The announcement made by Isabel Díaz-Ayuso as a flagship measure at the beginning of the course was not limited to explaining the characteristics or the budget of the new center for male victims of sexual violence that the Community of Madrid wants to launch. In a new attempt to attract voters opposed to equality policies, the idea came accompanied by their usual opinions about an alleged “false feminism” that “permeates the laws”: “This story of equality, false equality, ‘It’s going to end,'” he said, seeking to confront the rights of both parties and to oppose the victims.
The PP policy justifies the need for the center by the existence of “male minor” victims or adult victims of practices such as chemsexhe said in a speech in which he did not provide figures or mention what is behind sexual violence against men. And what usually exists are also other men: according to the latest report of the Ministry of the Interior on crimes against sexual freedom, in 2023, 86% of victims were women and 14% men, while the proportions are reversed if we talk about aggressors. 93% of them are men and 7% women.
The data allow us to put a magnifying glass on a phenomenon whose complaints have continued to grow in recent years. And they reveal that a good number of them are boys and girls who are victims of sexual violence by family members, neighbors, teachers, coaches… In total, they constitute 42.6%. This is particularly the case for men, a group in which “the greatest number of victimizations” is concentrated between 0 and 13 years old, the study specifies. As for female aggressors, most have committed “crimes related to prostitution”, where the proportion between them is equal.
In this context, and although sexual violence is fundamentally directed against women, experts refer to a “gender reading” that is also necessary when the victim is a man. “The fact that the vast majority of aggressors are men is linked to a nuclear construction of masculinity in which the body of other subjects is within their reach, is an object and can be subjugated. And in light of this, there is also a feeling of impunity. It is a violence that has names, which for me is not sexist because it is not directed against a woman, but it is patriarchal because it reproduces the same logic,” explains Pablo Santos, sociologist and coordinator of the masculinities space of Otro. Temps.
Men are often at risk in spaces where they are surrounded by other men.
Patsili Toledo
— Expert in gender and criminal justice
Bárbara Tardón, a specialist in sexual violence, shares this opinion, for whom “in no case” does Ayuso’s proposal “refer to the need to combat sexual violence against men within the framework of patriarchal dynamics. It is clear that it exists, but we must be careful about who exercises it and how.
But how does this violence occur? “Men are often at risk in spaces where they are surrounded by other men. Children are a significant part of this, but these spaces also include the Church, prisons and military environments. This also happens in the areas of men who have sex with men,” explains associate professor of gender and criminal justice at Pompeu Fabra University Patsilí Toledo, who believes that it is “important” to make visible that there are “men who suffer sexual violence” because “Although it is not as widespread as in women, its effects are also very serious.
It makes perfect sense to combat sexual violence against men, but the question is how and in what framework.
Immaculate Mujika
— Director of Aldarte
However, the expert, who has been a UN consultant on femicide and sexual violence, defends that care resources and their professionals are gender-oriented. Not only because they are mostly the aggressors, but also because of the impact it has on the victims. “Being attacked implies a distortion of what the masculine should be and it is a position that is symbolically feminized by the patriarchal and homophobic construction that we have. Basically, it is the idea that there are bodies that penetrate and others that are penetrated, there are active subjects and others passive. In this imaginary, masculine men should not be penetrated and if they are, they are not,” he says.
An “opportunistic” proposal
Beyond the specific idea of launching services for men, the experts consulted regret that the proposal of the Madrid president “follows a logic that is more about political opportunism than a true diagnosis of the problem of sexual violence against women,” they say. Santos, who says that in Madrid “there is already a center for boys and girls, the CIAIS, which is saturated,” something that Más Madrid has denounced in recent days. In addition, the law of only yes it is yes It also deploys a full range of measures for minors, who are included regardless of their gender.
For sociologist and psychologist Inmaculada Mujika, the way Ayuso proposes the measure is “dangerous.” “These advertisements have a lot boom political and media, but it is a very perverse discourse because they are the same ones who cut budgets for equality or against gender violence. At the same time, the expert believes that “it is completely logical” to tackle sexual violence against men, but “the question is how and in what framework” and not to do it “with the aim of blurring gender-based violence.”
A taboo to break
Mujika, a feminist activist since the 1980s, is the director of the Aldarte LGTBI service center in Bilbao and knows what she is talking about. And, although there is hardly any data or solid evidence on the most frequent types of violence or with what intensity, the expert sees in his daily life how these are also present in the gay and bisexual male community. “In many cases, these are sexual assaults during dates via apps that end up leading to real situations of violence. There are reasons and specificities, but the shame, guilt and trauma are not very different from when the victims are women,” he explains.
“I know a lot of ‘queers’ who have suffered from this. We are also concerned with the construction of masculinity and when we have sex we assume that risk is an option.
Pablo Santos
— Sociologist
“I know a lot of them fags that we have suffered something like this. We are also affected by the construction of masculinity that we have mentioned and, on the other hand, I think that when we have sex, in a certain way, we assume that risk is an option,” adds Santos, who believes that “there is a lack of tools” in general “to understand” how this violence occurs. “Take other nuances. Women have been socialized in protection, terror and fear, but our construction of access to sexuality is more based on freedom and security,” she says.
Santos speaks of a “naturalization” of the violence that occurs within the community itself, a taboo that is still very invisible even though more and more people are asking for it to be broken without falling into the prejudices that link homosexuality to promiscuity. “I think there is a lack of reflection on consent, which I see in a very vague way in those I see,” says Mujica, who believes that it is legitimate to avoid talking about this issue for fear that it will be exploited by homophobic sectors. “But in the long run, it backfires” and ends up exacerbating “the enormous difficulty” they already have “in identifying themselves as victims.”
However, if there is one thing that all specialists agree on, it is “the problem” of approaching these issues “from opportunistic interests”, as Ayuso did, according to them. “What we cannot do is intervene with men and minimize the resources for women, we must not lose focus. They manage to oppose this announcement of the new center to feminist policies and it is a trap. In reality, talking about sexual violence, even against men, is a sum, not one thing or another”, concludes Santos.
