Criminalização e permissividade: a dupla face do estupro nas sociedades patriarcais

Abstract

Everyday women suffer sexual violence around the world. In patriarchal societies, since rape has been criminalized, a paradox has become increasingly evident: as criminal law advances in the protection of female sexual dignity, with the hardening of punishment for perpetrators, a deep cultural permissiveness to the violation of female bodies counteracts comply with the legislation. This article investigates this antagonism by first analyzing the relationship between masculinity and violence. It then addresses, from a historical perspective, the prohibition of female pleasure, the promotion of guilt, and how these factors operate to perpetuate the practice of rape, evidencing, among other points, that western societies are not always structured on patriarchal bases, which allows the visualization of the possibility of transforming the current reality. Finally, it analyzes the evolution of state protection of women in a social context still strongly marked by sexism and oppression.