Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/260953
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014 5 MATTHEW VELLA FACEBOOK, news websites and other aggregation sites brought a short French film called 'Majorité Opprimée', which translates to 'Op- pressed Majority' to over 6.5 million viewers over the past week, with the world turned upside down as a man has to take in the view of sweaty bare-chested women jogging or pis- sing in the street, wolf-whistled and humiliated by foul-mouthed women, and finally physically and sexually assaulted. Compassion, from either the police or his breadwinning wife, is close to zero: the man, in his light shirt and shorts, "has asked for it". Lara Dimitrijevic, the founder of Women's Right Foundation, says the film's depiction at what women put up with in their daily lives angered her. "It made me feel uncomfortable when I watched the subtle messages and being faced with the reality that some women put up with." Its role reversal will shock view- ers who see men being forced to wear God-fearing balaclavas by their wives – the suggestion being they are 'Muslim husbands' – who can- not grow beards and facial hair, and must display modesty and not an- swer back. "It's significant because it turns the issue upside down and exposes cer- tain behaviours that are sometimes taken for granted, considered nor- mal or often never considered from the perspective of a victim," Mark Pellicano, of Men Against Violence, told MaltaToday of Oppressed Ma- jority and the way this film "chal- lenges manhood and the qualities of masculinity". "It has a shock value, but that is what is needed sometimes to get the conversation going and raise aware- ness. It emphasises the incongruence found in our society, the offences women face are perceived to be the norm while they would otherwise sound outrageous if men had to face them." The sexist encounters start with the female neighbour complaining about some condominium affairs, then patronising the man: "I should really be talking to your wife." The man trundles his kid's pushchair out the door only to be pounced upon by a sweaty, shirtless women who has been out jogging; then come the wolf-whistles, the humiliating threats from a homeless banshee, and then a gang of women who mock him and assault him with a blade after he tells them off. The scene becomes especially gripping when the female police officer taking his statement is suspicious of his report, even when he says "She pinched my testicles … then she took my penis in her mouth and bit it." Lara Dimitrijevic says the insen- sitivity of the police officer taking his statement after being assaulted, reading it out loud, insinuating that no one would believe him, or the point where his wife meets him in hospital and informs him that she was caught up at work, and him hav- ing to applaud her for her good job "are just a few examples of the daily life of many women in today's world, even those (societies) that call them- selves democratic and emancipated, including ours." Dimitrijevic says blaming female victims even in rape, for being 'provocatively' dressed, is a real- ity women are living with on a daily basis. "Many are those women that often feel humiliated when filing a police report… a woman running bare-chested is considered indecent and unacceptable in many societies, because the female breast has been sexualised." Dimitrijevic says the film exposes the patriarchy of society, and al- though men might be irked by the role reversal, it's women who should feel angry at having to deal with pa- triarchy or the fact that "female sex- uality and their role is still controlled by men." "It exposes the silent majority of men that contain and preserve this patriarchal society as unfair and un- just and mistrustful of women." A taste of daily oppression, for men WATCH http://goo.gl/XGhjjm "In cases of rape, women are often humiliated when filing a police report"