PART II LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER 3 MALE-FEMALE ROLES, SEX IN RELATIONSHIPS AND
3.7 DETERMINANTS OF MALE ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR
3.7.4 CULTURAL INFLUENCES
A triangulated research using (in-depth interviews, focus groups, narrative role play and dialogues, and questionnaires), and examining relationships between gender ideology or gender roles and the social dramatic influence of adolescent childbearing in the lives of rural and urban adolescents in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa finds that coercion plays a major role in initiating young women into sexual activity. The practice of forced sex is the norm for young African men who are driven by peers‟
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pressure to engage in early-unprotected sex as a sign of trust and faithfulness (Varga, 2003). Social pressure that prescribes that boys and men should have sex relations as a mark of their masculinity becomes known as a strong factor influencing males who do not have partners or cannot get sexual intercourse legitimately; then they have to get it illegitimately (Petersen et al., 2005). From these assumptions Boonzaier (2008) argues that men justify the violence towards females as an enforcement of patriarchal masculinity. In the South African context, men indicate that women are responsible for gender violence, and claim to be victims of biased legal system. They consider themselves as powerless victims of domineering partners. Men discuss this in terms of gender identity crisis and thus perceive shifts in the power dynamics of their relationships due to the new South African constitution that empowers women (Boonzaier, 2008, p. 184). Despite the shifts in the power dynamics, the reality is that women are still traditionally considered as passive, obedient, docile and performing traditional gender roles, especially in relationships (Ackermann and De Klerk, 2002;
Kalichman et al, 2005). Several studies also confirm that men view women as subordinate to men and suggest that this is well understood when looking at the gender-power differentials in South African relationships (Maman et al., 2000; Wood and Jewkes, 2001; Wood et al., 1998). Boonzaier (2008) reports that men view their partners as domineering, they use violence to maintain their expected supremacy in the relation because of such assumptions.
Towns and Adams (2000) demonstrate how cultural structures of romance and „true love‟ provide the value of trapping women in abusive relationships. Similarly, Wood (2001), in her study, also shows how females employ the traditional gender explanation by constructing pretexts for their partners‟ violence and endorsing expectations that their male partners should nurture in their romantic relationships.
Wood (2001, p. 257) also claims that women construct their relationships by referring on existing repertoire of discursive means presented by the culture, and that their accounts „reflect and embody culturally formed, maintained, and accepted accounts of gender and romance‟. Morrell (2002) maintains that culturally gender roles encourage power inequality that facilitates women's risks sexual assault. Jewkes and Abrahams (2002) confirm that where there is gender-power inequality that put women in subordinate roles, women have few options for exercising personal control in their sexual relationships. If sex is not willingly provided, many men in the community feel
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that they can insist on it as being a necessary part of a relationship and as proof of their girlfriend's love. Violence and intimidation are frequently used on unwilling sexual partners (MacPhail and Campbell, 2001, p.1623). Consequently, women may experience difficulties in their efforts to lessen their risks for sexual violence in gender-power imbalanced relationships. Socially constructed gender roles and sexual scripts also limit the possibility for women to reduce their risks for HIVAIDS (Ackermann and de Klerk, 2002; Maman et al., 2000; Wood and Jewkes, 2001).
Deep-rooted patriarchy, male social domination, transactional sex and lack of equality in sexual relations put women at risk of undesirable pregnancy and infection especially as in many cases, it is men who fix the time of having sex, choose with whom and whether to use a condom (Friedman et al, 2006). Kalichman et al (2005) indicate that South African women do not open discussions about safer sex because it is culturally unpleasant and also because it brings their own sexual behaviour into question. In this condition the practice of safer sex activities significantly depend on men's commitment to it (Meyer-Weitz et al, 2003). Culturally approved gender roles promote inequality of power that causes women's risks for both sexual violence and HIV/AIDS (Morrell, 2002). Certain behaviours - such as forced sex - may be considered by some people as approved cultural practices, but are still perceived as violent acts (Krauss, 2006).
Baker (2007), in an article, entitled “Once a rapist” states: “For some, sex is a traded item, and if sex is a traded item, then taking it is theft…we live in a culture that rarely discusses sex as anything other than a traded item….instead, young men are destroyed by a culture that sexualises commodities and merchandises women‟s sexuality.
Companies sell products by selling the sexuality of the women approving the product.
The product and the sex are purposefully combined. Sex is also purposefully promoted … what encourages rapists may not be particularly different from that which encourages men who go to prostitutes or buy tickets to peep shows. None of these acts involves mutual gratification or emotional intimacy and they are called sex.
Thus, men are able to fulfil desire for sex without including the complexities of sexually intimate communication…this cultural endorsement of marketing of sex as a promoted good generates an increased desire for having sex, and perception of entitlement to sex.”
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The representative of an international agency for women‟s rights demonstrated that culture was the main obstacle in reducing sexual violence as it „is part of the tradition.‟ An expert in gender-based violence from an international humanitarian organisation indicates that even before the war sexual violence against women was prevalent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and culturally accepted. Some traditions, she told, the family of woman victim of rape obliges her to marry the perpetrator. Over the years, however, and as a consequence of the war, sexual violence has taken extremely inhumane expressions and has become a strategy for men to intimidate and profile themselves. In the Democratic Republic of Congo the notion of sexual violence has become very „flexible‟ and is easily diminished to refer only to acts of rape perpetrated by militia, and more specifically by foreign combatants, whereby the involvement of civilians in the acts of rape is easily denied or neglected (Bosmans, 2007). Women are socially and culturally considered as „the other‟, mostly as unreasonable, unpredictable, unreliable, and feeble minded by men (Hodgson and Kelly, 2004, p. 102). Additionally, Congolese institutions are patriarchal, administrated and governed by laws that are advantageous to men and contributing to “defining, controlling, and regulating women” which according to Hodgson and Kelly (2004, p. 102) such institutions are overwhelmed with male dominance that rape can be defended, perpetuated, and disregarded. Anderson (2004) complements that, culture makes use of such a power on describing what a man is and how he behaves, that the whole society requires changing in order to eradicate gender- based violence. Because women lack such power and dominance in society, they hardly ever challenge the fact that rape is a part of their existence, they just modify their behaviour in order to minimise the chances of being raped.
The impact of culture on how rape is being handled, and described as such, is a very controversial subject among the civil society in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Female activists against sexual violence revealed their dissatisfaction about how some international organisations deal with this issue without showing any esteem for their culture. In an interview with an association of women‟s organisations in the Eastern DRC, which fought for the law reforms and national and international advocacy, they state that these organisations should value the victims and their culture instead of „scandalising‟ them. As an example, they explained that in some cultures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women victim of rape are not permitted to
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breastfeed their infants since the widespread belief is that this will kill them. For these women before coming back to their family, they should undergo a rite of
„purification‟, which may include a donation of a goat as a gift. According to their belief, these purification rites should not be considered as an act of violence against women, but be acknowledged and respected as part of their tradition (Bosmans, 2007). CEDAW (2006) and Connell (2003) remark that although the Congolese culture is regarded as liberal and open-minded certain ideals and assumptions regarding gender roles persist. Specifically, a man should be strong, dominant, decisive, aggressive, and controlling as the head of a household and his wife should be submissive, quiet, nurturing and docile in his custody and charge. These roles are predominant throughout the culture and in male-female ongoing interactions. They are also, unfortunately, structural in creating an environment encouraging rape.
In a study conducted in the DRC among young females attending vocational training program in Kinshasa and Bukavu, participants revealed during interviews and focus group discussions that rejection and expulsion of the rape victim from the community was a widely accepted practice that was not being questioned. „It is our culture‟ was the phrase most commonly heard as a justification. Generally in the DRC, females‟
rights are dependent on the honour of a husband, family and community. By bold reporting sexual assault, the victim risks being victimised once again, as she may put her marriage at risk or lose her chances of getting married (Bosmans, 2007).