A few months ago, Four Real Madrid youth players, between 20 and 21 years old, were charged with recording and disseminating a sexual video with minors. The chats were broadcast by the digital newspaper The Confidentialwhich stripped the content of the conversations: “what a bitch”; “If the worst thing is that he was 16”; “they will be whores.” In that “they will be whores” hatred and the conception of women as instruments, as mere objects, reduced to an always available body, are condensed.
The story brings together all the elements of the Me Too: the impunity of the aggressors, the “vices” of the victim, the culture of abuse and rape, the perpetuation of power and, of course, the alleged consent. Within the framework of the Law there are no “alleged” aggressors, nor are there, therefore, “alleged” victims. Only innocence is presumed.
In the area of sexual freedom, whether or not there is a crime depends on consent. But women’s current fight is not for the defense of consensual sex, but for real equality that overcomes the culture of consent. Focusing the debate only on “permission” is making it about a projection of the male point of view. What would really strengthen the definition of “rape” or “sexual violence” is not to include consent but add the explicit recognition of the gender, class, and race inequalities that make them possible. Sexual abuse and rape occur in a context of structural inequality where those who have power assume the privilege of sexual access to other bodies. Thus, not all sexist behavior is violent, not even all violent sex is sexual violence.
So far so good. But It is worth asking whether the cases of sexual violence surrounding football players are excessive. One would like to believe that no more than in other areas of power. But it is not like that. When factors such as poor training, machismo, fame, money, social relevance come together, this can pose a potential risk of engaging in violent sexual behavior. You have power and an acquired habit in which all things become easier for you. I have what I want and when I want. And that is sometimes transferred to human relationships. All of this absorbed in a football world so normalized with wide-spectrum violence: gender, race, homophobic. A football that fits well with the hyperhormonal profile of a white supremacist, and, of course, a heterosexual.
What is the biggest sexual harassment problem related to football? Impunity and the lack of effective reporting and protection mechanisms. Victims of footballers often do not feel safe to report due to fear of retaliation and lack of support.
We fight against sexual violence by recognizing and reinforcing our ability to decide, to illuminate practices and to point out limits. There is value in the denunciation that is imposed on the force and violence of the other; and there is a will to continue moving forward defending a sexual morality that requires agreements, not a puritanical sexual morality that tells us what practices, with whom, when, where and for what. It is necessary to shrink this hell that inhabits us. We forget that we have all passed through a woman’s body at birth.
