It's not enjoyment, it's exploration!

By Tatiana Moura – Executive Director Instituto Promundo

“I’m more of a man when I teach how to have sex.” The phrase could be heard in a B-grade film, but the stage of this phrase is often far from the cameras and enters the day-to-day reality of many public and private spaces around the world.

The phrase is one of many cited in research carried out by the Promundo Institute, published in 2012, with men aged between 18 and 59, in four cities in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Itaperuna, São Paulo and Natal)*. At the genesis of this construction is a still dominant conception of what it means to 'be a man', extremely linked to male sexual performance. In other words: to be a real man you need to show yourself as a man, have several sexual partners, never fail at the right time, among other things. These gender norms contribute to the acceptance of male dominance over women, and the young body, glorified by the media, becomes the object of desire for many men who think that by having relationships with girls/teenagers they affirm themselves as men.

Phrases like “I’m more of a man when I teach you how to have sex”, “I just wanted to help!” (referring to the money he offered as “help” to the girl), or “She teased me!” In Brazil, posters for a campaign to prevent sexual exploitation against children and adolescents (ESCA) will appear during the World Cup. The campaign “It's not fun, it's sexual exploitation against children and adolescents”, promoted by the Promundo Institute, discusses these standards of masculinity.

According to the research, there is also a tendency to naturalize certain situations of sexual exploitation of adolescents (both by men and women) or even to blame the victims – 41% of men in Rio de Janeiro and 46% of women stated that they consider the act to be “teenage prostitution” and not sexual exploitation. In other words, they consider the act legitimate. “I paid for a service”, not “I am an abuser”. Among men who have had sex with teenagers, 69% say they have friends who have also had sex with teenagers. This number drops to less than half (30%) among those who have not had sex with teenagers. This data leads us to infer that there is peer pressure or legitimization that can influence other men to have sexual relationships with teenagers. Furthermore, 48% of those who say they have had a relationship with girls between the ages of 12 and 17 did so as a way of feeling young. The idea that “consuming” a young body makes a man younger still prevails.

The campaign's messages seek to challenge the way in which many men naturalize their sexual behavior towards a teenager - often considered just a "pleasure" - and also calls on them to influence the views of other men, warning that sexual exploitation of children and teenagers is a crime and cannot be tolerated. With graphic, audiovisual and digital pieces, the campaign will take place in 11 Brazilian cities, five of which lead the ranking of harmful practices for young people and children, according to the National Secretariat for Human Rights: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador, Fortaleza and Christmas.

The choice of the World Cup as the moment to launch the campaign is not random. During this period, around three million Brazilian and international tourists will be traveling in the country, which significantly increases the vulnerability of children and adolescents. However, the Promundo campaign addresses aspects of ESCCA that go beyond typical sexual exploitation situations, in which there is financial exchange, and which are evident in major events such as the World Cup and Carnival, for example. The campaign seeks to highlight situations of exploitation that are more invisible and, therefore, more difficult to deal with.

Some advances towards this confrontation have already been signaled, such as the approval of the Bill (PL 7220/2014) that makes the crime of sexual exploitation of children, adolescents or vulnerable people heinous and the Ordinance that prevents the entry into national territory of foreigners convicted of pornography and exploitation crimes. However, we must not forget that this is a problem that will remain after the World Cup, and that there are several manifestations, interpretations and actors involved.

Working with men and the ways in which they are socialized to promote non-violent and positive behaviors and practices is one of the paths taken by Instituto Promundo, in order to make gender norms that normalize and allow sexual exploitation of children and adolescents unacceptable. This is the legacy to which Promundo intends to contribute.

* Second, Marcio; Araújo Danielle; Nascimento, Marcos; Moura, Tatiana. (2012) “Men, Women and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in four cities in Brazil: result of a qualitative and quantitative study, research carried out by Promundo: Instituto Promundo”