“Contact platforms are fertile ground for sexual violence.” This is the main conclusion of a study carried out on these applications, which reveal overwhelming data: almost 22% of women who have gone on a face-to-face date say they have been forced to have sex through explicit violence, that is to say, they have been violated 27.7% claim that their partners were violent during sex, including practices such as choking, slapping or insults.
But not only that, 57.9% of them felt pressured to have sexual relations in these encounters, and 40% felt the same in relation to practices of sexual domination (BDSM). In addition, almost 30% of women stated that their sexual partner continued after they expressed physical pain and a desire to stop.
This is indicated by the report Apps without sexual violence, made by the Federation of Young Women and financed by the Ministry of Equality. A pioneering study on the subject, quantitative and qualitative, which includes a survey of almost a thousand users on the Tinder contact network and the creation of two profiles in this same application (one male and one female) by check gender stereotypes and the objectification of women.
The authors made it clear that they are not singling out Tinder (they used this platform because it is the most popular) nor are they holding Tinder responsible for what happens during face-to-face meetings. The work has focused on the stereotypes of the online world which, they explain, are much more marked than in real life, possibly because of the empowerment that anonymity gives. We must add the fact that the hardest pornography, that which exposes violent sex, prevails in the male ideology. Male domination and female submission are present in a large part of the conversations that take place: “It is the eroticization of pain and the dehumanization of women”, point out the authors of the report (Mónica Sanz, Irene Otero and Ana Sofía curly). After learning the results of the study, Tinder has issued a statement in which it expresses that “they take the security of members very seriously” and add that “they have launched more than 15 security features in the last three years”.
Some data: in the first interaction, 65.4% of the women stated that they had received questions such as “are you submissive?”, and 54.6% of the respondents stated that they had been asked about their interest in violent sex 61% of the women who expressed their rejection of this type of sex had received qualifiers such as “blessed”.
The feminine ideal that is culturally promoted is also promoted when it comes to being eligible for a sex-affective relationship of any kind, whether sexual or romantic, on these platforms.
So, most women present themselves in their profiles as respondents answered: “fun and carefree” (79.1%), “laughter, affectionate” (77.2%), “feminine” (69, 4%), “sexually empowered” (56.1%). This new femininity coexists with other features such as “traditional” (47.8%) and “delicate/princess” (44.4%).
Around half of the respondents state that they want men who fit the masculine ideal under adjectives such as: “charismatic” (69.1%), “brave” (59.3%), “masculine” (53.1% ), “protective” (51.3%) and “strong” (50.2%). The qualification “intelligent” (80.6%) stands out above all those proposed in female requests.
Men’s profiles ask for women who are “bold”, “without prejudice”, “liberated”, “morbid” or “confident”, qualifiers linked almost exclusively to sexuality, the study points out.
In view of this scenario, the Federation of Young Women calls for urgent measures to protect the users of these platforms and turn these virtual environments into safer spaces.
