Everyone in Brazil — from average people to the highest levels of government — is talking about rape culture after a 16-year-old girl told police she had been the victim of an alleged gang rape.
The girl told police she only learned for sure that she had been raped by an estimated 30 men after several posted pictures and video of the attack on Thursday, according to the police report filed.
She went to police after seeing the images online, telling them that she believed her boyfriend had drugged her on Saturday night, and left her to make her own way home in the morning. The girl received medical attention, including an STI-prevention cocktail provided to rape victims — a measure that, Brazilians were quick to point out, the head of the country's lower house of congress had drafted legislation seeking to prohibit.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that arrest warrants were out for four of the men suspected of involvement in the attack and that interim President Michel Temer had called an emergency cabinet meeting of his security ministers.
As news of the crime began to spread on Thursday, messages against rape began appearing on both Facebook and Twitter.
Women and men alike have started customizing their profile pictures on Facebook:
And this image has been shared widely:
UN Women's Brazil office weighed in and issued an official request to the government of Rio, stating that "gender perspective should be integral in the investigation, prosecution, and trial of such cases."
Some activist pages opted to share ways people can contribute to the investigation:
And some people focused on the attitude of the attacker that posted the video to Twitter and the men who flooded his tweet with misogynistic comments before it was taken down:
Though there were some people who tried to find some justification for what the girl's rapists did, others were having none of it:
This round-up of people from around the world victim-blaming the girl racked up more than 40,000 shares:
Translation: "For those who think it's OBVIOUS that all people would be angry if a 17-year-girl was raped by over 30 men and that in this situation NOBODY would blame the victim. In less than 30 minutes from O Globo posting about this case, we collected some comments that demonstrate how the rape culture is still rooted in the common sense of our society:"
Videos about the case also soon began popping up. One of the most viral videos on Brazilian Facebook was this from a Brazilian woman named Maynara talking about the case in English:
Her post had over 6 million views when this story was published.
The page End Violence Against Women posted a video with 30 women from the city of Porto Alegre counting to 30.
And other women have posted videos calling for a 33-day vigil against rape.
But talking about this one case as an isolated incident wasn't enough — suddenly, discussion of rape culture was everywhere.
The more artistically inclined have produced several powerful images to both speak out about rape culture and come to the defense of the girl:
And men began the vital task of talking about rape culture with other men.
Translation: "Us men, we urgently need to realize how much we are part of these 30 daily."