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Last Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was walking through the streets of downtown Mexico City. It is not unfamiliar territory for her, who ruled the capital for almost six years (2018 to 2023). We have seen her walking hundreds of times among people in various places in the country, in the countryside, in government activities and even in the midst of natural disasters. People often approach her, trying to reach her, take photographs or say hello. It’s normal, it doesn’t just happen to her, it happened to her political predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a man of the masses, “of the people”, as he liked to define himself. But it also happened with Enrique Peña Nieto, with Felipe Calderón and with almost all presidents, politicians or artists. But what happened this week in Mexico left many people shocked and outraged. A man approached the president, tried to kiss her neck, hug her from behind and touch her chest. Those around her didn’t know what to do, except Juan José Ramírez, one of her closest collaborators, who tried to push away the man who had gone too far. The president, perhaps nervous or uncomfortable, tried to walk away. He was seen with a half smile, it was clear that he didn’t know exactly what to do. You’ve probably experienced this many times already. Like many women every day in Mexico.
The scene projects what many women have experienced in our lives. At school, at work, returning home, or even with family, in the same house or among men we called “friends”. Many are “used” to these scenes, experiencing them firsthand or being spectators. Others, less so, have experienced it sometimes, and a few others have comforted acquaintances, and even strangers, who have had to face episodes of street sexual harassment – we now know that the criminal crime is sexual abuse – which seem almost spontaneous and which, more often than not, also go unpunished. According to Inegi data, through 2021, 49.7% of women reported having suffered sexual violence in Mexico and 70% some type of violence.
With all this, it seems that the question (and, above all, for some men) matters little who the women are in front of them, because we are all, apparently, equal in their eyes and we are worth the same, that is to say: not much. We are sexual objects, without power. Of course, one question that has come up over and over since it happened to the president is: If it happened to you, what can we expect? If everyone takes care of her and it happens to her, who takes care of us?
The Government’s reaction seemed slow, but at the same time it is inevitable to think: how long does it take for a woman to report harassment? It took me a couple of days, the girl we helped on the subway took a few minutes to decide. There are people who suffer systematic abuse and it takes years for them to express it and bring it to the authorities. The episode that Claudia Sheinbaum suffered should make us understand how this happens repeatedly towards women and, ultimately, we are the ones who live with the shame of having reported it, with the shame of having experienced it. Because in any case, as has also happened to the president, it seems that many people insist on criticizing them for putting themselves in situations that make them even more vulnerable.
To the questions that fall on the victims, for example whether it is the women who provoked the perpetrators of the abuse, with their miniskirts or the tight clothing they wore, is added, once again, the speculation that has now been unleashed on what happened to Sheinbaum. This, very seriously, some have considered a setup, which shows that the reality that women in this country experience is even more painful and worrying. The question of whether the presidential security team did not take enough care of her is very reminiscent of the argument of blaming the victim against her attacker.
I wondered, seeing the images that the media replicated of the moment in which the president suffers this harassment: how many male presidents would have been exposed to a similar situation? Would anyone, at any time, dare touch a president’s crotch on the street? Would anyone dare to violate your personal space? Almost always, in so-called sex scandals, her name is remembered socially, even if she is completely alien to public opinion.
This is the country of feminicides, unreported sexual abuse and, above all, the country of impunity. The president’s denunciation and the plan to combat abuse are important steps, but they go further. It means not taking our fingers off since we formed our idea of society, since our first years of basic education. Because, in elementary school, we heard countless times that more than one girl “showed her pants,” and then, in middle school, some had hiked up their skirts. In high school, some were harassed by a teacher and thus, a long list of deplorable examples. Not everything is a punitive path, of standardization of laws, we should also work to rebuild an awareness of empathy and listening, and to promote the culture against harassment on all sides.
The goal is that this does not happen to any of us and that all of society repudiates it, including young and old. Don’t let anyone harass you in a truck, don’t let anyone laugh if a man touches you on the street, and don’t let anyone call you a coward for reporting harassment. Don’t suggest ruining the abuser’s life. Because he already ruined it for you.
