Ending Violence Against Women and Girls can happen in our lifetime, if we add the “will” and “must” to the intention.
In my third documentary map Ser Mujer en Latinoamerica (2020) and in my research work with the Womanhood & International Relations Podcast, I have focused on reporting how the cycle of gender-based violence is present at structural levels, influencing the cultural and direct violence manifestations that are commonly shown on local and international news.
Violence is validated by the concept of Power Over. It is not only seen in Human Relations but States relations with themselves and “their” & “other” Populations. Power Over is deeply engrained in our personal and collective perceptions of Systems (ie. Patriarchal, Matriarchal, Androcentric, Violent, Non-Violent, etc) and conditions how we relate to “it”.
My third doc compiled close to 700 testimonials of gender-based violence and solutions for gendered peace in LatinAmerica and Caribbean regions. With the support of my associate producer María Del Consuelo Torija Luna, we featured a map of quantitative and qualitative analysis on 3 main trends in the region still very prominent for conversation today:
- Women’s level of self-knowledge and recognition of their lack or reclaimed power: Learned helplessness; violence perpetration, prevention and intervention efforts carried out by unnamed actors; ambiguous relationship with Power; and increasing awareness of intersectional factors were found among the top discursive patterns.
- The symbolic weight and systemic reproduction of violence: Similarities were found in survey participants’ perceptions of insecurity, suffering, self-esteem, injustice, machismo and misogyny reproduced by international agendas, news reports and media campaigns. According to participants, the media justifies aggressors actions and reports violence against women in a way that promotes a dual conundrum: revictimization of women while vilifying them.
- Superficial solutions to gender-based violence: Paternalistic views of the State and a strong focus on education with a gender perspective and the approval of more public policies are among the main discursive trends.
There is still a long way to understand how our relationship with Power is connected to Violence and how we can overcome this paradigm so we all can see the day where the Violence Against Women and Girls phenomenon doesn’t exist anymore.
In this year’s 16 days of activism campaign, it is important to acknowledge the continuous work of women rights and feminist organizations as well as male feminist advocates in the region that with little or none funding have led and called for community, policy, educational and tech prevention and intervention solutions.
If you want to learn more about the Ser Mujer en Latinoamerica documentary map, watch the full presentation in English or Spanish here or download the 63-page report with all the data analysis and conclusions.
If you are interested on understanding and addressing the root causes of our relationship with Power and Violence, in my podcast I have dedicated these past 5 years to research and interview on this topic at Individual, State and Systemic levels, you can listen the explorations on Spotify, iTunes and Anchor.FM https://open.spotify.com/show/5KKDjwh2LoyRvnsIilYHAy
Some recommended interviews on Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in my podcast include:
- Ep. 143 Roundtable: Countering Militarized Masculinities for Feminist Peace
- Ep. 146 Dr. Ada Alvarez Conde on Mirabal Sisters’ Legacy and the Global Call to End VAW
- Ep. 162 Helena Monzón Pérez on ‘Ley Monzón’ & Prosecuting Femicides in Mexico
- Ep. 167 Christina Dhanuja on Social Justice for Caste-Marginalized Women in India
- Ep. 171 Daniela Suárez Vargas on CRSV and ‘Total Peace’ Efforts in Colombia
Natalia A. Bonilla 