Gender, narrative and affect: Top-down politics of commemoration in post-genocide Rwanda

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Mannergren Selimovic
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Present State ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Top Down ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Specific Category ◽  
Key Sites

This article takes an interest in gendered memory politics and addresses the dearth of research on gender and commemoration in relation to the genocide in Rwanda. It analyses elite-produced gendered narratives at key sites of commemoration and investigates their affective role in constituting the post-genocide Rwandan state. Through a methodological approach of ‘the situated gaze’, three central observations are made. First, women are mourned as a specific category of rape victims and mothers. Second, women’s experiences of sexual violence are at the same time censored and de-individualized. Third, no other experiences, beyond being a victim, are taken into account. The article finds that the top-down affective memory politics circumscribes the role women played during and after the genocide, and restricts their agency within the present state project of ‘national unity and reconciliation’.

scholarly journals It's The Same Old Story: Rape Representation in New Zealand Newspapers (1975 - 2015)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ange Barton
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
The Media

<p>Newspaper reporting of rape, and in particular, representations of women as rape victims, have historically been presented by the media in a misinformed manner, influenced by myths and misconceptions about the dynamics of sexual violence. Previous research has shown media depictions can promote victim-blaming attitudes which affect society’s understanding toward sexual violence, promoting false narratives and rape-supportive beliefs. Victim narratives of sexual victimisation struggle within a ‘culture of silencing’ that prevents the majority of sexual offending from coming to the attention of authorities, and identifying the silencing of women’s experiences of rape has, and continues to be, a key objective for feminist scholars. Newspapers are one medium which has been exclusionary of women's experiences, therefore it is important to look at the role of newspapers on a longitudinal level to investigate whether there have been changes in reporting practices and attitudes. To address this issue, this study draws on feminist perspectives and adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology utilising newspaper articles as a specific source of inquiry. Articles concerning male-female rape were collected from eight prominent New Zealand newspapers across a 40 year period from 1975 – 2015 with individual years for analysis being 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Results from this analysis show minimal inclusion of women’s words regarding newspaper commentary in articles concerning rape. This study also found that across the four decades of analysis, newspapers consistently reported the rape of women by strangers, and sympathetic justice system responses were achieved if the victim was ‘respectable’ and adhered to an ‘appropriate’ version of femininity. The findings from this study illustrate discourses that reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to the responsibility of women to protect themselves from rape. The implications from this research can be utilised to better inform journalists in their reporting practices on sexual violence cases in the New Zealand press, with a hope to challenge the way that newspaper reporters and consumers think about constructing rape, and women as rape victims.</p>

scholarly journals It's The Same Old Story: Rape Representation in New Zealand Newspapers (1975 - 2015)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ange Barton
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
The Media

<p>Newspaper reporting of rape, and in particular, representations of women as rape victims, have historically been presented by the media in a misinformed manner, influenced by myths and misconceptions about the dynamics of sexual violence. Previous research has shown media depictions can promote victim-blaming attitudes which affect society’s understanding toward sexual violence, promoting false narratives and rape-supportive beliefs. Victim narratives of sexual victimisation struggle within a ‘culture of silencing’ that prevents the majority of sexual offending from coming to the attention of authorities, and identifying the silencing of women’s experiences of rape has, and continues to be, a key objective for feminist scholars. Newspapers are one medium which has been exclusionary of women's experiences, therefore it is important to look at the role of newspapers on a longitudinal level to investigate whether there have been changes in reporting practices and attitudes. To address this issue, this study draws on feminist perspectives and adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology utilising newspaper articles as a specific source of inquiry. Articles concerning male-female rape were collected from eight prominent New Zealand newspapers across a 40 year period from 1975 – 2015 with individual years for analysis being 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Results from this analysis show minimal inclusion of women’s words regarding newspaper commentary in articles concerning rape. This study also found that across the four decades of analysis, newspapers consistently reported the rape of women by strangers, and sympathetic justice system responses were achieved if the victim was ‘respectable’ and adhered to an ‘appropriate’ version of femininity. The findings from this study illustrate discourses that reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to the responsibility of women to protect themselves from rape. The implications from this research can be utilised to better inform journalists in their reporting practices on sexual violence cases in the New Zealand press, with a hope to challenge the way that newspaper reporters and consumers think about constructing rape, and women as rape victims.</p>

Is it worth having focused values?

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 2370-2392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Malbašić ◽  
Frederic Marimon ◽  
Marta Mas-Machuca
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Effectiveness ◽  
Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Organizational Values ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Values ◽  
Specific Category ◽  
Other Information ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a specific category of organizational values on organizational effectiveness. Specifically, the aim of the paper is twofold: to propose a metric scale for assessing the organizational values, and to find the impact that different categories of values have on the overall effectiveness of the organization, as an overall measure of organizational success. Moreover, this second objective is expanded with the moderation between values and effectiveness when different balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives are attended in a balanced way. Design/methodology/approach The methodological approach is empirical, based on surveying employees – in total 813 valid responses were obtained, alongside with other information sources within 24 companies in the Republic of Croatia. A set of analyses using structural equation modelling were conducted in order to: define a scale to assess organizational values, assess the impact of different categories of values on organizational effectiveness, and assess the moderator role of the balancing attention to stakeholders. Findings The findings show that construct of organizational values is multifactorial, composed by business, relational, development, and contribution values. These values categories (except relational values) are significant antecedents of effectiveness. Moreover, the balancing of the attention paid to different BSC perspectives moderates the impact of the contribution values on effectiveness. Originality/value The present study sought to expand the understanding of organizational values and their impact on performance and to ask if focussing on a specific category of values can increase the overall level of organizational effectiveness.

Women and Genocide in Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Jessee
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Written Sources

Genocide, defined in international law as killings and related mass atrocities that are committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” has negatively impacted countless communities across Africa over the centuries. The resulting historical literature is strongest regarding those genocides that occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries due to a tendency to privilege written sources. Within this literature, African women’s experiences remain understudied compared to the experiences of men, despite widespread recognition that genocides often affect people differently according to their gender identity. However, in looking at the widely studied examples of colonial genocides in Belgian-occupied Congo (1885–1908) and German-occupied Namibia (1904–1908), and the subsequent genocides in Burundi (1972), Rwanda (1994), and Sudan (2003–2008), it becomes evident that perpetrators have targeted women in particular ways as part of their broader efforts to exterminate unwanted communities. While women are frequently killed alongside men during genocides, the literature on these case studies abounds with examples of sexual violence, particularly rape, that the perpetrators inflict upon women as part of their efforts to undermine the social vitality of their intended victims’ communities. Women’s experiences of genocide are often far more diverse than the literature’s singular focus on sexual violence suggests, however. The case of Rwanda demonstrates that women can also serve as combatants and perpetrators, while the case of Belgian-occupied Congo reveals that women can lead resistance movements in opposition to genocidal violence. Similarly, German-occupied Namibia and Rwanda demonstrate that women can serve important roles in rebuilding their communities and advocating for recognition and reparations in the post-genocide period. Scholars are beginning to pay greater attention to women’s diverse experiences of genocide, but there is a great deal of research to be undertaken, particularly regarding how different facets of women’s identities, such as class, ethnicity, and socio-economic status, among others, shape their experiences of genocide.

scholarly journals Textbooks, Postcards, and the Public Consolidation of Nationalism in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-542
Author(s):  
Anna Kyriazi ◽  
Matthias vom Hau
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Ideology ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Popular Nationalism

Abstract The existing macro-historical scholarship tends to assert rather than demonstrate the wider impact of nationalism. Yet, state-sponsored national ideologies permeate the broader reaches of society to varying degrees. To investigate variations in the consolidation of official nationalism, this paper combines the content analysis of school textbooks as state-regulated and picture postcards as primarily market-driven sources. Building on this novel methodological approach, we find that textbooks published in mid-twentieth-century Argentina, Mexico, and Peru promoted a similar popular nationalism that portrayed the lower classes as “true” national subjects. However, picture postcards from the same period demonstrate that the consolidation of this official national ideology varied. In Mexico and Peru, the new state-sponsored conceptions of nationhood gained presence in public life, but they did not to take hold in Argentina. We conclude that studying the top-down nationalist messages promoted by states should not be equated with studying their ideological impact in public life.

scholarly journals Recognizing Connections Between Intimate Partner Sexual Violence and Pornography

2020 ◽  
pp. 107780122097135
Author(s):  
Laura Tarzia ◽  
Meagan Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Unexpected Finding ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Pornography Use

In this article, we call for a more concerted effort to understand the ways in which pornography might be used in, and contribute to, intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV). We seek to address this through an overview of existing work and the introduction of data from an Australian-based project on women’s experiences of IPSV, where pornography use was an unexpected finding. Furthermore, we argue that there is a pressing need to address such issues now, given the increasing mainstreaming of pornography. Our findings contribute toward a better understanding of the context and dynamics of IPSV for women and suggest that pornography ought to be a greater focus in prevention efforts.

scholarly journals Marital Rape: The Long Arch of Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 326-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Marital Rape ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Severe Degree ◽  
Affirmative Defense

If no permanent injury has been inflicted, nor malice, cruelty nor dangerous violence shown by the husband, it is better to draw the curtain, shut out the public gaze, and leave the parties to forget and forgive.State v. Oliver, 70 N.C. 60, 62 (1874)Prologue: The ContextSadly, sexual violence against women and girls remains deeply entrenched and politicized around the globe. Perhaps no other allegation of crime exposes a woman’s credibility to such intense hostility and imposes the penalties of shame and stigma to a more severe degree than alleging rape. Factors irrelevant to sexual violence, including the victim’s choice of clothing, hairstyle, and time of the attack frequently serve as points of searching inquiry, and scrutiny. Such extraneous points of critique further compound an atmosphere of shaming and stigmatization associated with sexual violence, but are seen as crucial in bolstering an affirmative defense and inevitably building the case against rape victims.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence in the Netherlands, the Risk of Revictimization and Pregnancy: Results From a National Population Survey

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stans de Haas ◽  
Willy van Berlo ◽  
Floor Bakker ◽  
Ine Vanwesenbeeck
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
International Body ◽  
Experienced Adult

Prevalence figures on sexual violence among a representative sample of both men and women were not yet available for the Netherlands. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the prevalence of sexual violence in the Netherlands and to add these figures to the international body of knowledge. Experiences of sexual violence during lifetime, before the age of 16 and in the year before the start of the study were measured. In addition, types of sexual violence were examined, as were the characteristics of the perpetrators. Lastly, revictimization and pregnancy as a result of rape experiences among the victims were investigated. Data were generated from a population survey on sexual health. The sample consisted of more than 6,000 men and women between the age of 15 and 70 years old. Prevalence rates as high as 21% for men and 56% for women were found. Fifty percent of the female victims and 30% of the male victims of child sexual abuse had experienced adult victimization. Of the female rape victims, 7% became pregnant as a consequence of rape. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, the prevention of sexual violence should be prioritized.

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