Youth perceptions of violence against women through a sexist chant in the football stadium: an exploratory analysis

Gender-based violence and violence against women (VAW) refers to any violation of fundamental rights. However, some forms of VAW are viewed as unproblematic, acceptable and deserved. Taking into account that sexist chants in football stadiums reinforce VAW, the purpose of the study is to determine how a group of adolescents can normalize or challenge an example of sexist chants. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted and the participants were asked to discuss to what extent the actions could be considered as gender-based violence. Most of the youth were highly unconscious of the sexist nature of the video and only a few recognized it as gender-based violence. Such awareness is essential in order to recognize the discrimination and prejudices, but especially, characteristic of VAW in football stadiums. Therefore, the implementation of a new pedagogy in order to reduce VAW in and outside the school is absolutely mandatory.