The omertá, which for so many years has protected harassing professors in the university, has ensured the complicit silence of the majority of the university faculty. Assumptions such as the pseudo-concept of “micro-machismos” , based on an author who defended pedophilia and rape, have led to a huge situation of confusion among teachers who have never harassed.
While we, feminists, have opposed this author and this pseudo-concept, its use collaborates consciously or unconsciously with the harassers. Recalling a well-known proverb, we can say that while we feminists point to the moon, ill-intended people want our eyes to be diverted towards the finger. Proposing to go for a coffee, or making a nice comment to a classmate has become a challenge for those teachers who have never bullied. And while the spotlight is on these trifles, bullies are given wings to do what they want, encouraging omertà.
To break the silence, it is necessary to focus on what and how, on communicative acts and not only on speech acts. A request to go for a coffee from a teacher can be done with very different intentions. The issue is not only what is said but how and for what purpose. To end the omertà, attacking those who have never harassed has to stop and the impunity of those who do must end.
