There have always been urban legends, false myths or generalized lies, but they always remained in the realm of bar conversation or a joke between friends. In recent years, however, they have become a social problem. Social networks have been the main means of dissemination of a large number of hoaxes and fake news that constantly bombard all audiences, some especially vulnerable such as young people.
Furthermore, there is a favorite victim: feminism. While activism has driven important advances in the fight for equality, it has provoked a counterreaction that has focused on inventing lies and spreading them to dismantle those claims. And they have caught on: one in four young men believe that gender violence is an ideological invention. Many of them repeat the hoaxes that they have believed and that the data makes fall under their own weight.
“There are lots of false complaints”
It is one of the most widespread hoaxes and one that lasts the longest over time, despite the fact that official organizations clarify with data every year that it is not true. Political representatives and far-right groups repeat a false mantra that there are many false reports of gender violence and the reality is very different.
As stated, the Report of the State Attorney General’s Office for 2023, includes only two convictions for false reporting out of a total of 199,282 cases of gender violence, which represents a percentage of 0.001%. A tiny percentage of false complaints is not only the reality of the last year, but also the general trend and is also supported by the data. The average between the years 2009 and 2023 is 0.0084% and even if the cases that are pending and that could end with a condemnatory ruling are added, the total percentage would barely reach 0.00945%. The Report of the Prosecutor’s Office of La Rioja does not detail these data but, in general terms, it states that “false accusations and complaints and false testimonies are very sporadic.”
State Attorney General’s Office
“Violence has no gender”
“The data shows that, unfortunately, it does. Violence against women is not a sum of isolated cases but a structural phenomenon. For example, while women are victims of 85.7% of sexual crimes, 98.2% of people convicted of committing one of these crimes are men. (Women’s Institute, 2023; INE, 2023). If we compare gender violence with other types of violence, such as domestic or family violence, we also see big differences: there are 16 times more men reported for gender violence than women reported for domestic or family violence. Furthermore, complaints against men for this type of violence are double the complaints against women and they are 61% of the victims (INE, 2023).
For this reason, we speak interchangeably of gender violence or violence against women. With both terms we refer to the manifestation of the historical imbalance between women and men, which has led to their discrimination and represents a violation of human rights.”
Celia Fenollar, gender expert journalist
“They are subsidized, they are feminist beach bars”
“When they tell us this for the first time, we all respond that someone is keeping our subsidy because it is not reaching us. Feminist associations, like all citizen associations, must meet a series of requirements to be able to receive subsidies and among them is, of course, justifying how we are going to spend them. Therefore, when we apply for any public call, we have to propose a whole series of activities and even then the subsidy can be rejected or significantly reduced.
For example, at Kirké we have not received any public money, except for research aid to carry out a project. Its amount does not reach an average salary of two months and requires the work of an entire year. However, the fight against gender violence needs resources to become strong and effective and for this it is important to have the support of public administrations.”
Kirké Association: Feminists in Action
“Abusers and aggressors are always immigrants”
“The ideology of a patriarchal structure, machismo and misogyny are global, they have no borders and the victims are women and girls from all over the world. So arguing that a man is violent because of his country of origin makes no sense. This unfounded idea seeks to divert attention towards migrants, when the factors that do influence a man to be abusive have to do with job insecurity, the education received at home, addictions and the patriarchal system that generates inequalities between men and women to form personal relationships based on domination and superiority.
Contrary to what this hoax seeks to imply, we know that 79.7% of the inmates who were serving sentences in 2022, in penitentiary centers with crimes due to gender violence, were Spanish and 20.3% The rest had foreign nationality. A fact that we sensed in Rioja Acoge when carrying out the “New Masculinities” workshops in the Logroño prison, where the majority of the participants are of Spanish nationality. And when relating the country of birth of victims and aggressors – according to the annual report of the State Observatory of Violence against Women 2022 (last published) -, it is observed that two out of every three cases correspond to both victims and aggressors of Spanish origin and nationality. and it increases to 67% in the case of Spanish aggressors.”
Rioja Association Welcomes
“Just one complaint will destroy your life”
“I’m tired of hearing that women have it very easy if we want to destroy a man’s life. They say that we ruined their lives with just one complaint but that is radically false. I denounced my ex-husband after years of abuse, he had a minimum sentence and continued with his life, with his usual friends, his job… However, they left me alone and I had to go to another city to be able to start from scratch. And mine is not an isolated case. There we have a person convicted of sexual violence winning an election and becoming president of the United States for the second time and appointing a person accused of sexual assault as Secretary of Defense of the most powerful country in the world.
And along with that, we continue to see how many women who take the step and report are canceled. How even the behavior of a woman victim of rape by a pack of madmen is questioned not only in society but also in a courtroom. We have just seen how Elisa Mouliaá has been questioned for her testimony or her way of acting towards her aggressor. So no, it is not true that with a complaint we destroy a man’s life. After reporting we have to prove a thousand things and even so, there are those who continue not to believe us and support our aggressors.”
Marisa. Woman survivor of gender violence.
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