South Africans have woken up each morning for the past month to the intimate politics of love (and loss) on their television screens and newspapers pages. The death of Reeva Steenkamp and the ongoing trial has placed questions of love and how we love at the centre of the social consciousness. Although unrelated from the […]
Gender violence
Posted inGender violence
Men that rape are our fathers, lovers
By now, people are familiar with why men rape. Yes it is for power and control, it is a means of exercising masculine entitlement and privilege and it is a means of displacing vulnerability. For me, the more interesting question is: How do men rape? How is rape enabled within our homes, communities and societies? […]
Posted inGender violence, General, Media
Queers and men with blunt instruments
So I read the very short “Queer” by Courtney Bassett and was drawn to the “idea” of it, best expressed — I thought — through prim lips: People tell me how lucky I am It was not forty years ago I was being declared Mentally unfit Never mind the lobotomy I would rather have […]
Posted inGender violence, News/Politics
Spreading hate in the name of God
For 10 minutes or so, the Wits Art Museum resembled a Pentecostal revivalist meeting. Hands were raised in worship as the crowd swayed and sang hymns. On stage, two pastors lay their hands on the person kneeling in front of them, the subject of their passionate prayers. This was not supposed to be. Not because […]
Posted inGender violence, Media
Shaming rape survivors and other bull
“What a week for women! First, two of the (very few) prominent political mavens became kissing besties and then spectacularly not, and then that rape-cry-baby Michelle Solomon made a scene and had to be put back in her place by a good ol’ cigar-smokin’ man like David Bullard (for a bet it turns out, classic!) […]
Posted inGender violence
Oscar Pistorius and how Valentine’s Day kills
Today is Valentine’s Day — a day when capitalist consumption and heteronormative myth-making are in full swing: red roses (for the women, of course), images of happily-ever-after coupling (mostly of a heterosexual bend), and the coming together of brand “Hetero-Love” in a frenzy of consumerism and schmaltz. This day is yet another consummation of a […]
Posted inGender violence
Bullard vs Solomon and the unwritten rules for speaking about rape
With its dredging of historical slights and recycling of resentments nurtured over time, Team Bullard vs Team Solomon has all the hallmarks of a grudgefest. This personalised process of verbal pushing and shoving has not only diminished the sort of ethical public sphere needed for discussion of sexual violence, but also endorsed uncritically the unwritten […]
Posted inGender violence, Media, News/Politics
Breaking my Bullard silence
Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out I wanna see you be brave. There I was driving along Witkoppen with Jacaranda on the radio — for once, I was a classic shooter curtain cliché — and those words struck home. So here I am, being brave — or stupid — and […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Asylum seekers and bridging the gap in mental health
*Selam sits nervously in my office, lost in thought. In tears, she recalls her brushes with violence and terror since leaving Ethiopia in 2009. She has been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, manifested by the continual abuse. She is one of many people being helped by Lawyers for Human Rights’ pilot project, funded by […]
Posted inGender violence, Media
I’ve had enough of Bullard. And so should you
In 2008, proud racist David Bullard was fired from the Sunday Times for a column wherein he denigrated black South Africans. In seems that, after the failure of his many legal matters against the Sunday Times and its owning company Avusa, Bullard found a new hobby. And that hobby is harassing and bullying rape survivors – and I get the special honour of being his target of choice.
Posted inGender violence, Media
David Bullard, do not pass begin, do not collect R200
When you can’t afford to invest in a new hobby, or buy a new car, or take a life-changing trip because you’re a bitter journalist who’s basically ragged on every publication they have ever worked for … then the next best thing to do is obviously start trolling people on Twitter. A public space, where […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
One Billion Rising: Men can make a difference
On February 14 this year, One Billion Rising for Justice are calling on women and men everywhere to harness their power and imagination to rise for justice — the largest global action against gender-based violence (GBV) yet. Thousands of us across southern Africa will be taking part. There is an ever-increasing number of men who […]