When I first started reading, it seemed like this was a perfect example of how rape, in war, can 'simply' be a weapon. How rape can be a tool to denigrate and destroy a group of people that another group of people are at war with. In my previous post, I pointed to this materialization of rape, so I thought this was possible.
But, as I read on, I came across some statements that made me re-think my initial take on this. Statements such as: "Several [men who came forward] said they instantly became castaways in their villages, lonely, ridiculed figures, derisively referred to as 'bush wives'" and "the male rape cases are still just a fraction of those against women. But for the men involved, aid workers say, it is even harder to bounce back" and " 'I’m laughed at,' Mr. Mukuli said. 'The people in my village say: "You’re no longer a man. Those men in the bush made you their wife." ' "
So, apparently rape does NOT have the same affect on men as it does on women and it seems to be done for different purposes. Rape of a male is seen as turning him into a women, something that is laughable, and disgusting. And apparently this is seen as making the rape of a man even "harder" to get over. I think that last assumption reveals something very telling about the rape of women - basically that it is a much more expected part of the everyday life of a women, and that it is easier for her to get over because of that. That women are naturally submissive and that it is natural (though maybe not always proper) to rape women.
Of course, I do not want to make light of the rape of men. It is a horrendous and terrible thing, I'm sure all agree. I just wanted to attempt a parsing out of the relation is between rape and gender or maybe between rape and sex. Rape seems to be a way of dehumanizing someone into submission. In this way it is an ideal weapon of war. But it must remain clear that the war is not only against an ethnic group of people - but that is seems to also be closely related to a hatred of women. After all, it can only be a derisive thing to call someone a "wife" if being one is a bad thing. I have a feeling that if a women was seen as a "husband" it would be a women with great power and a women in charge of her sexuality and reproduction.
Let me just end with a quote from Denis Mukwege, the lead doctor at Panzi Hospital: “I understand the world feels guilty about what happened in Rwanda in 1994, but shouldn’t the world feel guilty about what’s happening in Congo today?”
UPDATE:
In the NYT from August 7th, Bob Herbert points out that
"Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. But we should take particular notice of the staggering amounts of violence brought down on the nation’s women and girls each and every day for no other reason than who they are. They are attacked because they are female.
A girl or woman somewhere in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count."
Herbert quotes Dr. James Gilligan:
“What I’ve concluded from decades of working with murderers and rapists and every kind of violent criminal,” he said, “is that an underlying factor that is virtually always present to one degree or another is a feeling that one has to prove one’s manhood, and that the way to do that, to gain the respect that has been lost, is to commit a violent act.”
Read the whole article here.
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I think you should be wary of concluding that in the DRC it is viewed "that it is natural to rape women", simply based on the fact that it seems to be harder for men to psychologically and socially overcome a situation of rape. I think there is a lot more that comes into play when considering how a rape victim (man/woman) is viewed by his others, most notably the taboo of homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree that in the DRC, while rejected by society, it is more natural for a woman to be raped than it is a man (which is probably also the case in the western world), but this seems to stem more from the simple fact that it natural for a man to have (and want to have) sex with a woman, instead of a man, and not that the act of rape is natural for women.
Well, I'm actually not quite accepting the statement made in the NYT that it is harder for men to overcome rape - either psychologically or socially. What I was trying to point out was the fact that people think that shows that rape of a women is seen as something that is just more common, more understandable, more natural. And, don't get me wrong, I'm not just restricting that point to the DRC - I think the same applies just as well in the West. And I do not want to argue that rape actually IS natural, just that it is often seen as such.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that it is more common (and perceived as "natural") for a women to be raped has a lot to do with the fact that domestic violence and rape is just not seen as that big a deal. People try to blame the victim, rationalize away the crime, by finding a reason the women was asking for it or deserved it. Why? Because women are still to a large extent seen as second-class citizens. Think of all the money being put into fighting the war on drugs, the war against terrorism, preventing swine flu etc. .... why are we not focussing as much on the epidemic (or onslaught) of violence against women?
:o
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ReplyDeleteRape is a terrible thing!
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