mercoledì 26 ottobre 2011

2Lei: the new voice of women shouting from Second Life



There are 365 days in a year.
In those 365 days of the 2010, 561.944 children were born in Italy, they have brought new life to our country. In those 365 days, in Italy, 127 [1] women were killed and their death has brought new shame to our country.
A female murder every three days.
A hundred of those women were Italian, one was Pakistani, one was Cuban, two Philippines, two Brazilians, eight Romanians and three Albanians: all killed because women. Killed by husbands, ex, cohabiting, by men who did not accept the end of an emotional tie. Killed with knives, guns, many beatings, 25 were smothered. Twelve of those 127 women were suffering from physical or mental diseases, 16 of those killers suffered from mental illness. Three of those women were killed for work matter.
A woman every three days.
In our beautiful country, among the best in the world rankings on quality of life, 127 women were killed and nearly 30 each month suffer violence.
A woman a day.
Since the adoption of anti-stalking law (2009), in Italy, have been recorded about 600 monthly complaints for this offense and 100 arrests per month.

What is stalking?

"Persecutory actions" slang referred with the anglo-saxon term 'stalking' (literally means "to stalk"), in psychological terms are a complex relational phenomena, also referred as "nagging harasser syndrome", although structured in a plurality of details, is nevertheless possible to describe general features.
The main protagonists are: the "persecutor" or nagging harasser (actor), the victim, the report "forced" and checking which establishes itself between the two and ends up influencing the normal course of daily life in the second, resulting in a continuous state of anxiety and fear. Fear and concern are, therefore, essential elements and the "syndrome of molester keen" to configure it and give the subjective connotation that you own.
Persecutors behaviors are defined as "a collection of vexatious conduct, in the form of threat, harassment, acts detrimental to continued inducing in the person who undergoes a psychic and physical discomfort and a reasonable sense of fear."

Therefore, are not so much individual conduct to be considered as persecution, but rather it is repeated in time mode, against the wishes of the victim, which summarizes the main meaning of persecution. The stalking can present a variable duration, by a couple of months until a long-term or even years.” (from da www.carabinieri.it)

The violence against the Women can be perpetrated not only physically. The psychological tortures are the cause of silent dead men, traumas incurable, the deprivation of a normal life for many more women than how many statistics can some bring back.

“Hidden cases are very high and reaches approximately 96% of violence by a non-partner and 93% of those from partners. Even in the case of rape almost all is not denounced (91.6%). There is a considerable share of women who do not speak with anyone of the violences (33.9% for those incurred by the partner and 24% for those from non-partner)...”[2]

2Lei wants to break even this year the silence of women. That underreporting, that secret kept in terror, hiding behind an outstretched hand. From a silent virtual environment will be a cry of hundreds of voices. For 4 days events to raise awareness against violence against women will be held in Second Life.
The last day, November 25th, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, all participants in the initiative will gather to shout out to the real world its indignation. To merge the two worlds through the voices of artists, musicians, authors and organizers who have worked together since convinced that its capabilities and collective effort can be instrument of rebellion to violence. Creativity and sensitivity against the silence.
Virtual artwork, photographs, songs, installations, conferences, and much effort to create a bridge of solidarity with the women from the Metaverse will lead to a real world better. 2Lei is a scream: the scream broken women to which we would like to return the voice.


[1] Il costo di essere donna. Indagine sul femicidio in Italia. I dati del 2010: ricerca di Laura Adolfi, Sara Giusti, Agnese Breveglieri, Elisa Ottaviani, Cristina Karadole, Virginia Venneri, Cinzia Verucci, in collaborazione con Anna Pramstrahler, marzo 2011
[2] Indagine ISTAT 2007