SV against Women

"She Drank His Money": Survival Sex and the Problem of Violence in Taverns in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Citation:

Wojcicki, Janet Maia. 2002. “‘She Drank His Money’: Survival Sex and the Problem of Violence in Taverns in Gauteng Province, South Africa.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16 (3): 267–93. doi:10.1525/maq.2002.16.3.267.

Author: Janet Maia Wojcicki

Abstract:

This article examines the practice of "survival sex" in the taverns of Soweto and Hammanskraal area, South Africa. Women who engage in survival sex do not self-identify as commercial sex workers, and the community does not identify them as such. Those who structure HIV prevention programs should not confound such women with commercial sex workers, because effective intervention may vary between the two groups. Violence against women who engage in survival sex in taverns is common, as it is argued that, when a woman accepts beer from a man, she is obliged to exchange sex (because she has "drunk his money"). The South African government should prioritize the reduction of violence as a way to reduce HIV transmission, as, in the context of violence, women do not have the option of negotiating safer sex.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2002

Victim and Survivor: Narrated Social Identities of Women Who Experienced Rape During the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Citation:

Skjelsbaek, Inger. 2006. “Victim and Survivor: Narrated Social Identities of Women Who Experienced Rape During the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Feminism & Psychology 16 (4): 373-403. doi:10.1177/0959353506068746.

Author: Inger Skjelsbaek

Abstract:

This article presents a narrative analysis of interviews with five women who were victims of rape during the Bosnian war. By giving a voice to women who have experienced such an ordeal and letting them position their experiences, we gain insight into the diverse impacts that war rapes have on different victims, their families and relationships. The narrative analysis makes it possible to analyze the war-rape experiences as unique and different from other war-trauma experiences, while simultaneously recognizing the totality in which the war rapes occurred.

Keywords: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gender, narrative analysis, sexual violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Trauma, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2006

In/fertility among Korea’s "Comfort Women" Survivors: A Comparative Perspective

Citation:

Soh, C. Sarah. 2006. “In/fertility among Korea’s ‘Comfort Women’ Survivors: A Comparative Perspective.” Women’s Studies International Forum 29 (1): 67–80. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2005.10.007.

Author: C. Sarah Soh

Abstract:

This article explores the social psychological and physiological impact of wartime military sexual slavery on postwar lives of former "comfort women" by analyzing Korean survivors’ testimonial narratives of han (long-held bitter resentment) and my multisite ethnographic research findings on the topic. Taking a comparative perspective of a "person-centered anthropology," it attempts to historicize the experiences of wartime enforced sexual labor and its impact on reproductive capacity in postwar marital lives among some Korean, Filipino, and Dutch survivors. [Soh] posit[s] the cumulative number (as well as the degree of roughness) of forced sexual intercourse–operationalized as the length of sexual servitude period–as a crucial factor in affecting the survivors’ reproductive successes in postwar marital lives. Other important intervening variables for survivors’ in/fertility that [Soh] theorize[s] include sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive disruptions, and exceptionally privileged treatment resulting in reduced sexual workload.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2006

Young Women's Experiences with Reporting Sexual Assault to Police

Citation:

Vopni, Vicki. 2006. “Young Women’s Experiences with Reporting Sexual Assault to Police.” Canadian Woman Studies 25 (1/2): 107–15.

Author: Vicki Vopni

Abstract:

The literature has well documented women's largely negative experiences of reporting to the police. The prosecution of rapists has been termed "the second rape" because the victim is "twice traumatized"-once by the offender, and then again by the authorities. Research in the area substantiates that as "gatekeepers" to the criminal legal process, police officers play a vital role. The police evaluate sexual assault cases using the same societal standards that have established the "real rape" as genuine and true. Changing the nature of cases brought to the criminal justice system would encourage a re-definition of policing away from the traditional crime-fighting model that many feminists (and others) find problematic (Gartner and Macmillan 423). The larger issue is that the entrenched patriarchal values in our society tolerate and accept some degree of male violence against women. Holding only a handful of perpetrators accountable for their actions does little to curb the widespread incidence of woman abuse. As a result, many young women struggle with naming their experience as a sexual assault when they apply the narrow societal standards of the "real rape." The high incidence of sexual assault among women, especially young adolescents, coupled with the fact that it is severely underreported is a cause for serious concern.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Justice, Security Sector Reform, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women

Year: 2006

True Survivors: East African Refugee Women

Citation:

Schafer, Loveness H. 2002. “True Survivors: East African Refugee Women.” Africa Today 49 (2): 29-48.

Author: Loveness H. Schafer

Abstract:

In this paper, I explain the process asylum seekers from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Somalia went through when they applied for asylum in Malawi between 1997 and 1999. I describe how international conventions concerning refugees were carried out in practice, paying particular attention to places in the process where women refugees confronted certain hardships. More specifically, I explore the ways in which gender-based violence, rape, and other harms particularly committed against women were dealt with in the processing of asylum applications in Malawi. I argue that both international conventions and individual host countries should revamp laws and mechanisms for admitting refugees to more adequately address the problem of gender-based violence. Despite the hardships they faced, women refugees were the real survivors, because they used all their skills and wits to survive their ordeals and save themselves and their children from abuse, torture, and death.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Torture Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia

Year: 2002

How is White Supremacy Embodied? Sexualized Racial Violence at Abu Ghraib

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

Health Consequences of Physical and Sexual Violence: Women in the Military

Citation:

Sadler, A. G., B. M. Booth, D. Nielson, and B. N. Doebbeling. 2000. “Health-Related Consequences of Physical and Sexual Violence: Women in the Military.” Obstetrics & Gynecology 96 (3): 473–80.

Authors: A. G. Sadler , B. M. Booth, D. Nielson, B. N. Doebbeling

Abstract:

Objectives: To identify differences in health-related quality of life among women veterans who were raped, physically assaulted (not in the context of rape or domestic violence), both, or neither during military service.

Methods: We did a cross-sectional telephone survey of a national sample of 558 women veterans who served in Vietnam and subsequent eras of military service. A stratified survey design selected subjects according to era of service and location. The interview included socioeconomic information, lifetime violence history, the Women’s Military Environment Survey to assess women’s military experiences, and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 to assess health-related quality of life.

Results: Five hundred thirty-seven women completed the interview. Half (48%) experienced violence during military service, including rape (30%), physical assault (35%), or both (16%). Women who were raped or dually victimized were more likely to report chronic health problems, prescription medication use for emotional problems, failure to complete college, and annual incomes less than $25,000 (P < .05). Women who were physically assaulted or raped reported significantly lower health-related quality of life (P < .05). Those who had both traumas reported the most severe impairment, comparable to women with chronic illnesses.

Conclusion: This study suggests that the sequelae of violence against women are an important public health concern. More than a decade after rape or physical assault during military service, women reported severely decreased health-related quality of life, with limitations of physical and emotional health, educational and financial attainment, and severe, recurrent problems with work and social activities.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence

Year: 2000

Gendered Embodiments: Mapping the Body-Politic of the Raped Woman and the Nation in Bangladesh

Citation:

Mookherjee, Nayanika. 2008. “Gendered Embodiments: Mapping the Body-Politic of the Raped Woman and the Nation in Bangladesh.” Feminist Review 88: 36-53.

Author: Nayanika Mookherjee

Abstract:

There has been much academic work outlining the complex links between women and the nation. Women provide legitimacy to the political projects of the nation in particular social and historical contexts. This article focuses on the gendered symbolization of the nation through the rhetoric of the 'motherland' and the manipulation of this rhetoric in the context of national struggle in Bangladesh. I show the ways in which the visual representation of this 'motherland' as fertile countryside, and its idealization primarily through rural landscapes has enabled a crystallization of essentialist gender roles for women. This article is particularly interested in how these images had to be reconciled with the subjectivities of women raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War (Muktijuddho) and the role of the aestheticizing sensibilities of Bangladesh's middle class in that process.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2008

If We Could Read and Hear Their Stories…Protection Strategies Employed by Victims of Sexual Violence: A Comparative Study of Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Citation:

Birch, Kathryn. 2008. “If We Could Read and Hear Their Stories…Protection Strategies Employed by Victims of Sexual Violence: A Comparative Study of Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.” The Fletcher Journal of Human Security 23: 47-66.

Author: Kathryn Birch

Abstract:

Sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict societies is a security, public health, human rights issue, and "an act of aggression against a nation or community." The prevalence and severity of sexual violence as well as its subsequent health and socioeconomic consequences fundamentally change societies. Legal and social dimensions, such as women's second class status in the Congo and Liberia, actually support the use of rape and perpetuate its ruthless effects. While rape has been recognized as a war crime and a crime against humanity, very little is known about the protection strategies adopted by victims and their communities' and how these strategies impact society. The context in which the violence occurs and the protection strategies employed by different communities must be better understood in order to develop holistic and effective solutions for bringing justice to the perpetrators of sexual violence and the care of victims.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia

Year: 2008

Armed Conflict, War Rape, and the Commercial Trade in Women and Children’s Labour

Citation:

Farr, Kathryn. 2009. “Armed Conflict, War Rape, and the Commercial Trade in Women and Children’s Labour.” Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan 16 (1 & 2): 1-31.

Author: Kathryn Farr

Abstract:

This research examined militarized sexual violence and the commercial trade in women and children in twenty three countries with ongoing or recently- ended civil wars. Findings indicate a progressive connection between assaultive violence against women during armed conflict and the commercial trade in women and children for sexual and other labour. Today’s armed conflicts target civilian in their homes and towns, in flight from violence, and in refugee and IDP settlements which are largely populated by women and children. In these wars, women suffer severe declines in their economic and security positions, and are at severely increased risk of sexual assaults by military combatants and numerous other war-related groups. Rebel and militia groups’ demands for sexual and other labour lead to both sexual enslavement and the trade of enslaved women and children. War-traumatized women and girls fall prey to traffickers, and trafficking across borders is carried out with relative impunity. With the expansion of supply and demand, sex industries gain a foothold in developing and transitioning civil- war-torn countries, and retain their prominence in traditional trafficking destination countries in the economic North, the Gulf states, and parts of South and Southeast Asia.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Displacement & Migration, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Militias, Non-State Armed Groups, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Labor Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence

Year: 2009

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