Exhibitionists Common but Ignored
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, May 19 (IPS) - Many Cuban women say they have been victims of
male exhibitionism, a form of sexual aggression that is common in public
spaces on the island, according to a documentary produced by the state
Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industry (INCAIC) which has
attracted the attention of social scientists.
"The decision not to broadcast (on state television) the documentary
'Mírame mi amor' (roughly, Look at Me, Love) indicates how much fear
surrounds the topic," Julio César González Pagés, the coordinator of the
Ibero-American Masculinity Network (RIM), told IPS.
"No debate is taking place about how we are implicated in forms of
sexuality that are not sanctioned by traditional society," he said.
"This issue is about violence against women, and their right to public
spaces," said González Pagés, a professor at the University of Havana,
who does not see why indecent exposure ("flashing") should be accepted
as "a necessary evil."
González Pagés and other colleagues want the film to be aired on
national television, and in movie theatres, where acts of exhibitionism
frequently occur, in order to spark a public debate on the issue.
The film, produced in 2002 and directed by Cuban filmmaker Marilyn
Solaya, records the testimonies of women who have been victims of
different forms of sexual aggression, from exhibitionism to attempted
rape. It also collects the opinions of experts in psychology and law,
and of a representative of the Catholic Church.
According to Professor Danae Diéguez, a scholar of women's filmography
on the island, the documentary shows that women are victims "not only of
men as sexual aggressors, but also of a patriarchal, phallocentric society."
Solaya conducted 2,000 interviews to make her documentary. Of the women
interviewed, 97.7 percent had had at least one experience with a
"flasher", and 62 percent reported several encounters.
Exhibitionism, classified as paraphilia or aberrant sexual behaviour, is
the recurrent and unexpected "exposure of one's genitals to unsuspecting
strangers," according to a textbook published by the Higher Institute of
Medical Sciences in Havana.
"Almost invariably it is a male who exposes himself to a female, of any
age, not with the intent of raping her but with the fantasy of causing
sexual excitement," the article says.
Cuba's criminal code defines "sexual indecency" as harassment of another
person, including "making sexual demands, committing offences against
decency and the norms of good behaviour by obscene acts and
exhibitions," and the publication or distribution of materials "leading
to the perversion or degradation of standards of behaviour."
"The law can help create or support social values, but this must be done
before the crime is committed, that is to say, during the process of an
individual's behavioural development," legal expert Lorena Estévez told IPS.
"However, once a person deliberately chooses to break the rules of
conduct upheld in law, punishment by itself is not a dissuasive
element," she said.
According to Estévez, many cases of indecency and related crimes do not
even make it to court. The law on criminal prosecution provides for them
to be prosecuted summarily in municipal courts, with no obligation for a
prosecutor to be present, "which can leave the victim relatively
unprotected."
"The scant importance given to these cases by authorities at all levels
force one to resign oneself to battling the situation alone, and to
finding personal mechanisms to deal with it," 26-year-old Julieta Rivero
told IPS.
"People in Cuba are not accustomed to reporting sex crimes that do not
involve violence or penetration, because we are not aware of having been
violated, or that there are legal provisions for these cases," said
Alicia Silva, a drama student.
A study on sexual crimes reported in 2001 and 2002 at the Centre for
Forensic Medicine in the province of Guantánamo, 930 km east of the
Cuban capital, found that 95 percent of the victims were women,
according to a paper in the Revista del Hospital Psiquiátrico de La
Habana (Havana Psychiatric Hospital Journal).
Similar studies carried out in the eastern provinces of Camagüey and Las
Tunas between 1999 and 2002 reported that women comprised 85 to 93
percent of victims of "lascivious abuse" or rape.
A survey of 50 women tourism workers in the Havana municipality of Plaza
de la Revolución found that 96 percent had been sexually harassed,
understood as "any form of pressure to have unwanted sexual relations,"
according to a paper by psychology Professor Karelin López.
However, most of the women were not aware that they had been victims of
sexual harassment.
Women's views of Cuban men as aggressive, rebellious, flirtatious and
constantly seeking romantic conquests, somewhat coarse and violent, but
above all, 'machista', "lead them to accept a certain level of violence
in relationships between men and women," López said.
In Silva's view, exhibitionism is clearly an expression of gender
violence, "because it puts the woman in a vulnerable position, invades
her space and breaks the rules of social coexistence, as well as
coercing her sexual desire and manipulating it for the man's benefit."
(END/2008)
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