Drawing attention to.....

[GuiltyPleasure]

...."Corrective" rape in South Africa.

Help to stop it, please. 1,000,000 needed 707,000 so far and growing worldwide.

 

[Stella_Omega]

We need more than that-- seven million, twelve million voices won't be enough. The leaders there have no reason to listen.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

We need more than that-- seven million, twelve million voices won't be enough. The leaders there have no reason to listen.

I know. It's a drop in the bucket but it might educate some people and create a little pressure on said leaders. Miracles can happen.

 

[Etoile]

Unfortunately online petitions are not generally effective (Betty White on SNL notwithstanding). The issue is important, but a million e-signatures will do nothing to change it.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Indeed. The one I posted about was effective because it could have lead to a boycott or something. The signatures only make a difference if there's some sort of force to bring to bear. The world can't hurt Africa in general any worse than it already has.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Update!

This petition was successful!

Best of all was the government's response. Far from the dismissive arrogance we have been dealing with for months, ministry officials were sensitive, engaged and surprisingly responsive to a smorgasbord of concerns raised over two hours of discussion....

The ministry officials asked for details of specific cases in need of immediate attention, committed to a series of meetings beginning in six weeks, and promised to present “concrete proposals” to tackle ‘corrective rape’ by the next meeting!

“We have a framework to move forward,” said Tlali Tlali. “You have already identified areas where we can immediately start working around and I want us to continue in the spirit of seeking to find solutions.”

...Everyone who participated in this campaign should feel a sense of pride today, as what has been accomplished here is incredible. In just 100 days, a tiny group of township activists have managed to mobilize more than 170,000 people from 163 countries and gotten the highest levels of government to address their basic demand: that ‘corrective’ rape be taken seriously.

If there was any question about the effect we had, the chief of staff himself confirmed it: at one point in the session he explicitly said in an almost begging voice "Please don't petition us again."

There is still lots to be done, and we will be in touch about the next steps as we head into what will surely be at least a year of negotiations, but for now let's enjoy the moment.

Oh. My. I would never have thought it!

 

[none2_none2]

I just wonder if this is something limited to lesbians or something of a much broader issue in their culture -- male dominance over all women.

The reason I say this is that at least in my own experiences you cannot tell someone's orientation just by looking at them. Sure there are stereotypes in dress and mannerisms that some lesbians may fall into. I wouldn't think all lesbians are that way whether they are in NYC or Cape Town.

Thus I would think that those most likely to know if a woman is a lesbian for sure is her friends and family. If this kind of rape is happening from male family members or her friends, then it adds a whole level of depravity to this crime. Which males could a lesbian trust then?

Anyway, I've heard stories where HIV positive men will rape even young girls because they have heard that sex with a virgin cures it. Thus it may take more than laws to stop such practices. As long as a culture feels that every woman's vagina (str8, lesbian, pre-pubescent, etc) must be accessible for a man's health, well being, and recreational needs, this kind of behavior will be acceptable even if it is against the law. I would think that to have a change in heart, the culture has to start with mother's teaching their sons that women are human beings -- not body parts.

 

[Stella_Omega]

And not only their mothers, none2. There are fathers out there, and brothers, and most of all-- community leaders, who condone and even encourage this behavior.

While it's true that some women-- even many women-- have accepted this part of the culture as some sort of inescapable part of their lives-- in Africa men teach boys to rape.

 

[none2_none2]

And not only their mothers, none2. There are fathers out there, and brothers, and most of all-- community leaders, who condone and even encourage this behavior.

While it's true that some women-- even many women-- have accepted this part of the culture as some sort of inescapable part of their lives-- in Africa men teach boys to rape.

FYI, I hope you realize that I wasn't trying to blame the victim's gender. Rather, like most we tend to bring our own pasts into our opinions. Men were a minor player in my young years of life. My maternal grandmother who raised me was very conservative. I only lived with my father for 3.5 years. My paternal grandmother visited from time to time. She knew I hated my dad at the time. I also told her I was going to tell my other grandma of some of the stuff he pulled -- including bring home prostitutes.

My paternal grandmother said I shouldn't tell her. She excused his bahavior and said if a man didn't "get off", he would go crazy, become a rapist, or become a homosexual. She was very permissive of men's needs - almost like some kind of patriotic duty of women to fulfill. It is a in essence a conservative view because it lowers women to the level of being some kind of masturbatory tool for men and men to be lowered to the level of an animal with uncontrollable urges. I don't think she was alone in this thinking for her generation.

It is this kind of view that probably gives some men permission to cross the line and rape- kind of a similar argument that some men used to have that a woman saying no to sex, may not really be a no.

 

[Stella_Omega]

FYI, I hope you realize that I wasn't trying to blame the victim's gender. Rather, like most we tend to bring our own pasts into our opinions. Men were a minor player in my young years of life. My maternal grandmother who raised me was very conservative. I only lived with my father for 3.5 years. My paternal grandmother visited from time to time. She knew I hated my dad at the time. I also told her I was going to tell my other grandma of some of the stuff he pulled -- including bring home prostitutes.

My paternal grandmother said I shouldn't tell her. She excused his bahavior and said if a man didn't "get off", he would go crazy, become a rapist, or become a homosexual. She was very permissive of men's needs - almost like some kind of patriotic duty of women to fulfill. It is a in essence a conservative view because it lowers women to the level of being some kind of masturbatory tool for men and men to be lowered to the level of an animal with uncontrollable urges. I don't think she was alone in this thinking for her generation.

It is this kind of view that probably gives some men permission to cross the line and rape- kind of a similar argument that some men used to have that a woman saying no to sex, may not really be a no.

Um. You weren't blaming the victim's gender, no-- you're blaming the attacker's mother. You're being pretty specific about it, too.

I mean-- here you are bringing up your grandmother who was willing to condone bad behavior from a man on the grounds that she couldn't really do anything about it anyway. maybe she was right, maybe wrong about that-- but if SHE felt she couldn't do anything about it, how do you think a woman in a patriarchal tribal society might feel? Not only can't she do much, but she can be beaten or murdered for trying.

 

[none2_none2]

Um. You weren't blaming the victim's gender, no-- you're blaming the attacker's mother. You're being pretty specific about it, too.

I mean-- here you are bringing up your grandmother who was willing to condone bad behavior from a man on the grounds that she couldn't really do anything about it anyway. maybe she was right, maybe wrong about that-- but if SHE felt she couldn't do anything about it, how do you think a woman in a patriarchal tribal society might feel? Not only can't she do much, but she can be beaten or murdered for trying.

Actually, in the case of my grandmother she did do something about it. Even grandmothers can have a change of heart. The crap she excused from my dad was when I was in my teens. She had been excusing all her kids and their behaviors for decades, then over time she stopped.

She never stopped loving them, but she wouldn't put up with their crap. She even apologized to me for defending his abusive behaviors.

Now he could have beat the crap out of her or cursed her, but he no longer had power over her mind because she wouldn't give him that power anymore.

She was not responsible at all for any of his behaviors - not one iota. He had free will just like the rest of us. However, once she stopped excusing his freely chosen behaviors, he was on his own. Not only from her, but from the rest of us that respected grandma much more than him.

Now don't get me wrong, I made peace with my dad years before he died. (He died about 2008.) However, he was very difficult to deal with. There is no need to write a book about his abuses. Just note that while he never raped anybody, he could be very mean both physically and emotionally.

Your wrong about me blaming mothers. I simply feel that in my own experiences I believe that young people have more respect for the parent who really took care of them. Thus they listen to what that have to say. Many times that is the mother. In my case it was my maternal grandmother, but next after her would have been my paternal grandmother. (My maternal grandfather meant a lot too, but he died when I was 7.) Because they were good people who loved me, I respected what they had to say. On the other hand, I didn't respect my father at all given his behaviors. So very little that he said when I was a kid meant anything. I'm not saying that because being gay I'm somehow more of a momma's boy. I simply believe that we listen more to the loving parent than the tyrannical parent.

 

[TallOne]

Minister Responds to 'Corrective Rape' Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkx-PYqHM0U

 

[Stella_Omega]

Minister Responds to 'Corrective Rape' Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkx-PYqHM0U

How can you tell when a politician is lying?

His mouth is moving.