AI Flashcards Lecture 8
What is collective sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)?
SGBV committed by a collective or facilitated, encouraged, or condoned by a collective/society.
What are the two types of collective responsibility associated with collective SGBV?
Collective causal responsibility and collective political responsibility.
How is collective rape defined in international law?
Initially, as a crime against a woman’s honour (Geneva Convention), but later reclassified as a crime against humanity.
The Rome Statute of the ICC defines it as a ‘pattern of sexual violence perpetrated on civilians by agents of a state, political group, and/or politicized ethnic group.’
What were the key findings of the Collective Rape Project?
Perpetrators are typically agents of the state or political rebels, and victims are typically discriminated-against minority groups. There is an intimate tie between collective rape and other major human rights problems.
How was collective rape used in the Rwandan genocide?
As part of the genocide against the Tutsi, the Trial Chamber in the case of Jean-Paul Akayesu ruled that rape and sexual assault constituted acts of genocide as they were committed with the intent to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group.
How was collective rape used in the former Yugoslavia?
Primarily committed by Bosnian Serb forces against Bosniak women, rape was used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing.
The case of Dragoljub Kunarac marked the first conviction for rape as a weapon of war.
What are some challenges in collecting reliable data on collective SGBV?
Victims’ shame, guilt, and fear, lack of reporting agencies in war-ravaged areas, danger in reporting due to potential involvement of local officials, and the possibility that many victims were murdered. It’s important to note that collective SGBV exists beyond war and armed conflict.
What is the role of homosociality in collective GBV?
Male homosociality, or same-gender bonding, can foster peer cultures that promote violence against women. Collective GBV can express and maintain inter and intragender hierarchies of power.
How does collective street harassment exemplify the role of homosociality?
Often committed in groups, street harassment is influenced by homosociality and the solidarity between men that informs violence against women and LGBTQI+ people in public spaces.
What are the two contrasting societal responses to collective SGBV?
Community protection of perpetrators, where individualisation or medicalisation is less feasible, versus outrage at the out-group, where responses are informed by broader group conflicts.
How does the media influence societal responses to collective SGBV?
The media shapes dominant frames of events, which ‘both produce and limit meaning.’ Media coverage informs societal responses, policymaker approaches, and individual understanding.
What factors shape how the media reports on (collective) GBV?
Journalists’ personal ideology (e.g., attitudes towards feminism), external factors (e.g., reliance on institutional sources), and internal factors (e.g., newsroom culture).
What is the primary definer thesis?
The media tends to reproduce dominant ideology, often echoing the perspectives of politically and socially dominant groups. Journalists’ reliance on institutional sources reinforces this tendency.
How did media coverage of the Tailhook scandal exemplify the primary definer thesis?
Mainstream media largely reproduced the discourse of the White House, Navy, and Pentagon, with over 90% of stories relying on official sources rather than victims’ accounts. This lack of investigative reporting resulted in a politics of ‘not knowing,’ and victims’ stories only reached the press when they actively contacted alternative media.
What are the performative effects of scandals?
Scandals need to be constructed, and their performative effects can accelerate debate on important issues. The series of scandals concerning collective GBV in the military during the 1990s (Tailhook, Aberdeen, Miramar Tomcat Follies) is an example.
