Shereen Usdin and Lebo Ramafoko
A Second Look
Try negotiating safer sex with someone who believes forced sex with your girlfriend is not rape “because she’s yours”.
This attitude reflects the daily bread of many adolescents, according to research undertaken by Soul City – the Institute for Health and Development Communication. The research confirms a number of studies conducted throughout South Africa which are all coming up with the same chilling results – young girls are unable to negotiate sex in the face of violence from their male partners and acquaintances.
This is a serious cause for concern. In a world in which condom use and other forms of safer sex are the only weapons against Aids, it is little wonder that the latest figures released by the Department of Health show the epidemic is growing fastest among our youth and that young girls are the group most at risk. The possibility of contracting Aids adds another dimension to the human rights violations involved in rape.
Stranger rape is a very real problem. But women are more at risk of being beaten up and raped by their boyfriends, husbands or relatives. South African youth are growing up in a culture of sexual violence where a frightening 60% of rape survivors know their assailants.
Soul City research conducted with men and women in urban and rural South Africa shows that many young girls find themselves in a trap. If they consent to sex, they are loose and “deserve” what they get, but if they turn down a proposal, they are equally at risk: “If … she refuses, and then you see her with someone lower than you in standard, this causes you to be physically violent and to take her to your home and forcefully have sex with her.” Gang rape by the young man and his friends as punishment is not uncommon and the same “punishment” awaits many young girls whose boyfriends suspect infidelity.
Young girls are expected to understand these sexual codes and abide by them. According to the respondents, once consent is given to a relationship, girls must expect whatever comes their way sexually. Thuli Shongwe, a Soul City research officer, said many young people don’t view forced sex within a relationship as rape.
Medical Research Council researchers Wood, Jewkes and Maforah found that penetrative sex is defined as the “purpose of love” among adolescents in the Western Cape. Assault is described as a regular feature of sexual relationships and some respondents said this is the main reason they continue to have sex. Physical assault is so commonplace, women said, that many of their peers actually see it as an expression of love.
Soul City found that a contributory factor to the rape statistics is the belief that, once aroused, a man cannot control his sexual urges and is not henceforth responsible for his actions. In fact, rape is blamed almost entirely on the dress code of young girls who “ask for it” if they wear tight clothing. When asked how this explains the rape of 80-year-old grandmothers, again girls wearing tight clothes are responsible: “After seeing her we are aroused. When you turn the corner and you see a granny, then you just `shove it in’.” Girls walking about late at night or going out on their own are also perceived as “fair game”.
Rape is spoken about with callous normality and interviews with male respondents are peppered with a pervasive sense of sexual entitlement. Soul City’s research show women are consistently seen as subordinates who must submit. This is supported by at least three other studies in which 30% of young South African women report their first sexual experience was coerced.
The widely held belief that a man can tell if a woman has slept with other men also contributes to women’s vulnerability to HIV. One of the most unjust corners a sexually aroused woman can find herself in stems from the belief that vaginal lubrication signifies infidelity. To avoid the real threat of violent punishment, which may well include rape, many women insert herbs and other substances inside their vaginas to “dry up”. Dry sex increases the risk of trauma and, therefore, HIV transmission, if their partner is positive.
CIETafrica, an NGO researching sexual violence, found that 12% of young girls do not know they have a right to refuse sex in relationships and only one out of every 10 boys interviewed in Gauteng schools opposed sexual violence.
However, more men are speaking out against violence against women and a number of organisations have been formed by men to challenge machismo and violence. Popular culture needs to reflect the many male role models who don’t believe in, glorify or practice violence against women.
On the July 7 1999, Soul City, together with the National Network on Violence against Women (NNVAW), launches a major campaign to challenge attitudes which perpetuate gender violence. Debate will be raised, human rights information and options for action conveyed through Soul City’s prime time television drama on SABC 1 and radio dramas on nine stations in nine official languages.
This, together with Soul City information booklets, will reach millions. Audiences will be connected to support from community-based organisations of the NNVAW via a toll free hotline. The partnership will also produce material for schools.
Shereen Usdin is a public health specialist and Lebo Ramafoko is a lifeskills specialist for Soul City