Violence against women is nowadays a common phenomenon which has very ancient roots in cultural attitudes and that, in various ages, dominated the way of understanding the relationship between man and woman. Women have always been considered inferior to men and destined to silent obedience.
The concept of classical Greek antiquity, where the woman is considered inferior to man by Platone, while for Aristotle the woman is “of weaker nature” since the “female body is incomplete”, authorizes submission.
Christianity resumes and confirms this submission; for St. Paul “women leaders are the man, a woman can’t teach, can’t say what she thinks but she must remain silent; from this conception the Catholic prohibited women to do priestly duties.
The idea that women don’t have sexual needs, remains during the Middle age, the Renaissance and the following centuries: Emile Rosseau wrote that while “the man is active and strong, the woman is passive and weak”, hence derive that the sex relationship between the sexes has a character of violence believing that female sexuality is satisfied from child birth.
The recognition of a different value of women was born in Europe in the last century, with the ability of women to spread their ideas thanks to the suffragettes movement.
By the end of the 1960s, contraceptive led to greater sexual freedom for women. On a cultural level, violence is identified as a legal and illegal act depending female circumstances or civil status.
In the Bible, rape is a crime against property (man’s property), punishment for rape is death, not only for the kidnapper but also for the victim, if married.
There is an idea that women are responsable for rape, because during sexual violence they actually want a sexual intercourse and with their behaviour they excite men.
These ideas perpetuate aspects of female representation that aren’t no longer acceptable today.
Law 66 of 1996 on Sexual Violence against women basically modifies the way of representing rape, this law is a consequence of changes involving the woman’s image.
In 1976 Russel interviewed 900 women in the United States of America and found out that one on four had been raped.
Giada Ubiali, 5 A Coreutico
