Something is happening with some men (a minority, it must be clarified), especially with the younger ones. It is not acceptable that every week the media covers gang rapes, many of which are carried out by teenagers, against women who have barely reached the age of voting (in many cases, not even that). This is indicated by experts in equality and sexology, who do not speak of a single factor, but of many, and who would explain that group rapes have increased by 54% since 2016 (data from the Ministry of the Interior from 2021). That year, three rapes every two days, a little more than 10 every 7.
Among the causes: access to hard and dehumanized pornography from the smartphone screen, as Alejandro Villena, psychologist and clinical sexologist who has just presented the book ¿POR qué NO? How to prevent and help in addiction to pornography. But also the expansion of the objectification of women thanks to social networks, or the reaction of men regarding advances in women’s rights, among others. But also another, less mentioned: the imitation effect, a fact that had already been detected in cases of the murder of women at the hands of partners or ex-partners.
Miguel Lorente, who was a delegate of the Government against Gender-Based Violence and collaborator of the Observatory against Gender-Based Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary, points precisely to imitation as an element to be taken into account in the increase of this type of sexual assault. Especially among the younger ones, who, “camouflaged in the group”, see in those acts an element to “show their masculinity and masculinity, without control and without the victim caring at all”, he explains.
The imitator effect would explain why, after the gang rape of a young woman in Pamplona in 2016, another group emerged shortly after called La nova manada, or why a women’s soccer coach asked the technical team of “make one like those in Arandina” (three players abused a 16-year-old girl). Of course, that it was not minor so as not to get “into the jaris and load it there all together”.
The key lies in the group, Lorente points out, in the feeling of impunity that this entails. Committing sexual assault together with others dilutes responsibility, encouraged by a sense of impunity. “The idea has spread among minors that nothing will happen to them, that at most they go to a juvenile center. In most cases, they don’t think about the consequences. They feel unpunished.”
Should the media be silent then? The equality expert is clear. No. Because hiding the reality prevents action. But to focus on the consequences that the acts have both on the victim and on those who commit them. In gender-based violence between couples or ex-partners (sexual assault is also gender-based violence), men are clear that aggression entails consequences.
An imitative effect that was already pointed out years ago by the psychologist Victoria Trabazo, who put it on the table with the case of La Manada de Pamplona. In his opinion, the “group” phenomenon always generates more imitation, and more so if you take into account the diffusion in the media, which he believes is necessary, but which can end up “creating characters that for certain individuals are models to imitate”, points out the psychologist.
To the imitation and uncontrolled access to hard pornography (sexologists point to the fact that the scenes of a woman with several men have increased), we must add the growing masculinity among young people, which is appreciated well to reports and studies on gender violence between partners and ex-partners.
According to the latest data from the INE, provided last week and referring to 2022, gender violence increases during courtship (between boyfriends or ex-boyfriends): it has increased by 29.5% compared to the previous year. “Aggressors under the age of 18 represent 3.1% of the total. And if we go to the group of people under 25 years of age, it is 18.2%”, says the forensic expert Miguel Lorente. The data are “bright for their meaning and for the fact that they are young people who have grown up under the framework created by the Comprehensive Law against Gender-Based Violence”, points out the specialist.
And behind all these figures and situations, what emerges is an increase in masculinity among young people, a reaction to feminism that makes them understand their masculinity over the idea of ​​manhood based on the ability to impose their ideas and will, and to punish those who do not assume them, according to the experts.
