Free Rape Day

Please be aware that the translation of contents, although automatic, has a cost to Feminist Post but is provided to you without any charge. Please consider making a contribution via the "Support us" page if you intend to use our translation service intensively.
The contents of this site are translated using automatic translation systems without the intervention of professional translators.
Translations are provided for the sole purpose of facilitating reading by international visitors.
Share this article

Technically they are called rumour, uncontrolled rumours spreading like wildfire. The question is not so much: where did the rumour originate, but rather: why did it find so much credence? The rumour which we discuss here (the 24 April National Rape DayFree Rape Day), is a hybrid of rumor and urban legendbecause it brings together in a narrative, the institution of the free turnips, a kind of violent carnival, all the various misogynistic moods circulating at this moment in history really hard on women. The fact that many young girls believed this and locked themselves in the house is a precise and alarming signal.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Mum, do you know that today is rape day?". Many of us have been asked this question by their teenage daughters, frequent users of the social network TikTok where they communicate to the sound of videos and dancing. The (fake) news has been swirling around: basically 24 April would be National Rape Day, a day when harassment or rape became legal.

How it came about fake news is doubtfulSome speak of a video in which six men encourage other men to rape, even giving instructions on the best ways to do it, others say that the hoax was born in Turkey after the protests about leaving the Istanbul Convention. A men's counter-movement reportedly launched the idea of establishing a national sexual assault day, evidently a dream in the drawer of some men. 

Whatever the origin the hoax went viral, especially in Great Britain and the United States. Millions and millions of people have spread videos of indignation, or warned girls not to cross the doorstep with the hashtag #april24. In Italy, too, the alarm has spread: 'What are you doing on 24 April, going out alone?"asked young girls and boys on TikTok. And many, frightened, did not come out.

The news, in short, although not true, was taken seriously by many and very young people. This prompts us to reflect on a social network, known more than anything else for ballets and recipes and much frequented by the very young, which can become the vehicle of a violent and misogynistic message to general indifference.

Elena Bandiera


Much of the news published by Feminist Post you will not read elsewhere. That is why it is important to support us, even with a small contribution: Feminist Post is produced solely by the voluntary work of many people and has no funding.
If you think our work can be useful for your life, we will be grateful for even the smallest contribution.

You can give us your contribution by clicking here: Patreon - Feminist Post
You might also be interested in
12 November 2023
International news
Male violence
Israel 7 October: Appeal for recognition as mass feminicide
The women victims of the Hamas attack were not killed like all other civilians: they were exposed naked, raped, brutalised, humiliated, decapitated, their bodies burnt and torn to pieces. "We wanted to dirty them," say the terrorists. The violence against these women meets the definition of mass feminicide: from France a petition to international NGOs
The women victims of the Hamas attack were not killed like all other civilians: they were exposed naked, raped, brutalised, humiliated, decapitated, their bodies burnt and torn to pieces. "We wanted to dirty them," say the terrorists. The violence against these women meets the definition of mass feminicide: from France a petition to international NGOs
Read now
30 October 2023
International news
Male violence
This History must end
War is not an invention of women. War reduces us to prey and makes us dumb things. Positioning ourselves -on this side or that side- does not give us peace. Peace is not the interval between one war and another. Peace is not helplessness but an active force that regulates relationships and settles conflicts. We demand that rebellious children recognise their mother's authority and shirk the obligation of acts of domination and overpowering
'War has always been the specific activity of the male and his model of virile behaviour'. Carla Lonzi, Manifesto of Women's Revolt, 1970 War is not our invention, nor is that desperate form of war that is terrorism. Positioning ourselves -on this side or that side- does not give us peace, it disorients and divides us, but we are not allowed any other movement than to seek refuge in an impossible extraneousness. We recognise ourselves with pain in the 'enemy'. [...]
Read now
11 October 2023
Italian news
Politics, Male violence
Only women? Can no longer be
In 10 days' time -on 21 October- the UDI Emilia Romagna could be deleted from the Third Sector register unless it agrees to register men as well. This is how the left attacks women's political spaces - starting with the historical association linked to the Resistance - in the name of the trans-feminist 'inclusiveness' promoted by the PD. A huge risk for all feminism. They cannot win
Women's spaces under attack. Not only the physical ones - changing rooms, sports, shelter homes, hospital wards, prisons - but also the symbolic and political ones. If you don't admit men, close down and disappear. Incredible and exemplary is what is happening to UDI, Unione Donne in Italia, an association that has been active for almost 80 years historically linked to the left. Many of the UDIs in Emilia-Romagna are at risk of imminent cancellation from RUNTS, the single national register of the Third Sector, simply for the fact [...]
Read now
22 September 2023
From you
Male violence
The real world in reverse
There is no straight world -tradition- versus a crooked world -trans-progressivism-. The two opposing worlds perpetuate patriarchy in different ways but with the same goal: to maintain domination over women. A millennial distortion: male usurpation of women's physical and metaphysical spaces
The political and social debate sees the supporters of two world models clashing, a metaphysical and philosophical clash rather than a strictly political one. A controversy that as women we observe with perplexity: two opposing and seemingly irreconcilable models, tradition versus modernity, ancient and sacred values versus ubiquitous fluidity, the family of yesteryear versus the queer family.... On one side and on the other, champions of the patriarchal world who speak the language of the ideologies of the 'short century'. All claim to be on the [...]
Read now
9 August 2023
International news
Gender identity, Male violence
Spain: inmate pregnant with trans cellmate
The man -intact male body and no hormone therapy- had asked and obtained to be moved to the women's prison in Alicante because he 'self-perceived' to be a woman (self-id). A cellmate's pregnancy was the result. And the new Ley Trans, in force since December 2022, will make such transfers easier and more frequent
In the Alicante Cumplimiento Penitentiary Centre, known as Fontcalent Prison, an inmate identifying himself as a woman impregnated a cellmate. According to the account confirmed by several prison sources, the inmate had been serving a sentence in the male module of the prison for several years, but during his stay he started to identify himself as a woman. On his papers he continues to appear as a man and has never undergone hormone treatment, let alone surgery. [...]
Read now
3 August 2023
Insights
Motherhood, Male violence
The 'right' to have a slave: Hagar and the womb for rent
For days, the supporters of the GPA have been jubilantly spreading the 'news': even God allows a woman to bear children for others, as the biblical account of Sarah -wife of Abraham unable to conceive- and her servant Hagar who lent her womb shows. So today, too, temporary slaves are being claimed: a real ethical and political short-circuit. And an autogoal. Also because the Genesis account should be read in its entirety
For days on social media, the supporters of the womb for rent, in particular many LGBT+ activists and their supporters, have been reviving the story of the slave girl Hagar and her son Ishmael (Genesis 16 and 21) to support the lawfulness and goodness of their cause. The meaning would be: even God allows a woman to bear a child for others. So: nothing wrong with our claim. In fact, we too are entitled to have female slaves. A logical, political and ethical short-circuit. They do not know [...]
Read now
1 2 3 … 13