The Transformation of 'Mee Too Movement' in Spain and Chile

“When men are oppressed, its a tragedy. When women are oppressed, its tradition” — Letty Cottin Pogrebin

The Feminism ideology takes part of the conscious ideologies, which are the most powerful ones “because they can politically mobilise people and ‘raise consciousness’”, and yet, it seems as if the world continues to take for granted, unconsciously, that women should accept untoward behaviour, occupy certain positions, and perform given roles, for instance, that of wives and mothers. In other words, the majority of the population has rarely questioned themselves about their rights and obligations, as it usually happens with conscious ideologies, such as Marxism. Throughout history people, especially men, never took in consideration the female’s position. Both genders used to be born and die accepting women’s position in the world for the simple fact that they never interrogate themselves about it. Gender roles and sexuality have been defined by patriarchy as “Men are men to the extent they are not women: masculine, independent, invulnerable, tough, strong, aggressive, powerful, commanding, in control, rational, and non-emotional. 'Real women' (that is, middle- or upper-middle-class white women) are dependent, vulnerable, pliant, weak, supportive, nurturing, intuitive, emotional, and empathic. 'Real women' and 'real men' are essentially different in patriarchal culture.”

Only 60 years ago, a minimum part of the married women used to go to work. Their aim duty was to take care of the house and children. As a consequence of a situation like this, women were trapped in a marriage that they could not escape from because it was based in a completely financial submission of the wife. Even schools helped in this patriarchal mission: household management, cooking lessons, lessons about how to iron shirts perfectly etc.

In a patriarchal society, women are also objectified as sexual trophies and men are allowed to express their desires openly. Unfortunately, reading this statement, the first thought someone might have is about the nowadays situation. “Trophy wife” is a term used by tv news and magazines to define a woman who is married with a rich/famous man. Independently from her career and money, she will be called, at least once, “trophy wife” just for being married with someone who possibly can have even less power than she has.

Fortunately, in the last few years, the situation has started to change. Women in most advanced countries have begun to speak up, fight, and protest for equality. They have addressed consciously the fact that men are not allowed to treat them as sexual objects and that society continues to represent women as repositories of male sexist attitudes, which had so far remained unquestioned. The #Me Too Movement is a prime example.

This essay is concerned with this under representation of women’s issues and how recent circumstances, that is, the #Me Too Movement are contributing to its change. In so doing, I will analyse the origins, development, and achievements of said movement and its conscious ideology in Spain and Latin America, especially Chile.

Representation of Me To Movement and Feminism Ideology in Spain and Chile 

Feminism arrived later in Spain compared to other European countries. At the beginning, it proceeded in the social area. When women started working, they did not have the right to control the money they worked for. They had to be managed by their husbands.

Today, one of the aim goals the movement has is to fight for the sexual violences. This is why, after the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s sentence in November 2017, the #Me too movement appeared. Lots of countries around the world participated to this online manifestation, taking advantage of the power of communication Internet has and Alyssa Milano’s tweet ('If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem') gives an illustration of it. Since then, hundreds of women around the world, stopped feeling ashamed for something they did not have any fault, and started admitting their sexual abuses, encouraging the others to do the same.

In Spain, Lawyer Estefanía Palomino‏ shared on her social media the Spanish equivalent of Alyssa Milano’s tweet. Here the hashtag #yo también has its origin.

Reading through the posts, it is easy to understand that women are afraid to expose themselves because of the people’s thoughts and also because they do not know how to proceed in order to “auto-protect themselves”. In fact, it is known that women are usually afraid to call the authorities because, even if men get arrested, this will not be something durable, and as soon as they are free, they will look for revenge. This is one of the hundreds of reasons why a victim of domestic abuses chooses not to call the police. In that situation, it is normal to think about the consequences of a decision like that, such as letting all the neighbourhood know about your private problems and gossiping around the all town or thinking that calling 911 might make the situation even worst because it can make the criminal even more aggressive and the time it takes to them to arrive, is more than enough for him to kill her. Due to a survey made in 2015, the National Domestic Violence Hotline found that “a quarter of women who had called police to report domestic violence or sexual assault would not call again in the future'. One survey participant said: “Between the police and the criminal I’m dead already.”

The generation involved in this feminism wave is, of course, the youngest one and, more in general, anyone who is “active on social media”. Anybody has access to these manifestations expressed by pictures, sentences, quotations, thoughts, drawings, videos etc.

In Latin America, in occasion of the last International Women’s Day, people started manifestations for equality, in Mexico, Argentina and Chile. In this last one, a new feminism wave arrived in 2018, thanks to some university students who where fighting for a no sexist education. This manifestations were inspired by the movement #Me Too because they were against academic abuses and against the dead and the sexual abuses on a little baby who was 20 months old.

The last president, Piñera, speaking about these problematics affirmed:” No es solamente la voluntad de los hombres de abusar, sino también la posición de las mujeres de ser abusadas”. Chile is a nation where you do not have to consider just the problem of the violence, but also the fact that women still think that being abused by their own men is something normal.

Oxfam organisation created an investigation called “Rompiendo Moldes” and opened in 8 different Latin-American countries. 5000 young women and men participated, between 15 and 25 years old, all of them taking part of the middle class and living in urban centres. 45% of teenagers agree with the fact that even if a woman says “no” to a sexual relationship, actually she means “yes”. That is why another movement started expanding in the entire area: #NoesNo, which aim goal is to make women realise that having a sexual intercourse without their own permission, is a crime.

In addition, 6 of 10 women affirm that if you want to be treated as e decent woman, you must not wear attractive clothes whereas 9 of 10 women think that no one should stay in between of a couple who is having an argument and that the insults they receive during the discussion, is something normal due to the anger.

Fortunately, a group of feminists, is trying to make some noise and you can recognise them from the hood they wear to stand out. They do that for privacy and because they want all women to recognise themselves behind those hoods.

A song sang during a manifestation the 25th November 2019 in Santiago de Chile, has some verses with a deep impact: “The patriarchy is a judge who judges us just for being born”, “It was not my fault, neither where I was or how I was dressed up” and it also gives all the fault to the government. Men are the ones who created the law, the judges are the ones who define the criminals innocents and the president is the one who is looking without changing anything in front of the 62 cases happened last year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can state that #Mee Too Movement has transformed in both cases an unconscious ideology that was seen as relatively mild into a conscious one. People around the world must understand that we are just one race, no matter our colour, religion, gender etc. and in particular, women must realise that we do not have to submit in front of a society build up by men using excuses such as “this is the tradition”. Feminism is an unconscious ideology, so let’s all interrogate ourselves about it.  

Reference Lits 

1. Caro, Soledad. 'Women Mobilize Against Gender-Based Violence in Spain.' Publication: Al Jazeera, December 2, 2019. URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/women-mobilise-gender-violence-spain-191202134740703.html

2. Morgan, John. 'In Spain, Women's Day Strikes Lead to Big Gains for Working Women.' Publication: National Public Radio (NPR), July 5, 2019. URL: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/07/05/734322000/in-spain-womens-day-strikes-lead-to-big-gains-for-working-women

3. Clifton, Merrit Kennedy. 'Protests In Spain As Five Men Cleared Of Rape Charges And Convicted Of Lesser Offense.' Publication: National Public Radio (NPR), April 26, 2018. URL: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/26/606044966/protests-in-spain-as-five-men-cleared-of-rape-charges-and-convicted-of-lesser-o

4. Alexander, Harriet. 'Protests in Chile as President Pinera Pardons Police Officers Found Guilty of Torture.' Publication: The Telegraph, December 29, 2017. URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/29/protests-chile-president-pinera-pardons-police-officers-found/

5. Green, Jason. 'Rising Violence Against Women Sparks Protests Across Chile.' Publication: Al Jazeera, November 28, 2019. URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/rising-violence-women-sparks-protests-chile-191128213727254.html

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6. Reuel, Sammy. 'Chile's Women To March In Protest Against President Piñera.' Publication: Reuters, March 8, 2020. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-international-womens-day-chile-idUSKBN20W0IH