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70% of dating app users have felt pressured to have relationships and up to 21.7% say they have been sexually assaulted with violence. It is the reality that comes to light after an investigation into these apps, which are also used as a place to recruit women for prostitution.

This is the study "Apps Without Sexual Violence", funded by the Government Delegation against Gender Violence and prepared by the Young Women Federation (FMJ), which is based on interviews with 963 women users of the dating application Tinder, the most used by young people in Spain.

An investigation that has surprised and alarmed in equal parts the president of the FMJ, Ada Santana, who during the presentation of the report has demanded control measures to avoid sexual violence that occurs in the environment of dating applications, both online and during the physical encounter.

Santana has detailed that 70% of women users have felt pressured to have sex; 40% to maintain violent relationships that have "a lot to do" with pornography; 57% have been pressured to consume alcohol to maintain relationships. "And a fact that alarms us and is that almost 22% of the encounters have ended with a sexual assault, also mediating violence," he denounced.

Difficulty detecting violence

On this data, the project coordinator of the FMJ, Mónica Sáiz, has highlighted the difficulties of the victims themselves when detecting sexual violence, since initially 86.4% of the respondents said they had not suffered it.

"But by asking specific questions we discover other figures," he says. And he relates: 48.8% of the respondents felt treated as an object; 33% wanted to stop the relationship and the man got angry; 27% experienced violent situations during sex such as drowning or slapping; 29.5% were pressured to do internships they did not want.

In addition, 27.7 per cent were penetrated without a condom without their consent; In 28 per cent of cases, the man continued the relationship despite the fact that the woman had told him that she was hurting him; 27.4% tried to record it without their consent; 33.8% wanted to stop, but he continued the practice; and 21.4% took off their condoms when they didn't realize it.

Finally, says Sáez, 21.7% of women said they had suffered explicit violence to force them to have a sexual relationship.

Prostitution

In addition, this research has allowed us to verify how these dating applications may be used as a channel for the recruitment of women for prostitution. This is stated by Irene Otero, one of the authors of the report, who has denounced how in recent years a process of "glamorization of prostitution" has been observed based on the "false myth of free choice", which does not take into account structural factors of oppression or poverty.

Thus, the terms 'sugar daddy' and 'sugar baby' have replaced hooker and prostituted woman and in dating apps there is a significant presence of profiles of men who openly offer money or gifts to women in exchange for sex. In fact, 72% of women have seen profiles of men who offer money or gifts and more than 60% have been offered money or gifts to stay.

Sex appeal

In the research, 1,400 profiles of men between 18 and 55 years old and the same of women have been analyzed through the creation of two false profiles (a 24-year-old woman and a man of the same age), which have allowed them to interact with them.

From this analysis, Otero has highlighted how the feminine ideal focused on sexual attractiveness is the most recurrent stereotype and how roles that are outside this model are penalized. 90% of male profiles look for women "feminine, without dramas or traumas, princesses, queens, delicate, daring, sexually determined, smiling, affectionate, etc.", while asking that they abstain "prude, feminazis, or bitter".

On the other hand, the adjectives that define men coincide with the masculine stereotypes of brave, strong, etc. 80% of women also report feeling uncomfortable reading male profiles that allude to stereotypes of a silly, frivolous or hysterical woman.

The profile invented for the research obtained more than 10,000 likes in two weeks, from men between 35 and 55 years old and already during the first messages violence is observed through compliments, request for nude photos and 'sexting'.

79% of women felt violated by requests for nude photos and 69.3% by calls to maintain 'sexting' or telephone sex. The researchers highlight the influence of pornography and the eroticization of women's pain. More than 63% of women say they were asked if they were submissive and more than 50% have felt pressured to admit to practices of sexual domination.

According to The Trust Project criteria

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