Rape Loot Pillage: The Political Economy of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict
Sara Meger
Abstract
Feminist scholarship has exposed the deliberate use of rape and other forms of sexual violence in war, as well as the social, cultural, and institutional norms that drive this behavior. Their analyses and activism around wartime sexual violence prompted global recognition of the issue of “rape as a weapon of war.” As influential as this narrative has been for bringing gendered violence to the attention of international policymakers, scholars, and aid organizations, it has also resulted in a homogenization of gender-based violence. Such a view of sexual violence in conflict obscures the context ... More
Feminist scholarship has exposed the deliberate use of rape and other forms of sexual violence in war, as well as the social, cultural, and institutional norms that drive this behavior. Their analyses and activism around wartime sexual violence prompted global recognition of the issue of “rape as a weapon of war.” As influential as this narrative has been for bringing gendered violence to the attention of international policymakers, scholars, and aid organizations, it has also resulted in a homogenization of gender-based violence. Such a view of sexual violence in conflict obscures the contextually specific social, cultural, political, and economic determinants that inform the conflict and give meaning to this violence. The narrative has produced an unsustainable and ineffective policy, aid, and scholarship regime based on the securitization of sexual violence and its ultimate fetishization. This book is an attempt to dehomogenize conflict-related sexual violence to better understand its causes and consequences in contemporary armed conflicts. This book poses the question: how does sexual violence function in the context of armed conflict, and how does its function vary in different conflict contexts? A feminist political economy framework for looking at sexual violence in war is offered as answer.
Keywords:
sexual violence,
war,
political economy,
armed conflict,
masculinities
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190277666 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190277666.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Sara Meger, author
Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Studies, Central European University
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