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We too? Feminism, Sexual abuse and Gender Power

http://www.radiosapienza.net/we-too-femminismo-abusi-sessuali-potere-genere/

On the emblematic date of March 8, at the Parthenon Hall of University of Rome Sapienza, students and faculty gathered for the seminar We too? Feminism, Sexual abuse and Gender Power by Cristina Lombardi-Diop, of Loyola University Chicago. Lombardi-Diop carried out an in-depth analysis of the new movements against sexual abuse and its implications for international feminism in its different forms.

Lombardi-Diop identified the intersectionality of violence as one of the central points of the problem. Sexual abuse, in fact, does not depend only on the gender of the victim, but also on concomitants factors such as economic, racial, and national elements, as well as the positions of power held by men who commit the abuse compared to the women who are considered their social subordinate. But the social position does not only affect the possibility of becoming victims, but also the legitimacy of one's own story and the social support one receives: it is not automatic to be believed. On the contrary, we often witness, above all on Italian social media, the blaming of the victim.

The seminar was followed by a lively debate and the testimony of young men and wmen in the audience who voiced their experience with violence and gender power in Italy.