Sexual violence as a weapon

7 replies

LongTermLurker · 05/12/2023 22:27

Not sure why I'm posting this really, but I'm feeling so deeply disturbed about sexual violence perpetrated in wars. Obviously all sexual assaulted and rape is horrifying, but there's something so particularly chilling about it being systematic.

Sorry to be graphic, but I can't understand how these men can be so depraved that they can have an erection in these situations. It's just utterly revolting. I feel so much hate towards them.

OP posts:

whirlycloud · 05/12/2023 22:31

@LongTermLurker it's horrific and I will never understand it.

mollyfolk · 05/12/2023 22:38

It’s horrific. Rape is used as a weapon, as a military strategy- it’s hard to understand how everyone goes along with it.

Alittlenonsensenowandthen · 05/12/2023 22:43

Just read the news and wishing I hadn't. I know that we shouldn't bury our heads in the sand about things but I'm not sure it helps having such details over the internet.

cestlavielife · 05/12/2023 22:44

It is horrific

but sadly used thruout history. Even recent
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/devastating-use-sexual-violence-weapon-war

A close-up photo of an Ethiopian woman wearing a read head scarf with her hand held to her forehead. She fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray, in Hamdayet village near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Kassala State, Sudan, on November 22, 2020.

The Devastating Use of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War | Think Global Health

Three new UN reports detail atrocities in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Ukraine

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/devastating-use-sexual-violence-weapon-war

newtlover · 05/12/2023 22:57

It is horrific OP and impossible to understand
the common explanation is that 'its not about sex its about power' but I find this a bit glib really. I'm forced to the conclusion that for some men sex is completely emmeshed with power, domination and sadism, and I really can't see where pleasure features in all that, maybe it doesn't.
In this country, in peace time, there are men who knowingly target incredibly vulnerable women, maybe trafficked, maybe addicted. Again I have to think that's more about domination and power than pleasure.

So maybe when rape is a weapon of war it's a natural tendency of men that can be amplified by training, propaganda etc
NAMALT of course.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 05/12/2023 23:09

I read the bbc news earlier and am horrified at what those women endured. The stories are barbaric. What kind of men behave in that way? Like a pack of wild animals. Don't they have mothers, sisters, wives, daughters? I cannot comprehend the level of hate they have for women.

Original poster

LongTermLurker · 05/12/2023 23:14

This might sound messed up, but I can kind of get my head around the "normal" violence and killing of war, because the perpetrators don't have to enjoy it to do it (although some might).

These men must be so sick at a cellular level to be aroused by causing such intense suffering.

I think it's preying on my mind because I don't believe people are inherently evil, but I can't seem to square this belief with so many men behaving like monsters.

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