Lesbians in South Africa are being dragged off the street and raped to "correct" them, it has been claimed.
Sky News has found evidence of widespread abuse against the lesbian community - resulting in a new trend of so-called "corrective rape".
In the the township of Khayelitsha, on the outskirts of Cape Town, Sky spoke to a group of women who said they live in fear of their lives.
All of them said they know someone who has been violently dragged off the streets and raped because they had come out as a lesbian.
Funeka Solidaat said she had been attacked on two occasions - on the second she was raped.
She said the men covered their faces with balaclavas and that she had been repeatedly threatened with rape in the township.
More here
Raping someone to "correct" them? How does someone figure violently attacking someone else and forcing them to have sex will make them suddenly fall in love with their attacker?
I'm speechless.
UPDATE - It gets worse. I found the following video via youtube. The attitudes expressed by the men in this video are just flat out ugly:
10 comments:
I think what's being "corrected" is these women's decision to be sexually unavailable to men.
How very "noble" of the men to correct that behavior. I was unaware that it was a requirement that woman has to do that. Unbelievable the degree of chauvinism amongst some men.
Well, don't you know, once a woman gets teh cawk, she doesn't -want- anything else!
/sarcasm
Alvin, I've been told by a group of men twice my size, "You just need a REAL man to fuck you straight," as they groped themselves. My response was, "Oh, please. Far better men than you have tried and failed." If it hadn't been broad daylight with a crowd of people fifteen feet away I'd probably be dead now.
It's not "corrective" rape. It's rape as a hate crime. It's rape because it's a woman who doesn't want Teh Almighty Peenor, and well, we just can't have that, can we?
A few years back, I was raped specifically because I'm an out lesbian, and he wanted to punish me for not being the straight, willing woman he thought I should be. Misogyny at its most brutal.
Nothing new sadly, men for ages have been doing that to some degree throughout all recorded history...
This "correct the lesbian" aspect, comes from the stereotypical male ego, that women are property, rather than human beings.
Being a "lesbian" just makes us at higher risk. Being an out lesbian myself, and reading some of the shocking stories about rape against us... I often worry about walking alone even in the day time.
Men raping lesbians, even in large gangs, is not unheard of. Even in the United States. Months ago, this happened to a woman in California who was kidnapped by 4 men and gangraped then thrown out of HER car... blah :(
Speaking of which, I am not surprised with hearing about the "bible" here, with all the money christian organizations are pumping into trying to christianize africa...
Just proves how corruptive christianity truly is. It's like an attack against a society, it's terrifying :\
Keori,
I am so sorry that happened to you.
It's their bible telling them to marry their rapist.
This is deeply troubling and painful.
I see this as a case of people justifying their desire to rape women by labeling it as a public service. When, in fact, I see this as a case of men raping women who represent the least possible chance of legal consequences to the rapist. For some reason it seems like people want to excuse rape. The idea of women as property still thrives.
About twenty years ago, I was a member of one of those unprotected classes of women in America, I was homeless. I was raped multiple times and until I was also stabbed during a rape, the police just smirked and gave me looks. No one ran a rape kit on me.
Any group that is dehumanized and demonized by society gets less protection.
There is nothing to correct about a lesbian woman.
I had to keep stopping the video and collecting myself. First, it was from pain at seeing those lovely young women (so much like the women I've loved) living with fear and society turning a blind eye to crimes against them. Then it was rage at hearing those men condone the rapes so casually.
Thank you for spreading awareness of this issue.
Thanks for bringing this story to light, and so effectively. I put on my law professor hat here and tried to put this into a broader legal and historical context. It doesn't make it any better, except maybe in the long run.
http://wordinedgewise.org/?p=613
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