There have always been urban legends, false myths or generalized lies, but they have always remained the domain of bar conversation or jokes between friends. But in recent years they have become a social problem. Social media has been the main means of disseminating a large number of hoaxes and fake news that constantly bombard all audiences, some particularly vulnerable like young people.
Furthermore, there is a favorite victim: feminism. Although activism has made important advances in the fight for equality, it has provoked a counter-reaction that has focused on inventing lies and spreading them to dismantle those claims. And they understood: one in four young men think that sexist violence is an ideological invention. Many of them repeat the hoaxes they once believed and which the data makes fall under its own weight.
“There are a lot of false complaints”
It is one of the most widespread hoaxes and the one that lasts the longest over time, despite the fact that official organizations clarify every year with data that it is not true. Politicians and far-right groups repeat a false mantra that there are many false reports of gender-based violence and the reality is very different.
As noted, the State Attorney General’s Office report for 2023 includes only two convictions for false reporting out of a total of 199,282 cases of gender violence, which represents a percentage of 0.001%. A tiny percentage of false complaints is not only the reality of last year, but also the general trend and is also supported by the data. The average between the years 2009 and 2023 is 0.0084% and even if we add ongoing cases that could lead to a conviction, the total percentage would barely reach 0.00945%. The report from the La Rioja public prosecutor’s office does not detail these data but, in general, it indicates that “false accusations and complaints as well as false testimonies are very sporadic”.
State Attorney General’s Office
“Violence has no gender”
“The data shows that this is unfortunately the case. Violence against women is not a sum of isolated cases but a structural phenomenon. For example, while women are the victims of 85.7% of sexual crimes, 98.2% of people convicted of committing one of these crimes are men. (Women’s Institute, 2023; INE, 2023). If we compare gender violence with other types of violence, such as domestic or family violence, we also see big differences: there are 16 times more men reported for gender violence than women reported for domestic or family violence. In addition, complaints against men for this type of violence are double the complaints against women and they represent 61% of victims (INE, 2023).
This is why we speak indifferently about gender violence or violence against women. With both terms we refer to the manifestation of the historical imbalance between women and men, which has led to their discrimination and represents a violation of human rights.
Celia Fenollar, gender expert journalist
“They are subsidized, they are feminist beach bars”
“When they first tell us this, we all respond that someone is keeping our grant because it is not reaching us. Feminist associations, like all civic associations, must meet a series of requirements to be able to receive subsidies and among them there is of course the justification of how we are going to spend them. Therefore, when we apply to a public call, we must propose a whole range of activities and even then the grant may be refused or reduced significantly.
For example, in Kirké, we have not received any public money, apart from research aid to carry out a project. Its amount does not reach an average salary of two months and requires the work of an entire year. However, the fight against gender violence needs resources to become strong and effective and for this it is important to have the support of public administrations.
Kirké Association: Feminists in action
“The attackers and attackers are always immigrants”
“The ideology of patriarchal structure, machismo and misogyny is global, it has no borders and the victims are women and girls from all over the world. So saying that a man is violent because of his country of origin makes no sense. This unfounded idea seeks to divert attention towards migrants, while the factors which push a man to be violent are linked to job insecurity, the education received at home, addictions and the patriarchal system which generates inequalities between men and women in forming personal relationships. based on domination and superiority.
Contrary to what this hoax seeks to suggest, we know that 79.7% of the prisoners serving sentences in 2022, in penitentiary centers for crimes due to gender violence, were Spanish and 20.3% the rest had a foreign nationality. A fact that we felt in Rioja Acoge when organizing the “New Masculinities” workshops in the Logroño prison, where the majority of participants are of Spanish nationality. And by reporting the country of birth of the victims and aggressors – according to the annual report of the National Observatory of Violence Against Women 2022 (latest publication) – we see that two out of three cases correspond to both victims and attackers of Spanish origin. of origin and nationality and this figure rises to 67% in the case of Spanish attackers.
The Rioja Association welcomes
“One complaint will destroy your life”
“I’m tired of hearing that women’s lives are very easy if we want to destroy a man’s life. They say their lives were ruined with just one complaint, but that’s completely untrue. I denounced my ex-husband after years of abuse, he got a minimal sentence and continued his life, with his usual friends, his work… However, they left me alone and I had to go in another city to be able to start from scratch. And my case is not isolated. Here we have a person convicted of sexual assault who wins an election and becomes president of the United States for the second time and appoints a person accused of sexual assault to be secretary of defense of the most powerful country in the world.
And along with that, we continue to see how many women who take the step and report are canceled. How even the behavior of a woman who is raped by a pack of madmen is questioned not only in society but also in a court of law. We have just seen how Elisa Mouliaá was questioned for her testimony or her way of acting towards her attacker. So no, it’s not true that with a complaint you destroy a man’s life. After the report, we have to prove a thousand things and despite this, there are those who continue not to believe us and support our attackers. »
Marisa. Female survivor of gender violence.
