Today, March 8th, all eyes are turned to women. The International Women’s Day, conceived in the context of feminine fights for rights, also always comes characterized by attempts to empty its meaning, with celebrations and reinforcement to stereotypes. As women researchers of gender issues and technology, we add ourselves to the group that sees this day as a space for denunciation against the persistent gender inequalities — and the domestic violence, the harassment, the inequalities in work and politics. In the case of our work agenda, the violence practiced on the Internet.

The NGO Safernet reports that, in 2015, the main violation of rights on the Internet forwarded to them was sexting, or revenge porn (unconsented exposure of intimate images): a little over 300 complaints. A recent study revealed that one in ten women with less than 30 years in the US has suffered threats in this sense. We are dealing with a gender violence, as it overwhelmingly affects women and girls (our research on the topic shows that, in more than 90% of the cases taken to justice, the victims are women). This happens because at its core there are two assumptions: that the exercise of sexuality by women is still seen as something shameful, and that men can “avenge” themselves when their expectations — of different orders — are frustrated, within a relationship or not.

Our research works in the field have been revealing that there are important challenges for the enforcement of the existing legislation in Brazil: the Maria da Penha Law, the Child and Adolescent Statute and the articles of the Criminal Code related to crimes against the honor. Before this diagnosis, different stakeholders aimed to influence the Legislative Branch to approve a law that provisioned the criminalization of this conduct. Among the arguments, the need to face the problem as something serious that deserves to be rigorously punished.

Weeks ago, after several comings and goings in the Chamber of Deputies, the 5555/2013 draft bill was approved, which provisions the creation of a specific criminal type in the scope of crimes against the honor and inclusion of the conduct on the Maria da Penha Law. The draft bill, that still needs to be voted in the Senate, should be internally criticized, as we recently argued in an opinion piece for the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, mainly in what refers to the maintenance of the conduct in the list of crimes against the honor (and not of crimes against sexual freedom), for its symbolic and procedural implications, as well as for the concerning alteration in the Maria da Penha Law, a legislation that, in our standpoint, already encompasses the problem and should be enforced.

But this is a good day to raise the point that, if our researches show that the legislation has flaws, they also show that criminal law is not the tool that will solve the problem. The solution goes through cultural, social and economical changes. At the end, it goes through no longer being filmed and exposed on the Internet without consent; for not having to resort to a police station and tell a story of humiliation to a police chief and the for prosecutors and judges, many times, and, we know, before a suspicious and mainly male gaze; for not being considered property or objects. Putting away men or making boys go through socio-educational measures for spreading nudes is the aggravation of other troubling issues.

Imagine a world in which WhatsApp groups that share amateur pornography of known and unknown women would simply be emptied and lose meaning of existing; in which shame was the feeling of aggressors, and not of the victims; or even, a day in which boys and men would see the implications of the problem, and reprehend one another when seeing this disrespect.

Until this day, we continue to give visibility to the problem, pondering the solutions presented in the public sphere, and we hope to not do this work alone.

Natália Neris and Mariana Giorgetti Valente
Gender, Race and Other Social Markers Researchers

Translation: Ana Luiza Araujo