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Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
It's One Step Forward, Two Steps Back For Women In Afghanistan

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mujeres_paz_y_ seguridad
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
let's be clear: despite the significant efforts of sirleaf-johnson; despite the attempts to address the needs of women combatants/militia members in post-conflict Liberia; despite the current attention paid to women's needs post-conflict in Liberia; the country remains - like most conflict-affected communities - one in which women's needs and concerns were NOT taken into account in the peace agreements, and therefore NOT in the post-conflict rebuilding processes, and where rape - a tool widely used in the conflict - continues to be widespread in the society today.

as to whether there is a scapegoating of immigrant communities here in the USA for violent acts against women, which are in fact perpetrated in all strata of our community - ARGH! clearly it is so convenient to blame some kind of outsider group for problems we refuse to address internally. argh!

rant over...
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shak_diesel
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
From the article about the trial for Eudy Simelane's rapists/killers, young men talking about the practice of 'marhasima':

"It's not about her, we bought her drinks, you know how drinks are expensive," says one of them.

"We can't say it's gang rape because, OK, I know sometimes we have to drug the girl and everything, but it does not happen all the time," says another.

"Most of the time when it does happen, the girl is taking some drinks, but she is quite aware of what is happening."

My nausea is too much to bear.

Is there anyone willing to stand up and declare that what is happening to the women in Liberia, the Congo and South Africa and elsewhere are crimes against humanity?
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HeatherNumber1 promoted this comment shak_diesel was starred shak_diesel was unstarred

Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
07/30/09

@shak_diesel: And yet... how many women American and European do I know who have had their drinks drugged, often by a group of men out on the town? More than a handful.
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shak_diesel
07/30/09

@HeatherNumber1: Very true. And those women would be included as well. But in the very least, Western women do have more of a legal recourse (although not perfect) and I believe, there's less of "cultural apathy" as the article states towards systemic rape.

But in light of the mindset around rape, the nature and brutality of the rapes (i.e. raping women in the DRC with guns) and the elevation to an actual, accepted cultural practice and behavior, I feel like the international community is standing idly by because these women are African. Women in the Global South suffer tremendous and sometimes needless atrocities and there's no doubt in my mind that efforts to aid them or empower them are limited due to not only gender discrimination, but racial/ethnic discrimination as well.
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squeakel
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
Doesn't rape happen every day in every community in the U.S. as well?
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HeatherNumber1 promoted this comment squeakel was starred squeakel was unstarred

Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
07/31/09

@squeakel: Oh yes. But don't worry, the overwhelming majority are just 'date rapes.'
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KiddyKat
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
I need to pass this posting on to one of my guy friends who INSISTS rape is not as big a problem as it is made out to be.

YES, IT IS.
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morninggloria
07/30/09

@KiddyKat: It's like a doughy rich white guy claiming that racism is over.
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LaComtesse
07/30/09

@morninggloria: It's NOT?! But... Obama! I'm going back to Connecticut to get my head together.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
07/30/09

@KiddyKat: You'll surely get a great response like 'Yeah, well over THERE. But not in America where everyone has equal rights!'
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clevernamehere
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
The man hating study is really interesting (full text here: http://psych.umb.edu/faculty/kogan/files/Anderson%202009_Are%20Feminists%20Man%20Haters.pdf)

I'm not surprised the feminist respondents were less man hating, there have been several articles about how feminists have happier relationships. What did surprise me is that white women had less hostility towards men in both the feminist and non-feminist groups.
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RamonaQ.
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
There's nothing like a shout out to The Nanny to take my mind off awful stories about rape.
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Megan promoted this comment RamonaQ. was starred RamonaQ. was unstarred

Megan
07/31/09

@RamonaQ.: I love people who understand my random jokes. That one was mine.
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JerseyGrrrl
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
Why Liberia? Apparently the families who children are involved in the rape came from Liberia.

From the article:
"There are a lot of social illnesses in the society; they are ashamed to come out," said Yekeson, president of the Liberia Crisis Center for Women and Children. "Rape is not something that people just come out and say."

Hmmm...Sounds like EVERYWHERE.

That said, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made this a priority and I have such high hopes for what she will do with her time in office. Especially for the women and girls in her country, which, let's not forget, elected a woman president before we did.

If you want an inspiring and educational read, I recommend her memoir "This Child Will be Great."
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clevernamehere
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
The spendthrift/frugal couple thing is interesting. It seems they didn't ask how much people spend, but how much they spend compared to how much they'd like to spend. I'm frugal in a lot of ways, but I'd generally like to spend even less (by getting good deals not going without). I don't find it painful to spend money. It seems I'm not accounted for in this study.
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Gretchen is a new kitten mom!
07/30/09

@clevernamehere: Nor are we. Mr. G is a quicker spender than I am and considers me to be 'frugal'. The truth is he thinks twice before he spends while I prefer to mull it over 4 or 5 times, make lists labeled "pro" and "con", and drink a latte before I whip out the cash. We both end up buying in the end.
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J.D.Regent
07/30/09

@clevernamehere: sorry i misread your comment and just made it about me instead. apologies!
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Edited by J.D.Regent at 07/30/09 7:22 PM J.D.Regent was starred J.D.Regent was unstarred

Dayman-Fan
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
Corrective rape...I just can't wrap my mind around this. It's one of those things that infuriates you to the point of complete silence. The idea that rape is an acceptable thing in parts of the world scares the shit out of me.
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SarahMC
07/30/09

@Dayman-Fan: Rape is acceptable in every part of the world. Every. Part.
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Shamrockette
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
It turns out that it's not feminists who hate men, it's non-feminists who do because they hate and love their oppressors, and prefer to blame other women for it.

I totally believe that. The anti-feminist women are women who generally believe in their expected roles, while feminist women can believe in the roles, but think the partnership should be equal.

With that said, the study probably turned out this way because most feminists aren't very willing to put up with mens' bullshit and they know they don't need a man to succeed and live a happy life, unlike the anti-feminists, who think they have to put up with the bullshit, so they're unhappier with mens' actions.
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Edited by Shamrockette at 07/30/09 5:36 PM Shamrockette was starred Shamrockette was unstarred

clevernamehere
07/30/09

@Shamrockette: Actually the feminists also had more benevolent attitudes towards men.
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SarahMC
07/30/09

@Shamrockette: Any feminist who's ever heard an anti-feminist person talk about men knows this!
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MarissaExplainsItAll
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
I think Ms. Evans has an interesting point. These new suits have been created to be more aerodynamic and help with more speed. On the other hand, technology evolves. The basketball sneaker, baseball bat, and soccer clete have all taken transformations that have made them enhance a player's game. This is a controversy that will not be going away anytime soon, which I guess is positive, since I am still unsure what side of the fence I'm on.
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drinkyrose
07/30/09

@MarissaExplainsItAll: Same here. My biggest concern is less about whether the suits should be used and more about access to the suits.

I understand they are ridiculously expensive. If some teams can afford them and some can't, it's obvious where the advantage is going to be.
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Dayman-Fan
07/30/09

@drinkyrose:Exactly. In other professional sports, the equipment is available to every franchise within the league: if one team can get new bats, so can any other. I have no issue with the suits, so long as anyone who wants to use one can.
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That_little_attention_whore
07/30/09

@MarissaExplainsItAll: In swimming, actually, I would argue that technology still hasn't evolved to meet the needs of the sport. Case and point: 100 meter butterfly men's final in the Olympics. Cavic physically touched the wall first, but because he was gliding in, he didn't put enough pressure on the pads on the wall for it to register immediately. Phelps, who took an extra stroke at the end, ended up winning the gold medal. I think it's easy to attribute the new records to the suits, (especially since Phelps has opted not to wear one in the world championships) but I think it's insulting to the swimmers who did win. Would Paul Biedermann have beaten Phelps if they were both wearing the same swimsuit? He beat him by about .8 seconds in the swimsuit - which is a long time in that event. Honestly, part of the reality of the competition is that your choice of equipment is an important part of your race preparation. And, for what it's worth, 50M freestyle world record holder Duje Draganja thinks the new space-age suits are over-rated: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/space-suit-making-waves/article679820/
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That_little_attention_whore
07/30/09

@Dayman-Fan: A suit like that is really only going to make a difference at the highest level, though. NCAA teams, national teams, etc. are usually sponsored and will get the best equipment. The thing with those $500 space age suits is that they really aren't necessary to most swimmers. We're talking about shaving off fractions of a second here. Will there be some rich middle school kid whose parents fork out the money for the latest and greatest suit? maybe, but that kid still isn't going to transform from age group swimmer to world record holder. Despite all the hype around suits, clocks, etc., swimming really is, more than anything, about technique, and most swimmers are going to see better times by improving their technique than by wearing a flashy new suit.
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drinkyrose
07/30/09

@That_little_attention_whore: But if we're talking about a top-end international competition (like the Olympics), would poorer nations be able to afford the same suits as China, the US, etc, etc.? They are all ready at a disadvantage, seeing as how the best coaches and training are going to be where the money is, so maybe I'm over-thinking this.

I really know nothing about swimming.
And everything I know about the suits came from NPR, and could fit in a thimble...
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cycleo
07/30/09

@That_little_attention_whore: It seems it's like that with a lot of sports these days. I see people drop 10k on a new bike to shave off seconds, when if they would just train a bit harder those seconds would be free.
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That_little_attention_whore promoted this comment cycleo was starred cycleo was unstarred

Dayman-Fan
07/30/09

@That_little_attention_whore: I was thinking of Olmpic, World Championship level competition, though, not college on down. A lot of these athletes train all their lives in hopes of making it to the Olympics some day (as I'm sure you know). I'm sure they're working hard to improve their technique, as well as try to find whatever (legal) edge they can find. I think that, once a swimmer feels they've perfected their technique, the suits makes a noticeable difference.
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That_little_attention_whore
07/30/09

@drinkyrose: I am one of those weirdos who watch the qualifying heats of the 50 free. the first few heats, where people from poorer countries end up swimming. Sadly, it will take more than a high-tech swimsuit to get them into the finals. These swimmers are already disadvantaged by lack of access to pools, coaching, maybe even had their training interrupted by a conflict. It sucks, but swimming is one of those sports where you have to start out young and have the right training from an early age.
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That_little_attention_whore
07/30/09

@Dayman-Fan: In that case, it's worth seeing the individual swimmers' reaction. When the LZR came out, Michael Phelps thought it was awesome; Duje Draganja thought it was over-rated. When Biedermann beat Phelps this year, people did observe that Biedermann had the newest suit and Phelps did not, but I have yet to see anyone directly attribute Biedermann's victory to the suit. Technology helps, and at the highest level every split second counts, but you still have to swim your own race.
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Dayman-Fan
07/31/09

@That_little_attention_whore: Absolutely. I just think when talent levels are damn near equal and individuals feel their technique is where it should be, other things become that much more important.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/swimming/news/story?id=4360589

I got the impression from this story that both Biedermann and Phelps both felt the suit had some impact (probably not much).
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TheFormerJuneBronson
07/30/09

In reply to Rape In Liberia "Was Sort Of Normalized" • Gender Gap In Childhood Development Favors Girls
As a spendthrift married to a tightwad, I like to think of the relationship as "mutually corrective." But the lightbulb has to want to change.
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A_Gracious_Plenty
07/30/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: I'm with you. I have to convince my bf that it really is ok to buy a new pair of sheets since the old ones have holes in them and he has to convince me that even though we need new sheets we do not need the 800 thread count. It's a good partnership.
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