2024-07-08 08:51:39
BOLZANO. The rape of a young man last week at the Parco delle Religioni left the entire city stunned. Because it brought to light a taboo of male violence: that perpetrated against other men. And yet some cases are also recorded in Alto Adige.
The male counseling services confirm it, the news reports say so. “This is also an aspect of patriarchal culture,” the associations underline, “Virility is considered sacred. When it happens that women are the ones to carry out violence, they are actually replicating a male model.”
A sprawling theme that does not even spare “safe” areas, such as politics, where women emerge less because they struggle to withstand the muscular male approach, as recalled Nadia MazzardisThe Equal Opportunities Commission is developing a dedicated course.
But why, then, this frost and silence on the violence of the Park of Religions?
“Let men ask themselves”
An initial response comes from the Provincial Equal Opportunities Commission. “In Wednesday’s meeting, the president Ulrike Oberhammer has raised the issue of this violence that no one has worried about,” reports vice president Nadia Mazzardis, “The problem is the lack in society of a male collective that questions violence and takes a stand. Patriarchy costs: and it also costs because men do not address these problems and do not question themselves”
These are not issues that should be left to feminist women alone, or to Lgbtqia+ associations. “No one is immune to violence,” emphasizes activist Andreas Unterkircher, “But there is a taboo on the fact that men can be victims, a taboo that must be broken. I think many do not report out of shame, because it is not very manly to be a victim.”
In a world that still asks men to “be men,” passivity is scary and being sexualized as women is still interpreted as a degradation. It is misogyny once again. “A context of power,” she insists.
In the case of sexual violence victims who are gay or transgender, a reasoning similar to “What were you wearing?” can come into play. Former president of Centaurus, now president of Alto Adige Pride Sudtirol, Unterkircher explains that “victim-blaming mechanisms are typical of those who want to justify violence.”
The event is catastrophicUnterkircher continues. “The victim becomes a victim twice, because society also stigmatizes, claims that she was asking for it, and often even three times, if the process does not respect her. Not to mention that due to internalized homophobia, LGBT people can blame themselves. ‘If I had not walked down that street, if I had not found a partner in that place, I would not have been beaten, robbed, I would not have been a victim of violence’ they say to themselves”
The men’s counseling center
The Caritas Men’s Counseling Service can also be contacted by victims of violence of various kinds. “We have had some cases of rape on men, very few to tell the truth”, says the person in charge Guido Osthoff.
The sense of shame? “It should not be underestimated, the cases of violence against men are few and even fewer that emerge. Therefore if a man who has suffered it feels even more isolated. He comes to ask himself why ‘they chose him’ as the victim. The young man in the Bolzano episode did well to report it.
Osthoff launches an appeal to get help: “We are here, whatever type of violence you have suffered, even psychological. You can turn to us. We have a psychologist psychotherapist, a man, who supports anyone who needs it, the number is 0471 324 659.
The condemnation of the Area Manager for Women and Equal Opportunities of the association “La Strada” was also very clear, Marina Bruccolieri“A rape is still a rape, the act and its effects are comparable, no matter who is hit. A violation with the consent of the person is an expression of extreme violence in a situation of inequality of power and oppression”.
The data on reported violence are negligible compared to those9 regarding women, “It’s true”, Bruccolieri acknowledges, “This does not disqualify, it does not diminish the drama”.
2024-07-08 08:51:39