homes.

Some may say that the violence we suffer in Mexico and the high number of women killed is not a gender problem since men are also kidnapped, killed, mutilated, and disappeared because social violence has increased uncontrollably and affects us to all Mexicans regardless of whether they are male or female. Others, go to the extreme of talking about a "masculinicide" when they claim that thousands of men are also killed.

Those who think so are right, but they forget three very important facts: the men who are murdered in our country, the vast majority have found death at the hands of other men, they do not suffer multiple violations before they are murdered as is usually the case with Women and men are not killed because they are men, as is the case with women who are victims of violence and homicide, simply because they are women. Men also do not suffer sexual street harassment, nor are they kidnapped to be raped by other men simply by walking alone on the street.

We must recognize that only because of their feminine status, women in our contemporary society place themselves at a constant risk of being subjected to violence of all kinds, in any place, whether public or private, because domestic and sexual violence is also alarming because cases of sexual abuse are committed to a greater extent by a family member or close to her.

But which place is not conflictive and dangerous for women? Public spaces represent a risk for women who walk alone without a male guardian who "protects" them, but private spaces have also been scenarios of violence against women: workplaces (workplace sexual harassment), schools and universities (harassment teacher sex), the home (the main rapists are a family member or someone close to the family).

As a social psychologist by profession, I have always fought the prevailing idea in popular knowledge that states that each person “has their own social reality” and that each person builds their destiny. Obviously we are all part of a social system in which various social phenomena coexist interconnected due to processes of social interinfluence in which the social determines the individual.

From the Marxist perspective, men and women establish social relations based on our attachment to a means of production, these means of production are governed by a mode of production that in our case is the capitalist system, where private property exists over The means of production.

It does not matter if you are a man or if you are a woman, both genders suffer from social inequality and are subject to economic exclusion if they do not own any means of production. From this approach, the reality is the same for all of us who belong to contemporary society, an exclusive reality that promotes economic inequality, enriching the owners of the means of production through the labor exploitation of workers.

But in addition to this social inequality we must recognize that there is another type of oppression and inequality that affects only half of our population, that is, it affects only women, this inequality is sexual. When we enter the field of human sexuality is when we realize that we find a different social condition in both genders. In the 21st century in contemporary society, men are perceived differently from the way women are perceived, social reality is perceived and lived differently by men and women. That difference is what marks sexual inequality, it is what is known as gender inequality.

This is the reason why I have reached a point where I must accept that there are different realities for men and women, since in our contemporary society it is not the same to be a man as to be a woman, since there are different social realities for each gender because a different social treatment is received for each one.

Unfortunately, these differences are not only perceived, they are actually differences in social treatment, which reach the extreme of increasing social inequality to the detriment of women who have fewer privileges and rights than men, so they suffer double oppression and exclusion. : they are victims of the economic inequality prevailing in capitalism that affects men and women and at the same time they are victims of sexual inequality based on their belonging to the female gender.

We can confirm this if we only look at the way we relate to the people around us, especially if we look at women, in the terms John Lennon told us in his song Woman is the nigger of the world, if you don´ t believe it, take a look at the one you are with. (The woman is the black woman of the world, if you don't believe it, look at the one with you).

Being a man in our society is an early guarantee of enjoying multiple privileges that women do not enjoy: greater sexual freedom, greater permissiveness in early sexual learning, greater and better opportunities for fun, study, work, are less judged socially, are not at risk of be subjected to sexual harassment or rape, etc.

On the other hand, women are tried and convicted if they have early sexual learning, are stigmatized and socially devalued if they freely exercise their sexuality. If a woman has several sexual partners, she is considered a whore, but if a man has several sexual partners simultaneously, she is celebrated and considered to be "a whole man", etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_t8ng0uEg&t=317s

On the other hand, being a woman is to be the object not only of multiple restrictions and violations of her rights as a human being, but also to be in constant risk of sexual violence, physical and psychological abuse, and even losing her life for the simple fact of being a woman.

The undeniable and really painful fact is that hundreds, thousands of young women disappear every day in Mexico, Latin America and throughout the world, some of them appear after their bodies with signs of rape and blows. A large majority disappears without a trace, leaving behind the pain of their relatives. Others are victims of white trafficking, that is, kidnapped to be forced into prostitution.

We are then faced with a serious and great social problem that not only affects women, affects society as a whole because a woman is someone's daughter, someone's wife, someone's sister, that is, women do not they are alone, they are part of a nuclear family and an extended family, but above all they are part of a social community.

A community that should protect its members from any type of aggression they suffer, so the problem of violence against women is not an individual problem that only affects them, nor is it a problem that only corresponds to solving women.

Some may say that public safety and crime prevention is the responsibility of the authorities for their attention, punishment and prevention. But feminicides and, in general, violence against women is a problem that goes beyond the legal field since it has a cultural origin.

It is really a social problem in which there is a social co-responsibility which means that all without exception, both men and women, we must take the initiative and participate in those actions that lead to eliminate the problem of violence against women.

How did we get to this point where by simply being a woman you are subjected to different types of aggressions and the majority of the population takes it as something normal?

How could we protect our women from this irrational violence they are subjected to?

How could we help individually to ensure that sexual assaults and murders of women do not occur in the future?

What should be done to change this situation?

Of the factors that have influenced so that the problem of feminicide grows unstoppably, we should firstly point out the indifference that exists on this social problem, an indifference that is not exclusive to the authorities, but is also observed in society that does not recognize or accept the magnitude of this problem.

It has also infused a slowness in the process of law enforcement and especially the presence of a tendency to blame women for the aggression to which they are subjected, trying to prove that "she was the one who provoked men." There have been cases in which some women have reported on several occasions that they have been subjected to assaults by their partners without receiving support from any authority and soon appear murdered.

The little importance that has been given to the problem of violence against women is reflected in the fact that attention to this problem is made with limited resources at the three levels of government.

This has led to an increase in impunity for men who attack women.

The validity of stereotyped sexual roles that encapsulate women by instilling beauty as their main virtue and obedience to men as their main characteristic, also contribute their share to achieve these crimes generated by violence against women

I could expand on the causes that originate this social problem, but doing so would imply extending this article too much. I will only limit myself to pointing out that the causes are multiple and that in fact it could be affirmed that the Mexican State has not fulfilled its responsibility to identify, prosecute and punish those responsible for feminicide and gender violence, nor does it provide and offer a Damage repair process or guarantee of non-repetition.

To give an adequate answer to this problem of violence against women, we must demand that the authorities assume their role in the punishment and prevention of crimes, avoiding blaming the woman who is the object of aggression of any kind and really investigating to punish the the responsible.

The State must provide public security and we are facing a serious social problem that will not be resolved by issuing declarations, since it requires specific actions such as training the personnel responsible for investigating this type of crime.

It is necessary to achieve coordination between different governmental bodies of the three levels of government to achieve the construction of a model of integral attention to the problem of feminicide.

It also requires the incorporation in the work of prevention of violence against women, academics, researchers and civil society, in such a way that with the joint efforts it is possible to build a comprehensive care that allows the implementation of public policies.

The Mexican State must fulfill the need to protect Mexican citizens and in this case in particular women who are part of our population and an urgent alternative is to promote programs and courses of comprehensive sexuality education at all levels of education Formal and demand that these be part of the job training programs in all formal organizations of our country. Finally, each citizen can contribute to defending our women, which is the same as defending ourselves, changing the way we educate our children, avoiding giving greater freedoms and rights to men, promoting equal education for men and women , teaching both some and others, to defend their rights at any place and time.

Democracy and sex education

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2018/10/democracia-yeducacion-sexual-oscar.html

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2019/06/la-educacion-en-sexualidad-humana-como.html

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2018/11/dia-internacional-contra-la-violencia.html

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2018/10/la-construccion-social-dela-equidad-de.html

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2018/09/la-revolucion-sexual-dela-pornografia.html

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https://oscaryescasd.blogspot.com/2019/03/liberacionfemenina-o-liberacion-social.html

Group exercise Advantages and disadvantages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_t8ng0uEg&t=317s

Feminicides, more and more viciously and violently: INEGI

https://lasillarota.com/feminicidios-cada-vez-con-mas-sana-y-violencia-inegi-feminicidios-violencia-mujeres-inegi/190304