Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo (DRC)

Baaz, Maria Eriksson; Stern, Maria

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2478.2009.00543.x

Cited by 322 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

136

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Tanto los grupos armados como las fuerzas de seguridad gubernamentales han usado la violencia sexual en sus diversas formas como arma de guerra. Las mujeres y las niñas han sido víctimas de crímenes sexuales ejercidos como parte de estrategias militares racionales destinadas a castigar, avergonzar, torturar, atemorizar y controlar, tanto a las mujeres como a sus comunidades (Erikssen Baaz y Stern 2009).…”

Section: Esta Noche Los Horrores De La Rdcongo En Televisión Españolaunclassified

Cuando los cuerpos hablan. La corporalidad en las narraciones sobre la violencia sexual en las guerras de la República Democrática del Congo

Mingo¹

2015

Rev. Dialectol. Trad. Popul.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cuando los cuerpos hablan. La corporalidad en las narraciones sobre la violencia sexual en las guerras de la República Democrática del CongoWhen Bodies Talk. Embodiment in Narratives on Sexual Violence in the Wars of the Democratic Republic of Congo Elisa García Mingo Centro Universitario Villanueva, Madrid, España RESUMEN Las noticias, los documentales y las campañas mediáticas de la industria humanitaria se han convertido en los principales relatos sobre la violencia sexual sistemática que se ha perpetrado contra las mujeres en la República Democrática del Congo desde el año 1996 hasta el día de hoy. Las narraciones, ya sean políticas o mediáticas, explotan los hechos concretos que tienen que ver con los ataques contra los cuerpos y rara vez dan cuenta del auténtico impacto que tiene la violencia sexual en las vidas de las mujeres, más allá de las lesiones y la enfermedad. Este hecho ha contribuido a forjar la visión, que ya de por sí goza de cierta potencia histórica y está cómodamente instalada en los foros internacionales, que identifica a la mujer congoleña como víctima pasiva, como mero cuerpo violable. Esta visión moviliza la lástima y la compasión en el público general y genera enfoques inmovilistas en los sectores de la ayuda internacional, en lugar de promover marcos que consideren a las mujeres congoleñas como actoras relevantes de transformación social y de construcción de paz. Este artículo analiza las diferentes narrativas que se han puesto a circular sobre la violencia sexual desde la perspectiva de los «cuerpos sociales» con el fin de visibilizar los problemas que surgen del abuso de este tipo de prácticas narrativas.Palabras clave: Corporalidad; Narrativas; Violencia sexual; Activismo; Testimonio; RDCongo. SUMMARY News, documentaries and humanitarian campaigns in the mass media have become the source of accounts on the systematic violence perpetrated against women in the DRC since 1996. These accounts, whether political or media, exploit the specific facts regarding these attacks on women's bodies, rarely visibilizing the true impact of sexual violence on women's lives. This has helped shape a standpoint -already to some extent historically consolidated and ensconced in international forums-that identifies Congolese women as passive victims, as mere raped bodies. It is a standpoint that mobilises pity and compassion in the public and generates an immobilist approach to humanitarian intervention and international aid, rather than promoting frameworks in which Congolese women are relevant players in peacebuilding. This article analyses the different narratives circulating on sexual violence from the perspective of the «social body,» rendering visible problems that arise from the abuse of this type of narrative practice.

show abstract

Section: Esta Noche Los Horrores De La Rdcongo En Televisión Españolaunclassified

Cuando los cuerpos hablan. La corporalidad en las narraciones sobre la violencia sexual en las guerras de la República Democrática del Congo

Mingo¹

2015

Rev. Dialectol. Trad. Popul.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Larger groups have been reported to hinder such acts, as perpetrators may be more wary that fellow combatants with higher moral standards will report their behavior (Baaz and Stern 2009;Green 2004;Boesten 2014;Kelly 2010). …”

Section: Intragroup Norms and Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…that armies create -a mixture of masculinity, violence, and conquest -makes individual rankand-file soldiers more likely to commit sexual assaults (Seifert 1996;Baaz and Stern 2009).…”

Section: Individual Motivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do We Know About Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts? Recent Empirical Progress and Remaining Gaps in Peace and Conflict Research

Koos

2015

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…that led to heightened levels of wartime sexual violence (see also particularly Eriksson Baaz and Stern, 2009). …”

Section: Mythologymentioning

confidence: 99%

How is rape a weapon of war? Feminist International Relations, modes of critical explanation and the study of wartime sexual violence

Kirby

2012

European Journal of International Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rape is a weapon of war. Establishing this now common claim has been an achievement of feminist scholarship and activism and reveals wartime sexual violence as a social act marked by gendered power. But the consensus that rape is a weapon of war obscures important, and frequently unacknowledged, differences in ways of understanding and explaining it. This article opens these differences to analysis. Drawing on recent debates regarding the philosophy of social science in IR and social theory, it interprets feminist accounts of wartime sexual violence in terms of modes of critical explanation -expansive styles of reasoning that foreground particular actors, mechanisms, reasons and stories in the formulation of research. The idea of a mode of critical explanation is expanded upon through a discussion of the role of three elements (analytical wagers, narrative scripts and normative orientations) which accomplish the theoretical work of modes. Substantive feminist accounts of wartime sexual violence are then differentiated in terms of three modes -of instrumentality, unreason and mythology -which implicitly structure different understandings of how rape might be a weapon of war. These modes shape political and ethical projects and so impact not only on questions of scholarly content but also on the ways in which we attempt to mitigate and abolish war rape. Thinking in terms of feminist modes of critical explanation consequently encourages further work in an unfolding research agenda. It clarifes the ways in which an apparently commonality of position can conceal meaningful disagreements about human action. Exposing these disagreements opens up new possibilities for the analysis of war rape.

show abstract

Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo (DRC)

Cited by 322 publications

References 29 publications

Cuando los cuerpos hablan. La corporalidad en las narraciones sobre la violencia sexual en las guerras de la República Democrática del Congo

Cuando los cuerpos hablan. La corporalidad en las narraciones sobre la violencia sexual en las guerras de la República Democrática del Congo

What Do We Know About Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts? Recent Empirical Progress and Remaining Gaps in Peace and Conflict Research

How is rape a weapon of war? Feminist International Relations, modes of critical explanation and the study of wartime sexual violence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About