In Italy, users of social networks post videos on which they touch themselves in protest against the verdict of the court that acquitted the cleaner in the case of harassment of a school student, Euronews has reported.
How long does an action have to last for it to be considered an act of sexualized violence? The Italian court, apparently, clearly counted: more than 10 seconds. Anything less is not a crime.
The other day, the judges acquitted a 66-year-old cleaner who was accused of harassing a 17-year-old school student because "it lasted less than 10 seconds," which means "it was not a sign of sexual desire." The incident occurred in one of the secondary schools in Rome in April 2022.
At recess, a student was climbing the stairs when a cleaner named Antonio Avola approached her, put his hand in the waistband of her trousers and in her underwear. In response to the teenager's outrage, he replied: "Come on, you know I'm just kidding."
This was also heard by other students who witnessed the incident. At the trial, Avola admitted that he touched the student without her consent, but said it was just a joke. The prosecutor demanded 3.5 years in prison for him. However, the court ruled in favor of Avola, ruling that the groping "lasted only 5-10 seconds" and that his hand did not "linger" in his underwear for too long. This shocking case has caused public outrage and a debate about sexism, which still flourishes in Italy.
TikTok and Instagram have posted videos with the hashtag "brief groping" (#palpata breve) and "10 seconds" (#10secondi) in protest against the court decision. One of the first to use them was the actor of the film "White Lotus" Paolo Camilli, who posted a video on the Internet in which he touches his chest, accompanying this action with a 10-second countdown. At the time of writing, Camilli's post has gained more than 300,000 views and more than 83,000 "likes".
#Tweet muto (ma non troppo) #10secondi pic.twitter.com/PkY9l6kaFa
— M@rio (@roar_2017_) July 12, 2023
This was followed by many other videos in which people touch their body (or the body of another person) while a stopwatch counts down the time, thereby showing how unnerving 10 seconds can be. In the comments, social media users express their indignation.
Instagram user durantilaura posted such a video (retweet above) and wrote:
"I am not a judge and I understand perfectly well that verdicts should be treated with respect. But I really don't understand the rationale. Why is the intention evaluated and not the gesture? Why is the duration being evaluated at all to determine whether it is violence or not? Isn't it more important whether the person who was subjected to this action agreed or did not agree? Did she feel insulted or not?"
In an interview with journalists of the Corriere della Sera edition, the teenager, who acted as a plaintiff in the case, said that what happened was not a joke, as her abuser said: "
I feel cheated. First by the school where it happened, and now by the court. (...) I'm starting to think I was wrong to trust these institutions."
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