Exhibition “Hey, we corrected this for you!” is focused on raising awareness about the problem of secondary victimization of women survivors of sexual violence. It was exhibited in Sava pathway in Kalemegdan in March 2022, and supported through the Special Focus program. During the hype of public discourse of violence against women, as well as its inadequate answer and discussion on the topic, one of the most successful campaigns remains the initiative #nisamprijavila. The exhibition by two feminist activists, Jelena Jaćimović i Aleksandra Mališić, continues this story by giving the answer to the question „why didn’t she report it?
1. Secondary victimization is a concept you used in your initiative. By itself, the concept seems frighting and also enlightening. How did you come up with this idea and why?
It seems to me that this aspect is a bit neglected in public. And we cannot understand violence as a phenomenon in a society if we do not understand how secondary victimization works. This aspect is crucial in perpetuating violence – secondary victimization has a tendency to silence the survivors, encourages perpetrators, it denies the experience of violence while normalizing it. On the other hand, we all take part in it, willingly or not. We simply asked ourselves what is it that we can do in this common struggle against the violence directed toward women. We do believe that some people, when they see it, will ask themselves about their role in secondary victimization. When we dwell on our collective power, in a situation in which the media reports scandalously about this topic, we, as consumers of these contexts, can actively influence it – by commenting to insult and hurt the survivors or to be aware how much our power of commenting other’s trauma can be directed toward making good, by offering support to victims.
2. Public speech on social media…a vast and multilayered topic. In your initiative, you talk about offering an alternative narrative to the mainstream discourse. You underline that it was important to focus on empathy. Given that we live in the era of cruelty, what kind of role you see for empathy, in this case but also in feminist movement?
Our impression is that empathy in dominant discourse remains unattainable. However, we all have the capacity to treat each other emphatically. It seems it is at the root of change. It Is not necessary to share the same experience in order to understand each other but it is enough to have empathy for other’s destiny and acknowledge it. With this exhibition we wanted people to pause and hear the other, her perspective, situation and live it thought. Violence, aside from speaking about is on a structural level, it is still a taboo – it is hard to face the fact that it is quotidian, wide spread and that people close to us suffer. Sometimes, in order to empathize with one’s trauma or a felling of nonbelonging and fear – we seek examples in our own environment. All our examples are asking for rethinking and requestioning. If a man is walking around Kalemegdan with his daughter and sees the exhibition, maybe sometimes he will pause and add something on a panel with empathy. Sometimes it is necessary to literary draw what is bad in distinction to what is good. The same goes for feminist movement – we do not want to burden anyone’s struggles without own ignorance, we try to understand and embrace. Power lays in alliances.
3. What conclusion do you draw this action as an important lesson? Could you please share with us some thoughts and ideas of other activists-participants?
The most important conclusion is that we need to continue the struggle. Even though it seems to us that the changes are small scale, the reaction of public have shown us that this is not the case. Firstly, the media were very interested, not only for the exhibition, but to give us also a space to talk more widely how important it is to address secondary victimization if we want to fight violence against women in a holistic way. Confronting the problem of violence, something we did to the pedestrians in Kalemegdan, assumes responsibility, something that is not easily recognized nor dealt with. However, the reaction of the public is strong even after two months since the opening. People write to use demanding it travels Serbia, not to confine it to Belgrade, give the importance of message. We were especially moved by a woman who has shared her experience of violence and secondary victimization suggesting that Kalemegdan Is an ideal place for exhibition because people from different context can see it and communicate with it.
4. You two have come together in this initiative into what we often times name informal groups. And you had to opportunity to work in different organizations, contexts and arrangements. Why do you think informal groups are important and how do they differ from working in the official organizations and collectives?
Informal groups are often times intersections in small circles where we act. It gives us freedom to self-organize, to act and cooperate freely (even though we often have a feeling that belonging to larger formal groups gives us an absolute freedom which is not always the case. Informal groups open doors to younger activists, the ones who have not had the opportunity to do things their ways. That’s why these examples are a good practice and also a stake for a better future.
Interview by Djurdja Trajković
