Why are men’s abuse, infidelity, and molestation often normalized? It’s as if they are just children who don’t have a clue that they shouldn’t be doing these things, and we as women have to live with this and learn how to move past the trauma so that we don’t hurt men’s egos or suffer severe consequences if we raise our voices against such behavior. The new Netflix series “Raising Voices” dives into the #MeToo culture and the power of social media in helping girls come forward about the traumas they experience. If they can’t confront their molester face-to-face, perhaps sharing their experiences on social media can make more people stand by them. But it’s not that easy, is it? This series tells the stories of Alma (Nicole Wallace), Greta (Clara Galle), Berta (Teresa de Mera), Nata (Aicha Villaverde), and other girls who have suffered from men’s oppression every day to the point that it either became normalized or they lost their patience. But they have finally learned to get justice, realizing that enough is enough. So, how did they get the justice they deserved? Let’s find out together as we dive into this series.
Spoilers Ahead
What happened to Alma?
Alma’s character portrayed a typical rebellious teenager who had always been a rule-breaker. She even burned her school uniform to prove that society or any institution couldn’t dictate how she should dress. She made out with boys in the bathroom, ignoring the derogatory names people called her, and smoked joints, feeling like she ruled the world. She didn’t care about classes or grades, much to the concern of her teachers and parents. But who cared? She was happy with her best friends, Nata and Greta, who had always been by her side. However, failing exams didn’t bode well for Alma, and her parents were called to the school to discuss her academic performance. Her history teacher was particularly concerned, believing she had a lot of potential. They were also worried that her excessive smoking of joints was affecting her brain, so they insisted that she should stop. The scene at home resembled the after-effects of a parent-teacher meeting that we are all familiar with, with her parents screaming at and grounding her, not only for failing tests but also because she tested positive for drugs. Obviously, this didn’t sit well with Alma. She was supposed to go to a party with her best friend, Greta, and it wasn’t just any party.
Greta’s brother David, whom she’d had a crush on since childhood, would be there! So, what happened? Alma, being the risk-taker she was, decided to sneak out of the house. She tried to catch a bus, but it had already left, leaving her alone at the bus stop until she saw Kevin and Jota. These two were Alma’s friend Hernan’s dealers, and they often treated him badly, which she didn’t like. But she didn’t have many options, as the next bus would come much later. They offered her a ride, and although she felt uneasy, she got into their car. And from that very second on, she knew she had made a big mistake. They started making comments about her looks and the way she dressed. Instead of heading to town, they took a different route. Though they had no ulterior motive to molest her, they enjoyed making Alma uncomfortable. Sometimes, men prey on weak, innocent girls because they are easy targets and end up feeling powerful and superior, and in the end, they blame it all on the way girls nowadays dress.
As the car stopped at the signal, Alma got out and quickly got on the bus. She just could not bear to be in that unsafe place because her intuition was telling her this might not end well. Anyway, after this, she met Greta, and together they went to the club. They were enjoying themselves, and she was hoping that David might like her and want to be with her. But when Alma confessed her feelings to David, he refused, saying he didn’t want a serious relationship with her. She was stunned, hurt, and betrayed. She was already in a pretty drunk and drugged state and couldn’t stand on her own. Her best friend Greta was there to help her, and she went away to grab their jackets for a minute. But in the meantime, Hernan came out of nowhere and offered to help Alma. She was already in a vulnerable state, so she had to lean on someone and trust them. Little did she know, her only guy friend she ever trusted would do the horrible thing of sleeping with her in that state where she would have no idea where she was or who she was with. It makes you feel like you can never fully trust any man. Anyway, in the morning, she left his house, and from that minute on, there was this feeling in her mind where she was disgusted with herself for making such horrible decisions that she could not come forward about this incident to her parents or even her best friends. But there was a silver lining in the end, where Hernan realized his mistake, apologized to Alma, and even started to go to group therapy to better himself to be a proper “man.”
What happened to Berta?
Anyway, Alma wasn’t the only sufferer; she began to notice that many women around her were falling prey to men in one way or another. After the incident with Hernan, things didn’t just end there for Alma. She started receiving horrible texts from an unknown number, and at school, everyone started calling her names. She couldn’t understand who was behind it until she realized it was Alberto, her best friend Nata’s horrible boyfriend. He was such a manipulator and hater, always using Nata for his own benefit. He not only sent Alma those awful messages but had also been abusive to Nata. He let his friends sexually exploit Nata without her consent, and he didn’t even think he’d done anything wrong. And it wasn’t just Alberto. Nata actually thought this treatment was normal, believing that boys are stupid and that he had made a mistake. It was pathetic, like she didn’t have her own mind and was being controlled by her boyfriend’s tactics of luring her back with apologies and dates.
Seeing all this made Alma’s blood boil also because Alberto was turning Nata against her, to the point that Nata even shared Alma’s private photos with her boyfriend to humiliate her so that she wouldn’t come between her and her boyfriend. Honestly, it was just sad! Meanwhile, Alma reconnected with her old school friend Berta, who was now studying at an art school. Berta had left their old school because she was being molested by their history teacher every day. Yes, the same history teacher who was so concerned about Alma’s grades. He had started out acting concerned about Berta too, knowing her parents had separated and she was struggling. Then he began calling her in and abusing her constantly. It got so bad that Berta started having panic attacks and vomiting and eventually had to leave school to recover. But the trauma never truly left her. Anyway, when Alma heard about this, she was shocked. She remembered that there was one time she saw the teacher actually forcing himself on Berta, but she just hid away and didn’t stop it from happening.
Alma promised Berta that she would get her justice. She opened a social media page under the name Coleman Miller, pretending to be Berta, and shared her experience about how the history teacher had abused her. She started posting pictures of how it had traumatized her. Lots of people started sharing their experiences there as well. One day, Alma went to school, and the history teacher told her to wait after class for their extra lesson so she could pass the exam. She thought he might try something, so she started recording on her phone to get proof. But instead of doing anything inappropriate, he actually called another teacher to help her and even started showing genuine concern about her studies. Alma began to think maybe Berta was exaggerating, that maybe that’s not really what happened. When she went to confront her and talk about that while they were on a bus, Breta was shocked to see Alma’s sudden behavior change. She realized she should not have come forward to talk about such things, and on top of that, people didn’t believe her trauma was anything at all. So she got out of the bus, ran in front of an oncoming vehicle, and died.
How did Alma bring justice to Berta?
Seeing all these women suffer around her made Alma feel sick and horrible. She felt like people in school already thought of her as a rebellious person who was up to no good, so she was willing to take the risk. She wrote on a big placard that there was a rapist in their school and took that big placard to the school. At first, everyone thought there was something wrong with her for writing such a thing until other people who had been molested by the history teacher in their school started to come forward. They had been silenced for so long but finally had the courage to come forward. It wasn’t only them; finally, Nata also realized what kind of man her boyfriend was and broke up with him and stood beside Alma in her cause. When she finally posted the photo of the history teacher on Instagram on her page, he was exposed. At first, the police didn’t believe the case, thinking she had created the page with a fake identity while she was not being abused, so it wasn’t her story to tell, and they also struggled to believe Berta’s confession as she had a borderline personality disorder, so she may have faked it all. At present, students and many ex-students started to file complaints against the teacher, which gave them solid grounds to finally arrest the teacher. Alma was finally able to seek justice.
We know that actions have certain consequences, so obviously, after this incident, Alma was thrown out of school for defaming the institution. But that did not bother her at all, because even though she was not very keen to study, she was a humanitarian—someone who had the urge to stand up for the community and for her friends, always being the do-gooder. So, she got hired by DJ Barbara Lago as their community manager and got the chance to travel to Europe, where her friends tried to cope with their normal lives. After school, everyone started to get busy with college admissions and went on their separate paths. Alma was here to learn how to be independent and to deal with all that had happened to her. Obviously, she had her parents and Greta by her side. May she also heal from all the trauma and start to live a normal life after getting out of here.
