On November 25, 2019, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Chilean collective LasTesis performed in Santiago, "A rapist on your way". Quickly taken up all over the world and adapted to each local context, the song, which denounces sexual violence, pointed directly to the State, the justice system and the police.
The four Chilean women behind the performance explained that they were inspired by texts by Argentinian feminist anthropologist Rita Laura Segato, author of numerous works such as Las Estructuras elementales de la violencia ("Elementary Structures of Violence", Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2013, untranslated) or La Guerra contra las mujeres (“The War against Women”, Traficantes de Sueños, 2016, untranslated).
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How did you feel when you saw the performance of LasTesis for the first time?
It was Chilean friends who told me about it saying, " Your ideas and your thoughts are represented! I didn't want to believe it. By watching a video, I recognized my ideas about power, violence, the state … Everything was there. I was very moved. My work analyzing violence against women is academic, I have devoted more than twenty-five years of research to it. Transcending the theoretical field and seeing your subject of study become popular is the best that can happen.
What do you think of the choreography associated with the LasTesis song?
The choreography is perfect. When the participants (intone "the rapist, it's you" and) point the finger in front of them, they issue an accusation. This is the first time this finger has pointed in this direction. Until then, it had always been aimed at women, under the eye of the male audience. Suddenly, all over the world, a multitude of women are changing that. It is a very strong gesture, by which they enact the responsibility of the State, of the police …
In your book The War against Women, you explain that many rapes and assaults are acts of domination. Does the sexual violence committed by the police during the repression of social protest in Chile respond to this logic?
Absolutely. The situation is very serious in Chile. The way in which the Chilean police sexually assaulted women prisoners, but also young men … Sexuality can be a very powerful means of destroying the other, physically but also morally. But victory, if it is not as moral, is not a victory. (By behaving like this), the Chilean police intend to assume the role of moral judge. In a context as distressing as that of violence in Chile, the truth has been revealed: the "judges", that is to say the state and the police, are rapists. Sexual assault in our post-colonial civilization is an appropriation and destruction of the other, another form of contemporary repression. We even see it in wars, which are also fought through the body of women, for example the wars between gangs in Central America.
