“Women are Getting Hotter”

By: Valerie Evans

I read an article from The Daily News on July 27, 2009 that caught my eye; it was titled “Women are Getting Hotter.” My hopes for the article were that it would surpass my expectations of being another piece of writing focusing on women’s looks and outward appearances.

Though it had more substance than merely mentioning a woman’s features, it did not settle well with me. The Daily News spoke about how “Women are gradually becoming more attractive in an evolutionary “beauty race”, according to scientific research.” And from this research scientists have concluded “Beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts.” This was all in the first few sentences of the article. It made me question: since when did a woman’s physical appearance determine if she is beautiful or merely a “plainer counterpart?”

Ever since I was little, my parents have instilled in me the knowledge that a person’s beauty comes from within. That one’s intelligence, personality, and heart speak much louder than the sheer proportions and bone structure that hold a person together when determining beauty. How can we expect to better as a society if the media is continually presenting woman as objects, instead of intellectuals? In my opinion, scientific research stating “women are becoming more attractive as they are making more of an effort with their looks” is purely demeaning. I hope to see the media focus more on the women who display acts of kindness, determination for a better community, and standup for themselves and all woman nationwide.

Erin van Rensburg Murder

Erin van Rensburg

By: Liza Gilhuly

It is always horrifying to hear of a young person passing away; particularly when their death is caused by someone they considered to be a friend.  University of Stellenbosch student Erin van Rensburg was found buried last Wednesday, June 3, after she had gone missing from her flat on Monday evening.  The next day, fellow student Jacobus Eksteen appeared in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on charges of abduction and murder.

The number of abducted and murdered women in South Africa is alarming and disturbing.  The number of reported abductions in South Africa per year amounts to over 2,700 and the number of murdered women climbs to just over 3,200.  The people of South Africa, judging by the amount of press Erin’s case has generated, are aware these numbers are too high.  Yet, one cannot help wondering if more can be done.  Adjacent to an article on Erin’s murder in the Weekend Argus is a short piece on how to spot a dangerous relationship that could end with violence since Erin and Eksteen were reportedly romantically linked. 

But is just telling women to watch out enough?  A more proactive approach seems to be to increase the prison sentences of convicted kidnappers and killers, as well as making an effort to increase general security in Cape Town and the rest of South Africa by adjusting the number of available police officers and increasing surveillance.

Or how about addressing the root of the problem?  This would involve schools instilling a respect for the opposite sex, starting in grade school.  Too many boys grow up believing they are superior to females, which leads to a lack of compassion and a tendency for violence.  If young men are taught early on that disrespecting and hurting women is uncalled for and will not be tolerated, then perhaps many of the killings and kidnappings we see today could be avoided.

Conference on the Integration of Refugees in South Africa

By: Liza Gilhuly

On Thursday, June 18^th, SAMGI helped put together a discussion on how best to aid refugees who are currently in South Africa.  SAMGI partnered with the Democratic Governance and Rights Units (DGRU) and the United Nations Refugee Commission (UNHCR).  SAMGI also made it a priority to bring refugees themselves to the conference, so they could both learn about the organizations present and express their opinion on the current situation of refugees in South Africa.

Currently, these refugees are not living in refugee camps but what the UNHCR calls “safety zones”.  Because these establishments are not actual refugee camps, they lack many facilities and materials that are crucial to the well-being of the refugees, such as proper bathrooms, schools, and in some cases electricity.  Because there is little education, women do not learn about sexual health, including HIV/AIDS and contraception.  There is also a higher incidence of domestic violence inside the camps.

The men, women and children living at these safety zones feel stuck.  They do not want to leave and face more xenophobic violence, yet they cannot prosper in their current situation and the UNHCR does not want to accommodate them for a prolonged period of time.  These refugees have no where else to go, returning to their native countries would also be extremely dangerous.  This puts both the UNHCR and the refugees in a very stressful position, since no one wants to budge.

There are several things that can be done to work on solving this dilemma.  The UNHCR could focus on making the safety zones more hospitable and allowing refugees a longer, but still limited, amount of time to stay.  The UNHCR also needs to provide some type of education to the residents of these camps, which would help decrease the domestic violence and unsafe sex.  South Africa must work on addressing xenophobic violence as well, as this is the root problem of the refugees refusing to leave the safety zones.

These are some of the topics discussed at the conference and SAMGI is doing it’s best to learn more about the refugees living in South Africa and how to help them leave these camps in a safe manner.

Rape

By: Liza Gilhuly

SAMGI is currently working on a new issue of Making Waves, the quarterly newspaper, that focuses on gender-based violence.  One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of gender-based violence is rape and what this term actually means.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines rape to mean, “unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent.”  The keyword in that definition is the “usually” before “sexual intercourse”.  This definition suggests that rape doesn’t always have to involve sexual intercourse…which it doesn’t.  However, under old South Africa law, a man or woman who used an object to penetrate someone else was not classified as a rapist.  Many would consider this to still be rape and would hope that the assailant would be charged accordingly.  Yet, because of the wording of the law, all he or she could be charged with was indecent assault, which carried as punishment a measley fine.

To avoid this problem altogether, South Africa instead started using the term “sexual assault”, as this encompasses all possible definitions of rape.  The United States implemented this change in the late 1970′s as well after a large surge in rape law reform and also began recognizing “marital rape”.  Although South Africa has yet to accomplish the latter, there have been some very essential changes made in the last ten years.  These include the criminal law amendment act, which allowed for more extensive action taken against convicted rapists, and the immorality amendment act, which classified rape as gender neutral (meaning men can be victims as well).  One of the most important reforms, however, was the dissolvement of the “cautionary rule”, which stated that women tended to lie about sexual assault and could therefore not provide testimony for their own case.  This reform marked a very important stepping stone on the path to breaking the traditional, narrow-minded, definition of rape.

So although South Africa still has some work to do in terms of rape law and prevention, the government is not turning a completely blind eye and changes are being made.  Perhaps one day, South African women will feel safe walking the streets of their cities.

Gender Roles in Murder and Other Assaults

By: Liza Gilhuly

Lately, South Africans have been hearing a lot about women getting kidnapped, raped, or worse, murdered.  Many of these horrid crimes are committed by their supposed loved ones and the internet is swimming with shocking statistics.  However, there are occasionally instances of women attacking their boyfriends, husbands, and other male friends.  Looking at statistics, though, most men who are murdered are killed by strangers and acquaintances, rather than by intimate friends or lovers.  Even in the few cases where a wife or girlfriend hurts or kills her significant other, the circumstances usually differ greatly from the cases where women are the victims.

Recently, a young man was found stabbed in his home in Lentegeur, leading to the arrest of his girlfriend.  The article in the Weekend Argus avoided discussing details of the case.  More often than not, women in South Africa do not plan to attack boyfriends or husbands, but rather act out of self-defense in the heat of the moment.  This is supported by the high instance of domestic abuse, which indicates that very few women are aggressors.