SV against Men

Citation:

Graham, Ruth. 2006. “Male Rape and the Careful Construction of the Male Victim.” Social & Legal Studies 15 (2): 187–208.

Author: Ruth Graham

Abstract:

Sexual assault generates much attention in social research, but male victims are largely neglected by a predominantly feminist perspective that seeks to highlight the gendered nature of sexual assault as a social phenomenon. As a result there is a relative lack of empirical information on male rape, but it is possible to chart the theoretical development of male rape as a social problem as it emerges in the social research discourse. It is important to examine this development because the current direction ofthe research on male rape has worrying consequences for how we theorize sexual assault in general. Here [Graham] examine[s] how male rape is understood in academic discourse, and [Graham] focus[es] specifically on how a credible male victim is constructed with reference to sexual difference, sexuality, and hierarchies of sexual harm. The analysis demonstrates the problems around the concept of ‘male rape’, and the need for all those researching sexual assault to account adequately for both male and female victims alike.

Topics: Gender, Men, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Men

Year: 2006

Citation:

Carlson, Eric Stener. 1997. “Sexual Assault of Men in War.” The Lancet 349: 129.

Author: Eric Stener Carlson

Topics: Gender, Men, International Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, SV against Men Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 1997

Citation:

Loncar, Mladen, Neven Henigsberg, and Pero Hrabac. 2010. “Mental Health Consequences in Men Exposed to Sexual Abuse During the War in Croatia and Bosnia.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 25 (2): 191–203.

Authors: Mladen Loncar, Neven Henigsberg, Pero Hrabac

Abstract:

In the research project on sexual abuse of men during the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, detailed information from 60 victims of such crimes was gathered. The aim of the research was to define key attributes of sexual abuse of men in war as well as consequences it had on the victims. A method of structured interview was used. Also, the statement of each victim was recorded. Victims were exposed to physical torture of their genitals, psycho-sexual torture and physical abuse. The most common symptoms of traumatic reactions were sleep disturbances, concentration difficulties, nightmares and flashbacks, feelings of hopelessness, and different physical stress symptoms such as constant headaches, profuse sweating, and tachycardia. In addition to rape and different methods of sexual abuse, most of the victims were heavily beaten. The conclusion is made that the number of sexually abused men during the war must have been much higher than reported.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia

Year: 2010

Citation:

Zawati, Hilmi M. 2007. “Impunity or Immunity: Wartime Male Rape and Sexual Torture as a Crime against Humanity.” Torture: Quarterly Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture 17 (1): 27–47.

Author: Hilmi M. Zawati

Abstract:

This paper seeks to analyze the phenomenon of wartime rape and sexual torture of Croatian and Iraqi men and to explore the avenues for its prosecution under international humanitarian and human rights law. Male rape, in time of war, is predominantly an assertion of power and aggression rather than an attempt on the part of the perpetrator to satisfy sexual desire. The effect of such a horrible attack is to damage the victim's psyche, rob him of his pride, and intimidate him. In Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, and Iraq, therefore, male rape and sexual torture has been used as a weapon of war with dire consequences for the victim's mental, physical, and sexual health. Testimonies collected at the Medical Centre for Human Rights in Zagreb and reports received from Iraq make it clear that prisoners in these conflicts have been exposed to sexual humiliation, as well as to systematic and systemic sexual torture. This paper calls upon the international community to combat the culture of impunity in both dictator-ruled and democratic countries by bringing the crime of wartime rape into the international arena, and by removing all barriers to justice facing the victims. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact that wartime rape is the ultimate humiliation that can be inflicted on a human being, and it must be regarded as one of the most grievous crimes against humanity. The international community has to consider wartime rape a crime of war and a threat to peace and security. It is in this respect that civilian community associations can fulfill their duties by encouraging victims of male rape to break their silence and address their socio-medical needs, including reparations and rehabilitation.

Keywords: sexual torture, male rape, wartime rape, gender crimes, Croatia, Iraq

Annotation:

Quotes:

"Male rape in times of war is predominantly an assertion of power and aggression rather than an expression of satisfying the perpetrator’s sexual desire." (33)

"When war finally came to an end in the former Yugoslavia, the medical records of health care centres provided evidence of male rape and sexual torture of Croatian and Bosnian Muslim men including castration, genital beatings, and electroshock." (34)

"This paper provides three kinds of potential remedies available for addressing the needs of Croatian and Iraqi wartime male rape victims: legal remedies, remedies within the United Nations system, and psycho-social remedies within civil community associations." (34)

"We should combat the culture of impunity in both dictator-ruled and democratic countries by bringing the crime of wartime rape into the international arena, and by removing all barriers to justice facing the victims. Moreover, we should emphasize the fact that wartime rape is the ultimate humiliation that can be inflicted on a human being, and it must be regarded as one of the most grievous crimes against humanity. The international community has to consider wartime rape a crime of war and a threat to peace and security. It is in this respect that civilian community associations can fulfill their duties by encouraging victims of male rape to break their silence and address their socio-medical needs, including reparations and rehabilitation." (40)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, International Law, International Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Security, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Men, Sexuality, Sexual Torture Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Iraq

Year: 2007

Citation:

Zarkov, Dubravka. 2001. “The Body of the Other Man: Sexual Violence and the Construction of Masculinity, Sexuality and Ethnicity in Croatian Media.” In Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed  Conflict, and Political Violence, edited by Caroline Moser and Fiona Clark, 69–82. London: Zed Books.

Author: Dubravka Zarkov

Abstract:

In this chapter, I examine newspaper articles covering the wars through which former Yugoslavia disintegrated, with the intention of showing how gender, sexuality and ethnicity constitute each other in the media respresentations of sexual violence. I begin from a somewhat unusual point: men as victims of sexual violence, not as perpetrators.

It may be a surprise to many readers that men were victims of sexual violence during the wars in former Yugoslavia, which became notorious for making the rape of women one if its most effective weapons. In the gruesome reality of war, men are usually seen as rapists and not as raped. Of course, this is not only a perception. In most wars and conflicts, as well as in times of peace, the reality is that men are rapists of women. I do not wish to deny that fact. However, I do wish to show that perceiving men only and always as offenders and never as victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence is a very specific, gendered narrative of war. In that narrative, dominant notions of masculinity merge with norms of heterosexuality and definitions of ethnicity and ultimately designate who can or cannot be named a victim of sexual violence in the press.

Annotation:

The author examines male sexual victimization in the Balkans War. She argues that “perceiving men only and always as offenders and never as victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence is a very specific, gendered narrative of war.” In that narrative, dominant notions of masculinity merge with norms of heterosexuality and definitions of ethnicity and ultimately designate who can or cannot be named a victim of sexual violence in the national press. Zarkov examines how male sexual victimization was presented in Croatian and Serbian mass media, after first passing through the filter of nationalism. In the press the author examined, sexually assaulted men were all but visible. An investigation of the Croatian and Serbian Press from November 1991 to December 1993 found only six articles in the Croatian press, compared to over 100 about other forms of torture experienced by Croat men and over 60 about the rape of women. The Serbian press did not publish a single text about sexual torture of men. In the Croatian press the only visible male victim of rape and castration was a Muslim man, while the Croatian man was never mentioned as either being raped/castrated or raping other men. Serbian men, on the other hand, were mentioned as sodomists who rape (Muslim) men. The author argues that, the need of the newly emerging Croatian state to have its symbolic virility preserved through the preserved virility, power, and heterosexuality of Croatian men was crucial for the representation of the sexual violence against men.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Media, Torture, Sexual Torture, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Men Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Croatia, Serbia

Year: 2001

Citation:

Weaver, Hilary N. 2005. “Reexamining What We Think  We Know: A Lesson Learned from Tamil Refugees.” Affilia 20 (2): 238–45.

Author: Hilary N. Weaver

Abstract:

This article describes a project designed to create a culturally appropriate tool to assess trauma in Tamil people who have fled civil war in Sri Lanka. In addition to being culturally appropriate, the project sought to determine if the assessment tool would adequately measure trauma experienced by women. Despite concern that Tamil women would be reluctant to discuss sexual assault, in this project women did indeed describe their traumatic experiences and often preferred to do so in the presence of multiple people. Notably, Tamil men also commonly stated that they experienced sexual assault. As social workers, we are reminded that there is a continual need to question assumptions, especially those about what we expect people from a particular culture to think, believe, and do.

Keywords: cultural competence, Rape survivors, refugees, Tamil

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Men, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, SV against Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2005

Citation:

Razack, Sherene. 2005. “How Is White Supremacy Embodied? Sexualized Racial Violence at Abu Ghraib.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 17 (2): 341–63.

Author: Sherene Razack

Abstract:

The violence inflicted on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, by both male and female American and British soldiers, was very clearly sexualized. A pyramid of naked male prisoners forced to simulate sodomy conveyed graphically that the project of empire, the West's domination of the non-West, requires strong infusions of a violent heterosexuality and patriarchy. This article explores what we can learn from Abu Ghraib about how empire is embodied and how it comes into existence through multiple systems of domination. In the first part, I discuss the role of visual practices and the making of racial hierarchies a consideration made necessary by the 1,800 photos of torture. In the second part, I consider the violence as a ritual that enables white men to achieve a sense of mastery over the racial other, at the same time that it provides a sexualized intimacy forbidden in white supremacy and patriarchy. In the third part of this article, I consider the role of white women at Abu Ghraib, arguing that it is as members of their race that we can best grasp white women's participation in the violence—a participation that facilitates the same mastery and gendered intimacy afforded to white men who engage in racial violence. In the conclusion, I consider the regime of racial terror in evidence at Abu Ghraib and other places, focusing on terror as a "trade in mythologies" that organizes the way that bodies come to express the racial arrangements of empire.

Keywords: political prisoners, prisons, race, heterosexuality, patriarchy, torture, sexual violence

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Race, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, Male Perpetrators, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Men, SV against Women, Sexuality Regions: MENA, Americas, North America, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq, United States of America

Year: 2005

Citation:

Engels, Bettina. 2004. “Rape and Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity.” Politikon: The IAPSS Journal, no. 8, 59-70.

Author: Bettina Engels

Abstract:

With her paper Rape as a War Crime (Politikon 6/2003, p. 55-69), Andrea Theocharis has put an issue on the agenda, which has long been missing in Politikon’s discussions. [Engels is] grateful to Andrea for starting an important debate, which [Engels] would like to continue by giving some remarks to her contribution focusing on the gender constructionist dimension of rape in violent conflicts. Agreeing with Andrea, [Engels] will argue that rape and sexual violence are not only systematic and strategic weapons in violent conflicts but gendered crimes which cannot be analyzed appropriately without theorizing social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity. [Engels] will outline how gender-blind approaches fail to meet the issue of rape in violent conflicts. By mentioning some exemplary empirical figures, [Engels] will show that rape in violent conflicts is neither a new phenomena nor can it be considered a by-product of war. It must be emphasized that rape is not an act of sexuality but a crime against human physical and psychical integrity. [Engels] will discuss gender-sensitive approaches, which analyze rape in violent conflicts. Special attention will be paid to the view of rape as an act of male violence against women, which has also been outlined by Andrea. [Engels] will then focus on the construction of hegemonic masculinity and the widely ignored fact that also men are victims of rape and sexual torture in violent conflicts. [Engels] will conclude with emphasizing that constructions of femininity and masculinity are integral to violent conflicts in general and to rape and sexual violence in particular. If mainstream conflict analysis continues to ignore the dimensions of gender constructions, it will fail to meet its subject appropriately.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Men

Year: 2004

Citation:

Zarkov, Dubravka. 2004. “Masculinities and Sexual Violence: A Global View." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal, March 17.

Author: Dubravka Zarkov

Abstract:

The paper explores how masculinities shape and construct men's sexual violence against men and boys in conflict settings worldwide. Constructions of gender, economic interest, religion and culture will be critically interrogated and deployed. A course for future research will be sketched, building on the author's earlier published work, which derived from local press studies in the former Yugoslavia during the period of local/international conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Men, Sexuality

Year: 2004

Citation:

Card, Claudia. 1997. “Addendum to ‘Rape as a Weapon of War'.” Hypatia 12 (2): 216–8.

Author: Claudia Card

Abstract:

Learning about martial sex crimes against men has made me rethink some of my ideas about rape as a weapon of war and how to respond to it. Such crimes can be as racist as they are sexist and, in the case of male victims, may be quite simply racist.

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Men, SV against Women, Weapons /Arms

Year: 1997