Breathe
By Edmée Pardo
Edmée PardoA few days ago I went to the theater to see the play Hilos, where at the end they gave out a bookmark with the violentometer printed on it. How do you read it? I asked myself, and what better than the context of March 8 to answer this question.
First novelty, at least for me: the violentómetro is a 100% Mexican invention, the product of a 2009 research by the National Polytechnic Institute, in which 14,000 young people between 15 and 25 years of age, from middle and high school, were surveyed to find out how they establish their love relationships. The results revealed the normalization of violence as one of the forms of affection, attention and love. Physical violence, which manifests itself as a game, and psychological violence, present in jealousy, threats, constant calls to the cell phone, prohibitions in the way of dressing, are accepted as a natural way of relating to boyfriends, "frees", partners, boyfriends, "michavos" or those with whom "we are cool".
Violence is understood as the set of behaviors that cause emotional, psychological, sexual or economic harm to a person within an interpersonal relationship, but especially in the context of a couple. It can apply to violence between family members, work colleagues, neighbors... Such violence usually grows progressively and can become lethal.
As a result of this work, the violentometer was designed to raise awareness of what is happening, and has now been adopted in different countries such as Venezuela, Chile and France. It is used in prevention campaigns as a strategy to educate and prevent gender violence. It has been translated into Chinese, Nahuatl, Tlapaneco, Mixtec and Basque, among others, adapted to different cultural and linguistic contexts.
The violentometer lists 30 behaviors or attitudes in a vertical and ascending manner divided into three zones. The Yellow Zone includes hurtful jokes, blackmail, lies, jealousy, disqualifying, ignoring and ridiculing, almost like a bad relationship between siblings, and caution is suggested.
