Film director Mabel Lozano: “Social networks are the gateway to pimps”

For two days Lozano reached approx. 600 students from the institutes Santa Maria, Isidor Macabich, Quartó del Rei, Sa Blanca Dona and BalàfiaParticipants of the workshop given at the Jesús Cultural Center within the framework of the 25N events programmed by Consell de Ibiza in cooperation with the Dona Office and the Center d’Estudi i Prevenció de Conductes Addictives (Cecca).

At the beginning of the day, which lasts just over 90 minutes, there is some gossip from the stands, challenging looks from teachers at those moving in their seats, elbow bumps with classmates and quiet laughter. Silence fills the meeting room as Mabel Lozano continues her speech. The silence and sadness come with the screening of a trailer from Lozano’s own documentary ‘Biografía del kadaver de una mujer’, which was awarded the Goya award for Best Documentary Short Film in 2021.

The tragic story of Yamilde

The same son of Colombian woman Yamilde Giraldo, who was killed in Navarra in 2009, is reliving the moment, the day and the seconds after six shots were fired at his mother from close range. It saved his life because the gun jammed. Yamilde’s story is taken from her arrival in Spain, where, according to the testimony of her son and the Civil Guard itself, she was sold into a network of pimps and transported to a brothel in Navarra. After she managed to escape from that hell, her pimp in prison organized her murder through hitmen.

“Yamilde was not a prostitute, she was a woman who was a prostitute,” Lozano explains in front of the audience, which remains motionless before the audiovisual work.

Now other videos of the ‘Put yourself in their shoes’ campaign are following each other. Tiktoker Mar Lucas tells how a young woman was recruited through social networks to make a series of videos harmless in principle. Another tells how a Nigerian minor was caught in her country after someone gave her gifts through social networks, eventually bringing her to Spain where she was forced into prostitution. Then there is the young boy who dreams of becoming a football player in an environment where there are almost no resources. A scout who claims to be sporty also deceives her and she is forced into prostitution. Videos depicting the real situations of young people in poor environments, without resources, who are victims of sexual abuse.

Mabel Lozano is clear on this issue and conveys it to young people in this way. “On social networks, there are no shields. There is you and the void,” he insists, referring to the fact that any subject can hide behind the screen: “On the Internet, even the bad guys look good.”

He addresses the public, that is, minors, clearly and unequivocally: “Social networks are the entrance of bad guys and pimps, and you make their job very easy.”

At one point he urges them to refuse to send photos to anyone. Not even their partners. He tells them, “This is not a show of affection, it’s stupid. Don’t post photos because he loves you now but maybe next year he won’t and he can use it to hurt you.” He talks about the need to act freely and makes it clear that this freedom is an “excuse” if the person receiving the video is the “capper” or, in other words, the pimp.

It’s time to talk about pornography. Lozano released a video that starts with a clear premise. “Porn is the junk food of sex.” After the video, the Goya winner addresses the audience again, if possible in a harsher manner. “Porn is porn. Porn is misogynist, it is evil. It is imposition, it is submission.” And he continues: “With porn, trafficking and machismo win,” he notes, reiterating that it “encourages prostitution.”

Porn as a school

When he asks the audience how many of them have talked to their parents about sex, his response is shocking. Five out of a hundred students raise their hands. “Your access [a la pornografía] It’s so easy that you think your school of sexuality is porn. And porn is porn,” he explains.

Lozano reiterates the fact that porn triggers addiction by causing dopamine production, putting it at a level almost similar to the addiction that cocaine consumption can cause. He continues to send messages to the stands, making it clear that when they consume porn, they pay with “data.”

Sexual intercourse “arises from desire.” It is, he insists, a desire “shared in equality and democracy.” From empathy, compassion and the need to put oneself in the other’s shoes. Adolescents clearly state that one subject of pornography is male and one object is female. Lozano encourages them to “work” on relationships because it’s a case of “imposition and submission”: “Two people who want it and love each other,” she notes.

herd effect

It’s time for the final audiovisual piece. A young boy describes how a group of five or six girls raped him. It is clear that this is the only story that is not true. It’s time to talk about ‘packages’. In recent years, more than 210 cases of groups of men raping a woman have reached the country’s courts.

“And in porn’s purest style, not only are they committing the crime, they’re recording it because they want to share it,” he notes, while calling them “idiots” and “imbeciles” with every word. With these attitudes, Lozano makes it clear that what porn ultimately does is “normalize” these disgusting behaviors.

When asked about the purpose of this workshop, Lozano makes it clear that it is a way to open the eyes of young people who “live in a comfortable environment and are not open-minded to what’s going on in life.” And in life there is “horribly aggressive” pornography, “ritualized” by such phenomena as trafficking in women, sexual exploitation and takeaways on the street.

According to the person responsible for the ‘Put yourself in their shoes’ principle, young people consume this pornography from a very early age “without critical thinking”. “Sexuality is a transversal relationship with human beings, it is very important, but because these children are nine years old, they have access to very harsh and very powerful content, because what pornography does is to normalize certain behaviors,” he criticizes. This is a “prevention” and “information” workshop because, as the saying goes, “knowledge is power.” “Let them use it after processing” of course. The interview is interrupted by six young people who want to take a souvenir photo with Lozano. A sign that knowledge bears fruit.