The difficult emergence of a #Metoo of the seas

As a growing number of victims report sexist and sexual violence in the merchant navy, silence and impunity continue to reign.

In France as elsewhere, rumors are starting to rise up the systemic dimension of gender and sexual violence in the very masculine environment of the merchant navy. However, the prospect of a #Metoo of the seas still seems distant.

A male chauvinist and violent environment

In a long investigation, The world brought to light numerous cases of sexual and gender-based violence which take place on ships of the merchant navy. Immersed in this environment mostly made up of menmany women have testified to denounce an extremely male chauvinist and violent. In most cases, they don’t dare they are expressed only several years after the fact.

In some boats, indecent comments, sexist and homophobic comments, sexual harassment and assaults they are invisible and trivialized. The victims evoke an environment behind closed doors extremely anxious and prone to traumawhere it is often impossible to find an interlocutor to denounce the attackers.

“We feel stuck in a garbage box from which it is impossible to escape and act”complains Suzanne, a French lieutenant who testified nine years after she was sexually assaulted.

A study to warn

In an effort to put an end to the shadow that reigns around this violence, a sociological study examined the shipping environment. Social Bond Research Center alerted the inherent dangers of the sector revealing it 35.5% of women and 10% of men say the interviewees be touched on board.

“Globally, the merchant navy is slow to realize the toxic virility that plagues its ships and the trauma it causes.. Many companies have refused to distribute our questionnaires internally. Do you realize where we start from? It is silence! “

Jasmina Stevanovic, co-author of the Cerlis survey.

Since 2017, the year of publication of this document, no substantial new work has been undertaken. The investigation of World reveals it the culture of secrecy, solidarity between men And friendships within the hierarchy to have control over the navy.

Featured image credit: Hansjörg Keller / Unsplash