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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael M who wrote (72880)	1/22/2000 10:29:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

M&M, we were talking about rape as a phenomenon, I thought, not about "habitual rapists." After all, in wartime many soldiers indulge in rape (although they are no longer supposed to). That does not mean that once they shed their uniforms they go on to become career rapists. The question, I think, is -- what kind of situations inspire men to rape? Rape is a favorite device of ethnic cleansers, who use it to show their contempt for the group to which the women belong, especially in societies where a raped woman is regarded as "damaged goods." In such cases, I would submit, the "power" component in the act of rape outweighs the purely sexual component. In Rwanda, for example, it has been estimated that more than half of Tutsi women were raped at some point; many were subsequently killed, or sexually mutilated. (And some were even raped right after being killed.) Read the UNCHR's report on this, if you want your hair to stand on end. And then there's been Bosnia, East Timor, Burma, Somalia...etc., etc. As for wartime rapists, I suspect that some heterosexuals occasionally use homosexual rape as a way of humiliating their enemies. When, for example, I hear of Russians & Chechens exchanging taunts like -- "We'll f-- you good when we get our hands on you!" -- I take them seriously. Joan

To: Michael M who wrote (72880)	1/22/2000 11:32:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

P.S. More on sex/power motivation in genocidal rape. Curious little sidelight on this murky issue comes from a 1998 piece on the Burmese military's use of rape in the fight against the Shan and other ethnic minorities. It documents numerous cases where girls and women were kidnapped, used as porters during the day, and gang-raped at night; as well as other cases, where village women were gang-raped, and then murdered. At the same time, a widely circulated document (the letter referred to below) indicated that the military leadership was apparently pursuing yet another plan -- the "Burmanization" of ethnic minorities, through "occupying" (impregnating or even marrying) their women. Any soldier who succeeded in doing that was promised a financial reward. Even more bizarre than the grandiose posturing of the letter by the ''Great Ruling Burmans'' to ''diligently convince Shan women to gradually bow to Burmanisation'', is the common belief among soldiers that they can win over ethnic women through giving them sufficient sexual pleasure to induce them to fall in love. The technique of inserting metal or glass balls in the penises of new, young soldiers has become popular ''because women can get more feeling'' in the words of one soldier. ''I interviewed many former soldiers who actually showed me their penises with the balls inserted,'' said Ka Hsaw Wa [a Karen activist]. ''It is a common practice. Even if the women are raped, the soldiers believed that they would come back for more because of the pleasure.'' It is not known how widespread this practice is. The soldiers are not required to undergo the surgical process -- which is done without anesthetic -- but, according to Ka Hsaw Wa, they are ''indirectly encouraged'' to do it. Six soldiers from one battalion told Ka Hsaw Wa that their sergeant suggested they do it. ''There was no way for them to refuse it, because they were afraid,'' said Ka Hsaw Wa. One soldier told investigators that half the members of his battalion had been implanted with the metal balls. karen.org Eeeuw!