Violence and War in Culture and the Media

16   Corrective rapes

Rape narratives in South Africa

Bev Orton

Introduction

In this chapter I will be discussing rape narratives and rape myths using various studies and research on gender violence in South Africa. Broken Dreams, a play by Juliet Vuviseka Rozani, highlights some of the issues, perceptions and threats confronting lesbians in townships in South Africa. Using the literature and empirical data I promote support for the movement in South Africa by activists to petition the government to classify lesbian rape as a hate crime. It is through changing the law that perpetrators of lesbian rape would be subjected to harsher sentencing and that there would be an acknowledgement that ‘corrective rape’ is a violation of human rights.

South ...