Content warning: sexualised violence
What more do you want to hear?
A friend was observed bathing in a lake by a man masturbating. A friend woke up at night because she felt a strange hand in her pants after a flat party. A friend had a hand in her pants although she said "No." several times. A friend was shouted at on the bus and called a "slut" because her nipples were seen under her shirt. A friend wrote "me too" on a wall. A friend was forced by her brother to touch his penis as a child. A friend has experienced stealthing several times.
Sexualised violence is a structural problem, these are not single cases.
We don't want to have to print people's testimonies of a traumatic experience every time we talk about (sexualised) violence in order to validate how important it is to talk about the issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the proportion of women globally affected by sexualised violence and other forms of physical violence at about one third. People who are affected by various forms of discrimination experience (sexualised) violence even more frequently.
In a study by LesMigraS, around 65% of all trans*¹ people surveyed said they had already experienced sexualised violence. A US study by the Human Rights Campaign on sexualised violence found that bisexual² people experience sexualised violence about twice as often as heterosexual³ people. People with disabilities are also more likely to experience violence than people without disabilities. About 70 to 90 percent of women with disabilities experience physical violence in their adult lives, including sexualised violence. Another group affected are children. The number of unreported cases is very high, but the WHO estimates that in Germany alone about one million children and adolescents are affected by sexualised violence by adults.
The consequences
It is important to note that the perpetrator's use of violence occurs on a spectrum of unconscious and conscious boundary transgressions. For example, someone who pulls off their condom during penetrative sex against or without the other person's will (called stealthing⁴) may do so naively because the person is simply unaware that they are violating another person's decision-making power over their body. Or they may do it in full awareness that they are overstepping a person's boundaries. However, the persons affected by stealthing experience the situation as one in which another person has made a decision for and about their body without their consent. Someone has actively overridden their will to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. They will have to deal with the consequences, no matter what the perpetrator's (un)intention behind it. Actions can therefore also unintentionally cause harm to other people.
Such experiences of violence have not only physical but also psychological consequences. These include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic attacks.
The feeling that another person disregards and transgresses one's own personal boundaries is disempowering. It doesn't matter whether this happens intentionally or unintentionally. Being deprived of autonomy over one's own body is cruel. And the person will certainly have to struggle with the consequences for a long time. Alone, but also in their interpersonal relationships.
As you can see, a large proportion of all people have already had experiences of sexualised violence and many of them experience psychological consequences.
That is why it is so important to show a lot of sensitivity in dealing with sexualised violence.
Sources
https://medicamondiale.org/gewalt-gegen-frauen/ursachen-und-folgen
https://www.hrc.org/resources/sexual-assault-and-the-lgbt-community
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
ℹ️ Explanation of terms:
¹ Trans*, transgender, transsexual, transident, transsexual: people whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth, usually based on the interpretation of their genitals. We use trans* as an umbrella term for all of the above.
² Bisexuality: a sexual or amorous orientation that relates to people of at least two genders. Some bisexuals are interested in men and women, some in people of all genders.
³ Heterosexuality: sexual or romantic orientation directed toward persons of the opposite sex within the framework of bisexuality: Men/boys who are sexually/romantically attracted (only) to women/girls. Women/girls who are sexually/romantically attracted (only) to men/boys. Heterosexuality is historically an opposite term to homosexuality.
⁴ Stealthing : stealthing is a form of abuse in which one sexual partner secretly removes or damages the condom without the consent of the other partner and then engages in sexual intercourse.