PRESS RELEASE

A Man's Power Over Women's Bodies:

It took 32 videos in 45 days to stop the head doctor who was raping his colleagues, calling them by name over the loudspeaker in the department

D.i.Re – Donne in Rete contro la violenza expresses – first of all – its closeness to women who have had to suffer the power of those who thought they could use their bodies as they pleased.

We know that rape culture involves the normalization of sexual violence through various social mechanisms, including not believing the woman: after two complaints, even if one had been withdrawn, was it necessary to film 32 rapes to believe the women and stop the violence?

Perhaps it is also this climate that allows, even today, a powerful man to believe that women, their bodies, are mere objects of his personal pleasure, in an environment of complicity, which – rather than reporting the crimes – fueled the violent behavior of the head physician.

"We know well that this is not an isolated case" – declares Cristina Carelli, president of D.i.Re – Women on the Net against violence. "Through sexual violence, they want to reaffirm a power based on threats, blackmail, denigration, blaming and appropriation of women's bodies" – continues Carelli. “All this is still possible because it is rooted in rape culture that legitimises sexist and misogynistic language, sexual harassment mistaken for approaches, stereotyped roles, endorsed by a conservative wave that tends to legitimise male reactions to the growing freedom of women.” – concludes the president