Seventy men raped a woman drugged by her husband up to ninety times in ten years, but it was the women, far more than the men, who cried foul. Few men expressed their revulsion, and many were quick to apologize: not all menusnot all men. Not all men, but many men. Not all men, but almost always men. In Spain alone, there is a rape every two hours, that is, almost 18,000 a year, not counting those that are not reported. All women have suffered episodes of harassment, abuse, violence, comments, touching, fear. Not all men, but it is men who almost always attack and kill women. It is men who rape them at home, in the family, in the street, at church, at school. Not all men, but all men.
The seventy rapists of this woman are not monsters or lunatics, they are fathers, grandfathers, ordinary men, men between the ages of 26 and 74, family men, men like us. It could be our father, our grandfather, our brother, our friend, our neighbor. It could be us. No, I couldn’t do that. I don’t hope, I don’t pray. The men who rape in wars would say the same thing, the rapists of the Pack would say the same thing, the defendants in this case would say the same thing. We believed that she knew, that she consented, that she was aware. But they never asked her. Two of them abstained because they realized she was missing. But they never reported it. Fear of being implicated, not fear of letting dozens of men rape her.
