I would argue that most South Africans have endured rape culture which allows violence to persist with little resistance. It’s undeniable that things aren’t right in South Africa when it comes to sexual violence. Last year’s crime stats show 68 332 reported “sexual offences” and this doesn’t account for the many offences which aren’t reported. There are other reasons why these stats aren’t great, but that’s a talk for another day.
What is rape culture?
“Rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm. In a rape culture, both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes” (Melissa McEwan)
Sounds like a scary place to live for women, but it is also a scary place to live for men. Rape culture affects both men and women negatively. Apart from the obvious reasons that if South Africans buy into rape culture more people will be raped, there are some subtle reasons why it is bad for men and women in a Hegelian master-slave dialectic kind of way, and in the other obvious kind of way that limits people’s freedom.
Why is rape culture bad for women? Well, this quote from Melissa McEwan should clear it all up.
“Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women’s daily movements. Rape culture is telling girls and women to be careful about what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you are alone, if you’re with a stranger, if you’re in a group, if you’re in a group of strangers, if it’s dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you’re carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you’re wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who’s around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who’s at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defence, to always be alert, always pay attention, always watch your back, always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn’t follow all the rules it’s your fault.“
South Africa’s rape culture makes it hard for women to act without entering into a situation where they might take the blame for rape. South Africa’s rape culture takes away women’s freedom of movement, speech, action and their ownership of their bodies. It transfers the ownership of women’s bodies to the public space, and sustaining this rape culture makes it OK to do what you need to, to a woman’s body because it is not her own.
So why is rape culture bad for men? Rape culture makes violence against women, and against men who are seen as effeminate, an essential part of male bonding. Rape culture increases sexual bullying in schools, male rape in prison and gay bashing. Rape culture skews the perspective of young boys towards women, and towards other men. Rape culture makes it scary for men to admit that they have been raped, because they are unlikely to receive support, are unlikely to be believed, and because they feel that to be raped is to be un-manly.
I think perhaps one of the critical reasons that rape culture also harms men is because it makes men afraid of talking about rape. If they bring up the subject people wonder what they are thinking, why they are asking, or what they have done. Not all men rape, but rape culture makes it seem as though they do. Rape culture builds up myths and norms about who a rapist is, and who a rape victim might be. As Melissa McEwan says:
“Rape culture is the idea that only certain people rape — and only certain people get raped. Rape culture is ignoring that the thing about rapists is that they rape people. They rape people who are strong and people who are weak, people who are smart and people who are dumb, people who fight back and people who submit just to get it over with, people who are sluts and people who are prudes, people who are rich and people who are poor … people of every race and shape and size and ability and circumstance.“
Rape culture treats surviving rape as something to be ashamed of. Rape culture doesn’t shame rapists — it instead tries to find justifications for what they did.
So what’s my point? The point is that South African rape culture is stopping us all from talking about rape. We are all afraid that people hearing us talking about it will be wondering whether we have been raped, or whether we are a rapist. Rape culture treats people who talk about rape as oversensitive when in fact it should be treating people who don’t talk about rape in a country where every minute someone is raped as insensitive.
I think what we need to be doing is talking more. Talking more about rape. Talking about what we can do to stop it. Talking about what we can do to stop it being socially explicable. Talking about how we can support male and female survivors. Talking about how we, and the criminal justice system, need to support survivors better.
Essentially we need to break the silence around this rape culture. Because being raped is never your fault, and no culture is immutable.
No,no,no… less talk, more action.
We really need the death penalty for these rapists. I don’t see the point of nurturing them or sending them to prison where they corrupt lesser criminals.
Our constitution is far too liberal, so much so that the victim is now the baddie, and the perpertrator must be hugged and comforted.
And Jesus weeps…
I’m not sure how applicable the idea of “rape culture” is to the situation we have in SA. I’m sure you are aware of this, author, but SA is one of the only places in the world where you are MUCH more likely to be raped by a stranger than an acquaintance. For this reason, one needs to re-think the whole mantra of rape is about power and not sex. There is something much more fundamentally wrong with SA, disempowered women and the sense of entitlement of African men, could be one point.
MsAnn Thrope I work in the field and all our statistics indicate that you are more likely to be raped by someone you know. Incest is particularly problematic. If you have stats or evidence that suggests otherwise I would be really interested to read it.
Rape is most certainly about power, even if it is a stranger. It is about that stranger saying that you do not have ownership over your body, they do.
I’m also really worried about your ‘African’ men comment. I’m not sure if you mean all men who live in Africa or if you’re making a comment about rapists being black…either way, it’s problematic. Rapists come in all shapes, sizes, races, religions, ages and forms. There is no one ‘rapist’ category. That is essential to understand.
Also not sure what the ‘disempowered women’ reference was for. Do you think empowered women are less likely to be raped?
I’ve never known how it feels NOT to take into account the list Jen quotes above from author Melissa McEwan.
As pre-schoolers we were taught not to answer if a strange man or teenage boy spoke to us. At school girls were taught that they must keep ‘custody of the eyes’ and not look males of any age in the eyes in public. (Family members–rightly or wrongly–were exempt). We were not to play jumping rope or run in skirts or school uniforms.
Of course, the reasons for this caution was never made explicit, only that ‘bad things’ could happen if we weren’t careful.
At the onset of menarche more pressure was added because of the danger of pregnancy. As teens we were taught that girls were responsible if boys went ‘too far’. The message was that boys either couldn’t or wouldn’t be held responsible for their sexuality so it fell to girls to be the ‘purity’ enforcers.
Virginity was our most precious possession and it was to be ‘given’ only to our husbands in marriage and in that context we were obliged to have sex as often as our husbands wanted it.
The overall message was that females were walking targets for would-be rapists. We did not own our bodies; we merely occupied them. Once married our bodies belonged to our husbands.
Rape culture is very convenient–for men which is why rape is rationalised and not seen as a serious crime.
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for your impressive article and for your calculated response to MsAnn Thrope’s comments, you said what I wanted to much better than I could have done.
Please keep up your important work, this is something everyone needs to hear.
Jennifer, I have just read the article where 1/3 of men admitted to rape. They say the demographics were 90-10 black-white in the survey. Was the 1/3 evenly spread across races? This is not reported. Common prejudice would conclude that it is more a “black” than “white” phenomenon. Is this true, or is this not an allowed stat?
“Rachel Jewkes, director of the Gender and Health Research Unit at the MRC, pointed out that only 18% of rapes were perpetrated by partners. “This is a unique and special feature seen in South Africa, that to rape a stranger or acquaintance is more common than to rape an intimate partner,” she said. In most countries, rape is usually perpetrated by someone close to the victim.”
-M&G Study shows war on women begins at home
FARANAAZ PARKER
By “African” I meant the continent (Being “melanin enhanced” myself its funny that you saw that as racist
). The brutal rapes which happen in the DRC are a case in point. The gender inequalities in the majority of Africa surely have a role to play in this.
To explain “disempowerment” : Recent surveys (reported in the M&G) show that most women don’t think a wife can be raped by her husband. Ofcourse empowered women are not less likely to be raped, but they are in a better position to do something positive about the sitaution, or simply even to realise that rape is not a norm of life- therby ending the abuse rather than perpetuating it generation after generation.
The notion of rape culture is designed to instil fear, to foster guilt and to rationalise female sexism. The definition by McEwan above is virtually from any sect-like manuscript like The Bible or the Quran whereby it’s impossible to be pure. In other words, it is impossible not to live in a rape culture with definitions that are so murky that they cannot be falsified. Thus any culture where at least one gender has a penis is a rape culture by virtue of the fact that it has the tools for not only committing rape, but to keep penisless genders in a constant fear of being raped. Note that no actual rape has to occur at all, yet somehow it still passes as a rape culture. That’s like saying China has a big rugby culture because they produce most of the rugby jerseys in the world, yet they don’t participate in any rugby.
That being said, I find it troublesome to prescribe that the rape epidemic in South Africa is somehow connected to a ‘rape culture’. All prevalent cultures in South Africa strongly condemn rape, even rural cultures whereby AIDS and other diseases are thought to be cured by sleeping with a virgin. Thus, if culture did determine a specific outcome, there would not be any rapists in South Africa. Changing our cultures won’t fix rape statistics, because our cultures are already fixed to condemn rape. It would also be helpful to consider how many rape prosecutions there are versus how many rapes get reported, as this would give a clearer indication of the real underlying rape problem and alleviate the influence of people crying wolf. A reported crime does not necessarily mean that a crime was committed. Though I do feel the Jacob Zuma rape case did plenty of damage to the perception of real rape victims, I do not think the comments made during that trial by retards like Julius Malema is indicative of South African culture in general. We have a very conservative mean culture where even extramarital sex is frowned upon (another example of culture not fixing perceived problems..).
There is another reason that the rape culture is bad for men and that is that women look at ALL men with some suspicion and distrust. If I see a man alone with a child, I am suspicious of his trustworthiness in regard to that child. If I see a single man or a group of men walking anywhere that is not crowded, I am wary about my safety. When I am aware that a woman is overly quiet and withdrawn, I suspect an abusive husband.
Because of the level of rape in South Africa, ALL men in South Africa are tainted. ALL are regarded with suspicion and fear unless long acquaintance with them has proved their trustworthiness.
Despite this slur that hangs over their gender, most men seem unconcerned about the level of abuse and rape. Few men state publicly and loudly that they reject those who abuse and rape. Few men publicly scorn these men. Fathers do not speak out to protest against them, even though their actions tarnish the trustworthiness of ALL fathers. Few men say NOT IN MY NAME.
There is no acknowledgement from MEN that the concept of masculinity is problematic, that men who feel societal pressure to prove their masculinity are often those who abuse and rape. Rape is a male problem. But, besides the unusual man, women are the ones who are working against this scourge.
MEN themselves need to work to clear women’s fear and distrust of ALL men.
This sounds like crime culture with a gender bias. Although rape is your pet subject, I’m not sure it should be taken out of the context of general crime. All victims of crime are disempowered by the perpetrators and all of us must consider Melissa McEwan’s points in relation to our safety. Which does not mean I am critical of the points you’ve made. I just found myself wishing that I could read something new on the subject. I guess I feel the same about crime, AIDS and many other issues. They have been with us so long that they have become part of South Africa’s way of life. I wonder what this country will be remembered for in the history books?
@ Jennifer Thorpe.
This was a really silly article, and if u r an example of people doing “research” on rape in SA, then its no wonder things are in such a mess.
We have many different cultures in RSA, and u need to deconstruct your so-called stats and show us which “culture” or demographic is committing the rapes. Is political correctness more important than solving the problem.
Furthermore, rape is a sexual crime against woman. It has nothing to do with male rape in prison and neither does it concern “POWER”.
When a guy chooses to rape a woman, its not cos he wants to take ownership of the victim, but rather cos he wants to get his rocks off with a stranger and he knows he wont get caught. SIMPLE.
What we need is the DEATH PENALTY and we need certain demographics and cultures to be de-programmed (Maoist style if u will, for all my left leaning comrades out there).
Congratulations finally; A person in SA writing an opinion about rape.I have written extensively on Rape in SA and specifically about the case of Millicent Gaika, a victim of a brutal corrective rape. The Authorities have been disgusting in their treatment of the victim. Its more than a culture of rape, It stems from entitlement, The recent SA Medical Research Foundation stats show 1 in 3 men in Gauteng admit to rape and 78% of women suffered violence. The government needs to alter the so called culture thru educating youngsters, improving forensics, providing resources for victims and inviting brave warrior women to tell their stories. Read my latest of many many articles http://lezgetreal.com/2010/11/south-africa-new-rape-study-reasons-male-entitlement/ and http://lezgetreal.com/2010/11/south-africa-another-corrective-rape-of-lesbian-victim-committs-suicide/ and
Scathing attack on South African media for failing to cover rape and corrective rape. Also on the SA government for fostering your so called culture of rape, to the point almost of being complicit. No big surprise where 1 in 4 men in SA admit to raping a woman- you have to believe that the same one in 4 sit in Parliament and at the Police Station.
Excellent article Jennifer, and we do need more actions to change the situation. Strong lobbying of MPs etc, hard questions to religious bodies whose own take is that the “women asked for it”. Are men so frail they have NO selfcontrol – pull the other one! Insistence that the life sentence for rape be exactly that and that rape is properly investigated. If a few high flyers get caught and sentenced, so much the better.
This is the article published in the UK by The Guardian.
The survey questioned 511 women and 487 men, of whom 90% were black and 10% white.
The sample population consists of only 998 people. In a country with a population of roughly 49 million people, I’m not sure if 0.002036735% of the population in a non-random, localised, Gauteng sample can be presented with an acceptable margin of error to be extrapolated to the entire South African population.
South Africa has roughly a 1 to 1 ratio of males to females and roughly 79% black people versus 9.6% white people, other demographics besides. Thus, sampling only 998 people, with a sample that includes 51% women (instead of 50%) and 90% black people (instead of 87%), no specifications of whether this sample consisted of the 61% urbanised population or the 39% rural population in South Africa and neglecting all other demographic groups in the country can hardly be considered representative of a country with roughly 49 million people.
In fact, it can hardly be representative of the Gauteng province as she has roughly 73% black people versus 19% white people and roughly 51% males to 49% females. It might seem like nitpicking (it is) but on such a small sample that little bit would influence the results greatly.
Which does not mean that there is no rape crisis in South Africa, but we do know that our statistics is questionable – especially our crime statistics, which is highly politicised. Any statistic published willy-nilly in the press cannot be accepted at face value, especially when some are calling for death penalties based on a silly ratio they gained via hearsay. Especially if it seems to have originated with The Guardian (not the most peer-reviewed of sources available).
By the way, if you are ignorant of statistics (like I am) here is a great site to remedy that:
Stat Trek.