scholarly journals Rape as a weapon in genocide and wars: Enquiring the problems of women’s witnessing rape

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Yuyun Sri Wahyuni
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
The Future ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Women’S Writing

This paper seeks to better understand rape as a weapon in genocide and wars, the myriads contributing factors to creating ignorance to rape as a weapon in genocide, other forms of sexual violations, and circumstances that prevent women from witnessing rape acts of genocide violence. Drawing from the feminist perspectives of rape and women's sexual violence theorization, Derrida's accounts of truth and witness, and women as an improper mythic being-tainted witness, this paper shows that the current global gender inequality discrimination perpetuates the practice of rape as a weapon of genocide and wars as well as a repudiation for women's witnessing rape and sexual violations. As this situation of women rape survivors' desertions are not only happened in the Rwanda genocide and witnessing rapes for rape victims and survivors are equally challenging, this paper serves an alternative to support women's witnessing rapes and prevent rape the weapon of war to reoccur in the future. Further, Derrida's considerations on law should extend the notions of witnessing beyond the traditional European juridical tradition that excludes literature from legal exercise of witnessing as literature is regarded as mostly only fiction upbrings witnessing through literature as secret testimony is a useful interpretation on women's witnessing rape. Deciphering Derrida's description of witnessing through literature, this paper also recommends that women's writing literature can be an effective way for women to testify independently of the various gendered political disciplining gazes that hold them back from giving testimonies and then gain liberations.

scholarly journals #MeToo or "Me Too"?: Defining Our Terms

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin L. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Women's Narratives ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject

How we talk about misogyny and sexual violence in literary texts matters—to our students, to our colleagues, and to the future of the humanities and of higher education—and the “Me Too” movement has revived with new urgency debates about how to do that. In this essay, I explore the ethical implications of invoking the “Me Too” movement in the classroom, and I offer a model for designing a course that does not simply present women’s narratives as objects of study but rather uses those narratives to give students opportunities and tools to participate in the “Me Too” movement themselves. To re-think eighteenth-century women’s writing in light of “Me Too,” I contend, is to participate in the movement, and so in our teaching we must engage with the ethics of the movement as well as the subject matter.

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>

Gender and Chinese Translations of Chinese American Women’s Literature: Marital Sexual Violence in Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-371
Author(s):  
Beibei Tang
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Women's Literature ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Gender Consciousness ◽  
Feminist Consciousness ◽  
Women’S Writing

Comparing three Chinese translations of Amy Tan’s novel The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), this article explores gender issues in Chinese translations of Chinese American women’s literature from a feminist perspective. Using the feminist concept of female alienation, it explores how feminist consciousness and sexual alienation caused by marital sexual violence in the source text are expressed in the Chinese translations, and how far the translations achieve (feminist) translation equivalence. Special attention is paid to the translators’ gender consciousness and ideologies, as reflected in their translations, in order to explore the role played by gender in the translation of women’s writing.

scholarly journals Unfolding Knowledge on Sexual Violence Experienced by Black Lesbian Survivors in the Townships of Cape Town, South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Jacqueline K. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
Black Lesbians

Sexual violence is conceptualised as a hate or bias-motivated crime, and is recognised as a social problem of global proportion. However, the platform for this paper focuses on incidents of rape in South Africa, a country where the most progressive legislation concerning sexual minorities is enforced, including gender non-conforming people namely Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI). South Africa still must address rape inflicted on black lesbians residing in Cape Town townships, despite gender equality being granted in on the basis of sexual orientation (Silvio, 2011). The same applies to same sex marriages, making South Africa the role model of other African countries yet to be included in the signatory to the 2008 United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. An alternative concept to categorising rape as a hate crime might be a more effective tool in the legislation to combat rape based on sexual orientation; justice will be served as a female homosexual enjoys equal citizenship as that of a heterosexual citizen. Preliminary findings show that some rape victims became mothers as a result of the rape. Rape victims discuss conception due to corrective rape and how this affects the mother-child relationship. Feedback from victims include coping mechanisms from religious beliefs to alcohol abuse. None of the rape-survivors interviewed in this study contracted HIV/AIDS as a consequence of the rape.

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>

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