Subjects:
When war erupts, the rules we lived by before the battle no longer apply. The purposeful ending of lives and the devastation of property become widely accepted, either reluctantly or wholeheartedly. We must defeat the enemy, we say. We must kill. We must win. Therefore, whatever dark side there is to being human that allows us to accomplish those goals is permitted to see the light of day. We may regret an act committed in war, but it is likely to be justified in some way, as the savagery of the warrior is deemed necessary to fulfill our goal of victory. Emotions usually repressed are encouraged and violence is embraced as a needed activity. Rape, in times of war, is as old as the Bible and as new as today’s headlines on the Kosovar refugee crisis. From the military laws laid out in Deuteronomy 1 to the recent Serbian threat, victims of rape seem as much a part of a war-zone as bodies upon a battlefield. A tragic side effect of ethnic war is the manipulation of rape figures to advance special interests.
The context of war adds a new dimension to the issue of sexual violence, now an ‘accepted’ tactic that is widely used in wars around the globe. However, rape has been lit
. . .
The patriarchal ideology of rape has subsequently developed, allowing the act to evolve into a principle weapon of power over women.
Like any rifle or shell, rape in war assumes the level of being a weapon. As well as an attempt to dominate, humiliate, and control behavior, rape in war can also be intended to disable an enemy by destroying the bonds of family and society.
Beyond the use of rape as a weapon of war, a larger question would be to ask how each rape exploits women and how it sets in motion an examination of the culture of abuse. tle more than a footnote in the history of warfare. In a traditional society, rape is likely to be internalized by the victim, her family, and in the end, by the community in which she lives.
However, not only does rape harm the victimized women, it disgraces the men who were unable to protect them and the communities in which they live. The act of rape takes away the fight of the victims to control their own bodies. Rape had always been regarded as an ugly side effect of war—part of the Homeric spoils of killing the men and taking the women and prizes—it is evident in this modern age that it is increasingly used as a weapon of war and a tool of political repression over an unwanted population. It makes the victims feel unworthy and inferior. It was a way of humiliating women and emasculating the men. Lerna establishes the idea that militarism and sexual aggressiveness against women extends as far back as the earliest formation of expansionist or agricultural societies. This ideology manifests itself during times of war, instilling rape as being a man’s conquest over a woman’s body, a triumph of physical strength and manhood. Many acts of rapes are conducted in public.
Essay's Topics
All research is for reference purposes only.