Prof Zero led me to the web site of Ann Jones, who writes about the toll that war has taken on women in West Africa. Clearly, the ability to do anything they want to women is a powerful incentive and reward for soldiers in these conflicts. The military leaders get what they ask for after the wars are over on the basis that if you give them what they want they won't cause any more trouble. The problem is that these bad men have enjoyed their evil deeds and will not ever pay for what they have done. Their victims will pay while the soldiers and ex soldiers continue to do as they please.
I used to believe that these men were harmed by their deeds. Now I don't think that is true. For them, atrocities against women have the same moral force as slaughtering animals. In other words, rape, often gang rape and other forms of torture, striking off limbs and heads, forcing relatives to rape their own children and other relatives and other forms of violation are simply part of the job of being a soldier. That is, atrocities are normalized as just what any man does in that situation.
Here is what a particular vile person says:
Interviewed for a TV documentary on mass rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a smiling guerrilla says he's "made love" to many women. The interviewer asks if all the women were willing, and he laughs. He admits that many fight him, and he says -- still grinning -- "If they are strong, I call my friends to help me." Despite his use of euphemisms, he knows just what he's doing. When the interviewer labels his love-making "rape," he typically insists that rape happens in wartime and that when the war is over, he won't do it anymore. The state of war excuses men's crimes against women because rape -- so the claim goes -- is something that just naturally occurs in war.
Reading this, I wonder whether pacifism is the way to go for women. It seems that feral men depend on the helplessness of their victims and might be less inclined to attack if they were met with force. The perception is that poor women in war and post war zones need protection, education, the means to care for themselves and others. Maybe they also need to learn how to use a gun. At least they can go down fighting and take a few perps with them, if it comes to that.
No woman is really safe, anywhere, as long as women can be used as so much human protoplasm for whatever purpose a man desires. If men react with bewilderment to the anger of feminists, they might keep in mind that their gender still runs the world and has done nothing to stop this evil. No soldier has ever been convicted of atrocities against women in wartime, as far as I know.
Yes, one more reason why not to be a pacifist - unfortunately, but I think it's true.
Posted by: Z | January 26, 2009 at 09:04 PM
After reading this, I wonder what can people do.
http://blog.theirc.org/2008/03/20/ann-jones-what-can-we-do/
Posted by: Brandon | January 26, 2009 at 09:11 PM
I have been sending money to the efforts in Darfur and other spots around the world to help women who have been attacked. I am sick about it. I have spent many years working (volunteering, actually) on the issue of sexual assault. It has got to stop.
Posted by: Rhea | January 27, 2009 at 06:41 AM
Yes. It is worthy what aid groups are doing in Sierra Leone. But as long as the men are armed and running in gangs the danger to women remains.
I don't know what to think at this point. The atrocities go on unchecked.
Posted by: Hattie | January 27, 2009 at 07:39 AM
As the writer had "CJ Craig" say, in regard to a ficticious middle-eastern country, "They beat their women!" They probably didn't think they could get away with having her say, "They beat, and rape, and kill their women." Which statement I believe to have proven true in all sectors, down through the ages.
It is too bad that we cannot educate ourselves to understand that, short of castrating the perp (or in addition to it), we should abort any and all resulting pregnancies. Why would we want to let such genes be passed down?
Another thought. A magazine had an article in a recent issue that included the thought that men are not true mammals since they cannot suckle young. Yes, we have more genetic material in common with female gorillas than with male humans. Frustration, thy name is man.
Posted by: Older n Dirt | January 27, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Well, I just had a pleasant time watching a cowboy movie,"Bad Girls " where lovely well armed women blow away all their enemies. An escape fantasy, but I was entertained.
Alas, the news reports that a disgruntled male killed two young women and injured several more in a Portland night spot. Luckily, he killed himself. But I'll bet you those 18 year olds would have liked to live.
See, it's just the same old same old.
Posted by: Hattie | January 27, 2009 at 11:09 PM
"Cemetery High" was another girls-with-guns (and pickax) movie. I saw it many years ago.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097031/
More on the Portland rampage:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/26/portland.nightclub.shooting/
Posted by: Brandon | January 28, 2009 at 12:10 AM