An alleged gang rape in broad daylight has shone a harsh spotlight on the pervasiveness of rape culture in Argentina and prompted fresh calls for men to play a bigger role in the country’s battle against gender violence. The assault of a 20-year-old woman by six men allegedly happened on a holiday Monday afternoon in February, in a parked car in Palermo, one of Buenos Aires’ busiest neighborhoods.
Argentina is at the forefront of Latin America’s feminist and trans feminist movements: It legalized abortion in 2020 and has introduced a raft of government policies aimed at eradicating gender-based violence. But cis and trans femicide rates are still shockingly high, with about one woman killed every 30 hours. Like a notorious assault in Pamplona, Spain, by a group of men who called themselves “the wolfpack,” the Palermo case has sparked a national debate with an intense discussion of the way rape is habitually described as an isolated act rather than a reflection of broader society. “It’s not a beast, it’s not an animal, it’s not a pack with unstoppable instincts. None of the acts that horrify us are isolated. Everyone responds to the same cultural matrix,” said Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, Argentina’s minister of women, gender, and diversity. “We need men to be part of the [feminist] struggle,” she said.
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