Post a Comment. The event has been marred by numerous reports of sexual harassment, abuse and rape in recent years, including the gang rape of a 19 year old girl by a group of five men in In this article for feminicidio. Amelia, herself a survivor of sex trafficking, invites us to imagine the unimaginable as she describes the hellish conditions in the brothels of San Fermin.
This is how it works; it happens to women because they are women, just as it does in Amsterdam, Cali and Bangkok, if not every city in the world. In prostitution the women do not have a choice. They are forced to accept the rules of the game as dictated by the pimps — often disguised as legitimate businessmen working in the leisure industry in Spain - and the male buyers.
The alliance between pimp and punter is one of the strongest and most loyal in the patriarchy and the two roles have a common purpose: to uphold male dominance and masculinity. This explains their need to create spaces where men can go to objectify, subordinate, humiliate, use and torture women, all under the protection of the pimp state. The existence of brothels is the clearest sign that the patriarchy is unwilling to allow women equality. While brothels exist, there will always be a space reserved where masculinity can dominate.
A place where male citizens can exploit and then dispose of women, facilitated by the state, the law, the judges, the police, the political parties, the religions and an indifferent society. During the day they are locked in and they sleep in the same small, asphyxiating rooms where dozens of men will pass later that night. Meanwhile, outside the brothel walls, the bulls are also being imprisoned, tortured and killed by groups of men in an age-old ritual. Packs of men who kill for the sake of it, because they are given the licence to use and enjoy violence by the patriarchy.
Namely, a strategy of habitual cruelty for the purpose of numbing us to its effects. Now, imagine that this happens because society permits it and that the state finances and defends it in the name of tradition.
