http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/south-africa-rape-survey
Interesting and shocking survey results, your thoughts?
Interesting and shocking survey results, your thoughts?
Rape in South Africa - New Survey
- Thread starter Kyra.Graves
- Start date
WTF? That is horrible! I'm not sure what comments you are expecting, Kyra, but that is unbelievable! 25% of men have raped someone? I don't get it.
Was more wondering if anyone had any ideas about causes, solutions, etc. It's shocking and saddening that rape can be so widespread at such a young age.moresex4me said:
I hate to say it, but I believe it's a hangover from where Africa is on the scale of civilization development. In early pre-history I imagine rape was very common, particularly between warring tribes (to the victor, the spoils, etc.).Kyra_to said:
This is still true today in times of war, and it is only in modern, first world armies that this practice is limited (notice I don't say eliminated). I believe there was quite a bit of rape going on in the former Yugoslavia during their wars.
There may be an evolutionary aspect to it as well. After all, those that have the most sex, consensual or otherwise, with the most women are more likely to have their genes passed on. This of course wars with the long and arduous process of raising children. But men are built to succeed in passing their genes on in the face of competition from other men (shape of penis, so-called "killer"/"blocker" sperm, etc.; I'm too lazy to find the links), and I would hazard to say that the woman's feelings were not often consulted.
African culture in many areas is very primitive, stone-age culture that has been forced rapidly into a modern world. That's not an indictment, just reality. They are not at the point where their moral codes have caught up with the outward appearance.
I can go on and on... let's hear from some others...
The article seems to indicate that it's a cultural practice.Kyra_to said:
"Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."
What else could explain it? Anybody find it weird that they could do a study on this where male subjects voluntarily admit to being rapists?
I mean, imagine conducting a study here where people in a lab coat ask you if you're a rapist and if you've raped somebody in the past year. Somehow I don't think local rapists would come clean about their rape history.
Interestingly though they had to do the study anonymously so there is something that still implies it's wrong in the culture otherwise they would have admitted to it openly.
As far as evolutionary, I understand the idea that rape may increase ones possibility of passing on ones genes but there are many other studies that question this as the best course of action. I'm sure we all know it's probably not the wisest way to pass on ones genes in a social society. Interestingly there is an article in the current edition of Sci Am Mind about Orangutan as it is one of the animals that does use rape as a way to pass on it's genes, facinating article, they are however a solitary society and the article does address in brief the difference and cautions why one should not consider this a model for human behaviour.
As far as evolutionary, I understand the idea that rape may increase ones possibility of passing on ones genes but there are many other studies that question this as the best course of action. I'm sure we all know it's probably not the wisest way to pass on ones genes in a social society. Interestingly there is an article in the current edition of Sci Am Mind about Orangutan as it is one of the animals that does use rape as a way to pass on it's genes, facinating article, they are however a solitary society and the article does address in brief the difference and cautions why one should not consider this a model for human behaviour.
A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.
That's because SA is a country where men think the younger they are the more protected you are against AIDS, but then the health minister and PM think if you eat turnips you'll also be protected.
You don't have to do too much deep thinking to know why that country is a nut bowl. It's not the only country on the continent with those beliefs.
That's because SA is a country where men think the younger they are the more protected you are against AIDS, but then the health minister and PM think if you eat turnips you'll also be protected.
You don't have to do too much deep thinking to know why that country is a nut bowl. It's not the only country on the continent with those beliefs.
Given the two South African provinces surveyed, I wonder whether without the article saying so, this survey was of the rural Black population rather the country as a whole or the Afrikaner and Anglo-South-African population.Kyra_to said:
I believe that they are 2 predominantly black rural areas.Aardvark154 said:
South Africa has been a notoriously violent country for a number of years. I recall a friend telling me in the 90's that he had moved from SA to Zimbabwe to avoid the level of violence in the former. Not a wise choice as it turned out.
