Sexual Violence

Open-Pit Peace: The Power of Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict Transitions

Citation:

Paarlberg-Kvam, Kate. 2021.“Open-Pit Peace: The Power of Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict Transitions.” Peacebuilding 9 (3): 289-310.

Author: Kate Paarlberg-Kvam

Abstract:

Three years after the peace accord signed by the Colombian government and the country’s largest guerrilla group, the guerrillas announced a return to arms. The announcement was met with dismay, but not surprise, as the numbers of murdered ex-combatants and social leaders rise and the government’s tepid commitment to the peace process sputters and stalls. At the centre of this violence have been the extractive industries. How should peace studies make sense of the power of extractivism, often described as a key element of postconflict reconstruction around the globe? This article focuses on Colombia as a case study of the contradictions of the postliberal peace, as stated commitments to gender justice and economic redistribution are undermined by commitments to mining and biofuel profits. A decolonial feminist lens, informed by Latin American anticapitalist feminists, sheds light on these contradictions and illuminates possibilities for a transformed peace in a postneoliberal world.

Keywords: extractivism, decoloniality, peacebuilding, Colombia

Topics: Armed Conflict, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Development, Extractive Industries, Gender Mainstreaming, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Security, Sexual Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2021

Gendered Violence and Neocolonialism: Indigenous Women Confronting Counterinsurgency Violence

Citation:

Castillo, R. Aída Hernández, and Mariana Mora. 2008. “Gendered Violence and Neocolonialism: Indigenous Women Confronting Counterinsurgency Violence.” Latin American Perspectives 35 (1): 151–54.

Authors: R. Castillo, Aída Hernández, Mariana Mora

Annotation:

Summary:
The first months of the Calderón administration in Mexico have been characterized by the militarization of indigenous regions throughout the country and the continued criminalization of social movements?the perpetration of state violence and repression in the name of "social peace." The April 26 reforms of the Federal Penal Code designed to "punish terrorism," which impose severe sentences on those who threaten the peace and tranquility of the population "by any violent method," have been denounced as yet another strategy for criminalizing social movements. The Fox administration's "neoliberal multiculturalism," which appropriated and trivialized indigenous peoples' demands (see Hernández, Paz, and Sierra, 2005), has been replaced by neoconservative policies and actions that treat organized indigenous peoples as delinquents. The rhetoric of cultural recognition has similarly been exchanged for a developmental discourse against poverty. In this new content, indigenous women are suffering the consequences of militarization in a special way. A climate of insecurity and intimidation has emerged in regions known historically for the presence of indigenous and peasant organizations.

Topics: Conflict, Indigenous, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Terrorism Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2008

Globalization as Racialized, Sexualized Violence

Citation:

Kuokkanen, Rauna. 2008. “Globalization as Racialized, Sexualized Violence.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 10 (2): 216-233.

Author: Rauna Kuokkanen

Abstract:

In my article, I suggest that indigenous women are among the hardest hit by economic globalization - the expansion of markets, trade liberalization and cheapening of labour - and that globalization represents a multifaceted violence against indigenous women. I consider this with the help of two examples. First, I discuss the largely ignored case of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada and how the interlocking systems of oppression (colonization, patriarchy and capitalism) are further intensified by globalization. Second, I examine the death of a Hopi woman, Private Piestewa, in the context of militarization, history of colonization and globalization. I analyse these examples in an intersectional framework that reveals the links between colonization, patriarchy and capitalism all of which inform the current processes of globalization.

Keywords: global capitalism, indigenous women, US military, violence against women, war on iraq

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Globalization, Indigenous, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Race, Sexual Violence Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada, United States of America

Year: 2008

The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue and the Embedded Culture of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Japan

Citation:

Kazue, Muta. 2016. “The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue and the Embedded Culture of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Japan.” Current Sociology 64 (4): 620–36. 

Author: Muta Kazue

Abstract:

For over two decades, survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery during the Asia-Pacific War, euphemistically called comfort women (ianfu), have been demanding the Japanese government take responsibility for past atrocities to restore their dignity. They have yet to obtain a satisfactory response; indeed, their demands have frequently been met with verbal attacks from the right-wing, including influential politicians. This article seeks to identify and explain some of the reasons why the problem has remained a highly controversial, but stubbornly unresolved issue. It begins by offering a brief history of the issue and then maps out the contemporary controversy. It shows that right-wing attacks should be understood as stemming from a systemic and deeply embedded bifurcation of women in Japanese society that allows the adoration of some women to comfortably coexist with misogyny, powerful rape myths, and a porn culture. These deeply permeate many areas of society, including its courts.

Keywords: Japan, Korea, comfort women, comfort women issue, Conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, conflict-related sexual violence, conflict-related sexual violence against women, South Korea

Topics: Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women, Sexuality Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, South Korea

Year: 2016

Las Violencias Sexuadas de La Guerra Civil Española: Paradigma Para Una Lectura Cultural Del Conflicto

Citation:

Joly, Maud. 2008. “Las Violencias Sexuadas de La Guerra Civil Española: Paradigma Para Una Lectura Cultural Del Conflicto.” Historia Social, no. 61 (2008): 89–107.

Author: Maud Joly

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:

El artículo propone una lectura cultural de la Guerra Civil que tenga como objeto de estudio las violencias sexuadas dirigidas contra las mujeres republicanas. Esta aproximación se inscribe en la voluntad de superar los límites cronológicos y epistemológicos de la interpretación histórica del conflicto. Tras hacer un balance historiográfico, la reflexión se dirige a las modalidades, significados y genealogía del "saqueo del cuerpo" perpetrado durante la Guerra Civil. Más adelante se analiza la dimensión pública, espectacular y escatològica de las violencias sexuadas, entra la sumisión y la reconquista de la retaguardia. Por último, la aproximación cultural del fenómeno guerrero invita a reflexionar sobre las experiencias femeninas de la violencia de guerra.

 

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:

The article puts forward a cultural interpretation of the Civil War which covers the aspects of sexed violence suffered by Republican women. This approach arises through the wish to go beyond the chronological and epistemological limits of the historical interpretation of the conflict. After making a historiographie appraisal, the reflection goes on to tackle the modalities, meanings and genealogy of the "body looting" perpetrated during the Civil War. Then an analysis is made of the spectacular and eschatological public dimension of sexed violence, with the submission and the reconquest of the rearguard. Lastly, the cultural approach of the warrior phenomenon leads readers to a reflection on the female experiences of war violence.

Keywords: Spanish Civil War, Spain, conflict-related sexual violence, conflict-related sexual violence against women, rape

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Spain

Year: 2008

The Challenges of Gendering Genocide: Reflections on a Feminist Politics of Complexity

Citation:

Helms, Elissa. “The Challenges of Gendering Genocide: Reflections on a Feminist Politics of Complexity.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 463–69.

Author: Elissa Helms

Keywords: genocide, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia

Annotation:

"When feminists and activists tackle the gendered dynamics of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and contemporary armed conflict, it seems safe to assume that their analyses and interventions are rooted in solidarity with the victims and survivors, in a desire to understand in order to contribute to the eradication of such violence and suffering. Yet some feminist or women-centered positions have sparked serious anxiety and anger among women war survivors and their advocates, rifts in feminist alliances, as well as disturbing political and material consequences for survivors and for the wider societies in which they live. The very collective nature of genocide and ethnicized violence makes them resistant to feminist critique – to scrutiny of the ways in which (ethno-) national collectivities create, and mask, power hierarchies within purported unity (McClintock, 1993) (...) This essay is a reflection on some of the issues and challenges for feminist scholarship and activism that emerge out of critical study of gendered war violence and the politics of collective ethnic and gender victimhood in a postwar setting" (Helms 2015, 463).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2015

Performativity, Precarity and Sexual Politics

Citation:

Butler, Judith. 2009. “Performativity, Precarity and Sexual Politics.” AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana 4 (3): i-xiii.

Author: Judith Butler

Abstract:

Gender performativity is one of the core concepts in Judith Butler’s work. In this paper Butler re-examines this term and completes it with the idea of precarity, by making a reference to those who are exposed to injury, violence and displacement, those who are in risk of not being qualified as a subject of recognition, There are issues that constantly arise in the nation-states, such as claiming a right when there is not a right to claim, or being forced to follow certain norms in order to change these norms. This is particularly relevant in the sexual policies that are shaped within the nation-states.

Keywords: performativity, precariety, sexual policies, post-structuralism

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Violence

Year: 2009

The Crucible of Sexual Violence: Militarized Masculinities and the Abjection of Life in Post-Crisis, Neoliberal South Korea

Citation:

Park, Youme. 2016. “The Crucible of Sexual Violence: Militarized Masculinities and the Abjection of Life in Post-Crisis, Neoliberal South Korea.” Feminist Studies 42 (1): 17-40.

Author: Youme Park

Abstract:

This paper explores the ways the “civil” society of Post-Crisis, neoliberal South Korea is constituted by a type of militarized masculinity that normalizes and even legitimates sexual violence. When the movie version of the best selling novel, The Crucible, written by Gong, Ji-Young, was released in the fall of 2011, it created a public outcry against the case of sexual molestation of handicapped children by their teachers and school administrators. On September 24 of the same year, a sexual assault inflicted upon a female high school student by a US soldier ignited a mass protest against what many perceive to be an insult against Korea’s national sovereignty. By exploring these two moments of cultural crises, I argue that in a militarized society like South Korea, 1) violence is routinized and normalized (while exoticized and sensationalized at the same time) when it is imagined in sexual terms, 2) sexual violence is naturalized when it is folded into masculine and militarized power, 3) militarism justifies its absolute power to adjudicate who to kill and to let live by resorting to the idealized form of masculinity that is based on the conflation of brutality with immortality, and finally, 4) a public outrage against sexual brutality can be easily co-opted into the reformist rhetoric that argues for a more benevolent form of patriarchy or neocolonial domination unless such outrage is accompanied by a thorough rejection of domination (and brutality) as an idealized form of political power and life itself.

Topics: Civil Society, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Masculinism, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Militarization, Sexual Violence, Violence Countries: South Korea

Year: 2016

Social and Cultural Determinants of the Spread of HIV/AIDS, STIs and Gender Based Violence in High Risk Areas: A Case of Road Construction Sites in Tanzania

Citation:

Jeckoniah, John Nshimba. 2018. “Social and Cultural Determinants of the Spread of HIV/AIDS, STIs and Gender Based Violence in High Risk Areas: A Case of Road Construction Sites in Tanzania.” International Journal of Development and Sustainability 7 (7): 2187–203.

Author: John Nshimba Jeckoniah

Abstract:

High mobility of sexually active population continues to be a risky factor for the spread of STIs and HIV, both in the source and destination sites. This paper analyses the social and cultural determinants for the spread of STIs and HIV along road construction sites which harbour a number of migrant workers from rural and urban areas. The study adopted a cross-sectional study design, using a structured questionnaire for respondents, a checklist for key informants and a guide for focus group discussants. A total of 308 respondents, including eighteen key informants and 20 focus group discussions were involved. Descriptive statistical analysis was employed for quantitative data whereas ethnographic content analysis was used for qualitative data. It was found that the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, how the disease spreads and the prevention methods was generally high. However, a corresponding change in sexual behavioural response was low. Many respondents still practise risky sexual behaviour, have many sexual partners and are inconsistent in using condoms. Some misconception about HIV/AIDS spread were also found. Also, there are many incidences of gender based violence which are under reported. Social and cultural factors responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS include low risk perception and marital instability. It is recommended to the government and NGOs to involve and support local organizations for capacity building against HIV.

Keywords: social determinants, HIV, AIDS, STI, gender based violence, Tanzania

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2018

Continuums of Violence: Feminist Peace Research and Gender-based Violence

Citation:

Yadav, P., and D. M. Horn. 2021. “Continuums of Violence: Feminist Peace Research and Gender-Based Violence.” In Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research, edited by T. Väyrynen, S. Parashar, Féron, and C. C. Confortini, 105–14. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

 

Authors: Punam Yadav, Denise M. Horn

Abstract:

This chapter looks specifically at gender-based violence directed towards women, acknowledging that gender-based violence is also experienced by men and boys. The continuum of violence is a constitutive relationship between different types of violence, from small acts of personal violence to large scale institutional violence. The chapter focuses on the links between “everyday” gender-based violence and violence associated with war as part of continuums of violence. Feminist lenses perceive gender and power dynamics in relation to violence and analyses the relationships between various types of violence, which are both spatial and temporal. The interrogation of Western (white) feminism is particularly important for feminist peace researchers and gives space to consider the varieties of “everyday violence” that are the consequences of paternalism and exploitation. Feminist postcolonial theorists and transnational feminist activists draw attention to intersecting identities and the historical contexts of colonial relations that reinforce continuums of violence as a global phenomenon embedded in every institution. (Abstract from Taylor & Francis)

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Domestic Violence, Feminisms, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Intersectionality, Peace and Security, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence

Year: 2021

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Sexual Violence