Thursday, August 06, 2009

A bug, not a feature.

On the epidemic of men raping men in the Congo:

The male rape cases are still just a fraction of those against women. But for the men involved, aid workers say, it is even harder to bounce back.

“Men’s identity is so connected to power and control,” Ms. Walker said.
I'm not sure if an identity based on power and control is really what we want people bouncing back to, but there's no evidence that male victims are being encouraged to reframe their masculinity. I'm afraid that the logical consequence might be for them to reassert their power and control by dominating weaker others. A truly difficult problem.
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