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| Rape is about power, not sex | Rape is about power, not sex |
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| Traditional gender roles, a self-policing community, hierarchies where certain people are considered untouchable: that's a perfect recipe for rampant sexual abuse and inadequate prosecution. We've seen it in the Catholic church, in Hasidic Jewish communities, among Mennonites in Bolivia. So why don't we learn from these patterns? Why are religious authorities, mainstream politicians and even institutions of higher learning promoting the same mechanisms that keep sexual assault both pervasive and under-reported? | Traditional gender roles, a self-policing community, hierarchies where certain people are considered untouchable: that's a perfect recipe for rampant sexual abuse and inadequate prosecution. We've seen it in the Catholic church, in Hasidic Jewish communities, among Mennonites in Bolivia. So why don't we learn from these patterns? Why are religious authorities, mainstream politicians and even institutions of higher learning promoting the same mechanisms that keep sexual assault both pervasive and under-reported? |
| In an astounding piece of reporting for Vice, journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky revisits the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, where in 2011 she covered the rape trials of members of the insular Mennonite community. At least 130 Mennonite women and girls were raped in the colony over several years, by at least nine men. Assailants would drug their victims before assaulting them; the victims would awaken with little memory of the attack. For years, complaints were ignored or brushed off as crazy female delusions or cover-ups for affairs. There were no prosecutions for rapes of men and boys, but community residents told Friedman-Rudovsky that women weren't the only victims. The oldest victim was 65. The youngest was three. | In an astounding piece of reporting for Vice, journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky revisits the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, where in 2011 she covered the rape trials of members of the insular Mennonite community. At least 130 Mennonite women and girls were raped in the colony over several years, by at least nine men. Assailants would drug their victims before assaulting them; the victims would awaken with little memory of the attack. For years, complaints were ignored or brushed off as crazy female delusions or cover-ups for affairs. There were no prosecutions for rapes of men and boys, but community residents told Friedman-Rudovsky that women weren't the only victims. The oldest victim was 65. The youngest was three. |
| It's rumored that despite the prosecutions, the rapes continue, and incest appears to be rampant. There has been little public discussion of the assaults, and the victims have received no mental health counseling. Many of the girls who were raped have never been told what happened to them. The colony – or at least the men who run it – seems to have a collective decision to pretend the assaults never happened. | It's rumored that despite the prosecutions, the rapes continue, and incest appears to be rampant. There has been little public discussion of the assaults, and the victims have received no mental health counseling. Many of the girls who were raped have never been told what happened to them. The colony – or at least the men who run it – seems to have a collective decision to pretend the assaults never happened. |
| The residents of Manitoba Colony essentially police themselves, and men occupy all positions of authority. Women can't legally represent themselves, so the plaintiffs in the rape trials were five men – husbands and fathers of the actual victims. Boys stay in school a year longer than girls in order to learn math and bookkeeping, skills women are presumed not to need. A woman's duty is to submit to male authority. And forgiveness is centered in religious beliefs, to the point where a failure to forgive those who have wronged you means you won't go to heaven. The women and girls of Manitoba were simply told that if they didn't forgive their rapists, God would not forgive them. | The residents of Manitoba Colony essentially police themselves, and men occupy all positions of authority. Women can't legally represent themselves, so the plaintiffs in the rape trials were five men – husbands and fathers of the actual victims. Boys stay in school a year longer than girls in order to learn math and bookkeeping, skills women are presumed not to need. A woman's duty is to submit to male authority. And forgiveness is centered in religious beliefs, to the point where a failure to forgive those who have wronged you means you won't go to heaven. The women and girls of Manitoba were simply told that if they didn't forgive their rapists, God would not forgive them. |
| Earlier this year in New York City, a man who accused a powerful member of the Hasidic Jewish community of molestation was first shunned, then indicted on criminal charges. This week, the US military began hearings on rape charges brought against three US Naval Academy football players. | Earlier this year in New York City, a man who accused a powerful member of the Hasidic Jewish community of molestation was first shunned, then indicted on criminal charges. This week, the US military began hearings on rape charges brought against three US Naval Academy football players. |
| In Mumbai, India, five men have been arrested for yet another internationally-publicized gang rape, and the highest court is sounding the alarm over the fact that more than three-quarters of rape cases end in acquittal. Two years after a complaint sparked a federal investigation, Yale says it will finally clarify its position on "nonconsensual sex" – or "rape" as it's better known – to clarify that it does punish offenders and doesn't let them off with written reprimands, as an earlier report suggested. In Egypt, thousands of women have been sexually assaulted and gang raped in Tahrir Square over the past two and a half years, with no assailants prosecuted. In the US, a former high school teacher will spend just 30 days in jail for raping a 14-year-old student who later committed suicide, because the girl was "as much in control of the situation" as her 49-year-old teacher and was "older than her chronological age". | In Mumbai, India, five men have been arrested for yet another internationally-publicized gang rape, and the highest court is sounding the alarm over the fact that more than three-quarters of rape cases end in acquittal. Two years after a complaint sparked a federal investigation, Yale says it will finally clarify its position on "nonconsensual sex" – or "rape" as it's better known – to clarify that it does punish offenders and doesn't let them off with written reprimands, as an earlier report suggested. In Egypt, thousands of women have been sexually assaulted and gang raped in Tahrir Square over the past two and a half years, with no assailants prosecuted. In the US, a former high school teacher will spend just 30 days in jail for raping a 14-year-old student who later committed suicide, because the girl was "as much in control of the situation" as her 49-year-old teacher and was "older than her chronological age". |
| Rape isn't perpetrated only by members of one religion, race, nation or belief system. But rapists are particularly abetted by cultures in which women are second-class citizens, where women's bodies are intensely politicized, where social hierarchies outlandishly privilege certain members and where there's a presumption of male authority and righteousness. | Rape isn't perpetrated only by members of one religion, race, nation or belief system. But rapists are particularly abetted by cultures in which women are second-class citizens, where women's bodies are intensely politicized, where social hierarchies outlandishly privilege certain members and where there's a presumption of male authority and righteousness. |
| Rape is a particularly difficult crime because it's about both power and violence. Rapists use sex organs as the locus of their violence, but rape isn't about sex, at least not in the sense of being motivated by sexual attraction or an uncontrollable sexual urge. Rape is about sex in the sense that rapists not only commit acts of sexual violence, but that the pervasive threat of sexual assault is used to limit women's sovereignty and justify sexual assault itself. The reality is that men are much more likely than women to be victims of violence outside of their own homes, yet I know far more women than men who internalize certain supposed violence-avoidance methods: walk with your keys in your hand, take cabs at night, don't accept drinks from strangers, be careful what you wear, don't walk alone after dark. When women are the victims of rape, there's an immediate assessment of what she did wrong and which of her perceived mistakes made her vulnerable to an assailant. An eleven-year-old girl is gang-raped in Texas by a group of grown men and the problem was that she wore make-up and "provocative" clothing. Women in Egypt are stripped and assaulted and their brightly-colored underwear is evidence of immodesty. | Rape is a particularly difficult crime because it's about both power and violence. Rapists use sex organs as the locus of their violence, but rape isn't about sex, at least not in the sense of being motivated by sexual attraction or an uncontrollable sexual urge. Rape is about sex in the sense that rapists not only commit acts of sexual violence, but that the pervasive threat of sexual assault is used to limit women's sovereignty and justify sexual assault itself. The reality is that men are much more likely than women to be victims of violence outside of their own homes, yet I know far more women than men who internalize certain supposed violence-avoidance methods: walk with your keys in your hand, take cabs at night, don't accept drinks from strangers, be careful what you wear, don't walk alone after dark. When women are the victims of rape, there's an immediate assessment of what she did wrong and which of her perceived mistakes made her vulnerable to an assailant. An eleven-year-old girl is gang-raped in Texas by a group of grown men and the problem was that she wore make-up and "provocative" clothing. Women in Egypt are stripped and assaulted and their brightly-colored underwear is evidence of immodesty. |
| Rapists don't rape because they can't "get" sex elsewhere. Rapists don't rape because they're uncontrollably turned on by the sight of some cleavage, or a midriff, or red lipstick, or an ankle. They rape because they're misogynist sadists, and they flourish in places where misogyny is justified as tradition and maleness comes with a presumption of violence. | Rapists don't rape because they can't "get" sex elsewhere. Rapists don't rape because they're uncontrollably turned on by the sight of some cleavage, or a midriff, or red lipstick, or an ankle. They rape because they're misogynist sadists, and they flourish in places where misogyny is justified as tradition and maleness comes with a presumption of violence. |
| Combating rape and sexual assault goes beyond just criminalizing and prosecuting it. It requires an understanding of how many misogynist puzzle pieces fit together – that a cultural belief that the female body is inherently tempting and dirty cannot be separated from actions that do violence to female bodies; that a conceit of eliteness or purity means perpetrators within special elite or pure groups will get away with committing crimes; that community policing is useless for enforcing gendered crimes when community norms privilege men; that the politicization of female sexuality sends a message that the female body is public property and that women are less deserving of basic rights than men. | Combating rape and sexual assault goes beyond just criminalizing and prosecuting it. It requires an understanding of how many misogynist puzzle pieces fit together – that a cultural belief that the female body is inherently tempting and dirty cannot be separated from actions that do violence to female bodies; that a conceit of eliteness or purity means perpetrators within special elite or pure groups will get away with committing crimes; that community policing is useless for enforcing gendered crimes when community norms privilege men; that the politicization of female sexuality sends a message that the female body is public property and that women are less deserving of basic rights than men. |
| Rape happens in every society, and nowhere in the world has perfect gender equality been achieved. But rapes are more likely to be reported in places where men and women are more equal. And rapists are enabled by misogyny, whether it comes in the form of politicians and religious leaders deciding it's the right of the state to regulate reproduction or modesty warriors declaring the female body itself inappropriate. Political violations of the female body abet physical ones; cultural narratives that women tempt men into bad behavior abet legal ones. | Rape happens in every society, and nowhere in the world has perfect gender equality been achieved. But rapes are more likely to be reported in places where men and women are more equal. And rapists are enabled by misogyny, whether it comes in the form of politicians and religious leaders deciding it's the right of the state to regulate reproduction or modesty warriors declaring the female body itself inappropriate. Political violations of the female body abet physical ones; cultural narratives that women tempt men into bad behavior abet legal ones. |
| Abortion restrictions and other political regulations of female sexuality? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Laws on what women can or cannot wear? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Sexualization of young girls in order to sell products? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Reacting to corporate sexualization by telling girls they won't be respected if they're sexy and insisting that female modesty is the answer? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. | Abortion restrictions and other political regulations of female sexuality? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Laws on what women can or cannot wear? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Sexualization of young girls in order to sell products? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. Reacting to corporate sexualization by telling girls they won't be respected if they're sexy and insisting that female modesty is the answer? Part of a culture that tacitly condones rape. |
| It's easy to look at insular, intensely patriarchal far-flung communities like the Mennonites in Bolivia and conclude that of course their old-timey ways and widespread sense of sexual shame allowed for serial rapists to commit more than 100 assaults over several years. It's easy to be appalled at grown men spitting on schoolgirls and calling them sluts because they wore t-shirts. But we should be equally outraged by the less extreme acts of hatred toward women that are no less effective in giving rapists license to operate and keeping victims silent, ashamed and without justice. | It's easy to look at insular, intensely patriarchal far-flung communities like the Mennonites in Bolivia and conclude that of course their old-timey ways and widespread sense of sexual shame allowed for serial rapists to commit more than 100 assaults over several years. It's easy to be appalled at grown men spitting on schoolgirls and calling them sluts because they wore t-shirts. But we should be equally outraged by the less extreme acts of hatred toward women that are no less effective in giving rapists license to operate and keeping victims silent, ashamed and without justice. |
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