The recent utterance “educated men don’t rape” by the minister of basic education Angie Motshekga and “real men don’t abuse” statement which periodically plays on radio station Metro FM are worrisome. Although both statements may have been said without ill intention, they feed into the problematic and false notion that it is a different type of man who rapes, abuses or does harm to women and children.
These statements are akin to referring to rapists and murderers as monsters when in fact rapists, abusers and murderers live among us and are everyday members of society we are constantly in interactions with. Members of society that range from educators, church ministers, community leaders, politicians, radio hosts, uncles, brothers, cousins and fathers.
When we separate rapists, murderers, or criminals at large from the everyday people we live with, we almost take away the fact that they are human. We externalise their behaviour as if it is an anomaly, animalistic almost. Ideally this type of behavior should indeed be an anomaly in our society, but the truth is, it is not. It is crimes that are committed by human beings who live among us.
In fact, the South African Council of Educators (Sace) told the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education in the 2019-20 financial year that it had recorded 92 cases related to sexual misconduct, rape, indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
And as the rest of society knows, educators form part of the educated cohort the minister refers to as being incapable of rape. They go through rigorous training, spend a lot of time in higher education institutions and thus come highly qualified. We can to a certain extent safely assume they have been exposed to education around sexual misconduct, however here we are finding them in the mix of those accused of acts involving sexual misconduct against children.
Not that I needed any convincing, but this goes to show the statement does not hold water. In 2019, Sace is said to have told the same committee that reports of sexual abuse by teachers had risen by more than 230% in the past five years, and these reports included rape.
And if we are to consider the number of rape cases that go unreported, especially by minors, I am sure this number is even more staggering. The underreporting of rape cases is already rife in our country.
This is likely to be worse in the context of the schooling environment, when one considers the skewed power dynamics between educators and children who are of school-going age. Statements such as “real men don't abuse” and “educated men don’t rape” purport the idea that a rapist looks a particular way or fits a particular prescript. This type of thinking is the reason a rape or abuse survivor will speak out on who violated them and people will try to discredit the victim’s version of events and make them feel delusional for thinking that an astute, clean, qualified, rich man raped them.
The thinking is that, why would a man with those characteristics resort to rape or abuse, when they can get any person they want – neglecting the fact that rape and abuse is done as an exercise of power, entitlement, and toxic masculinity?
More importantly, saying real men do not abuse or educated men don’t rape, that rapists and abusers are monsters, almost compartmentalises the act as something that may have taken over the “real” character of the perpetrating individual. Referring to rapists, murderers, and abusers as this monstrous thing takes away the accountability of the individual involved. It detaches the perpetrator from the act; it almost absolves them of their act of violation.
It says, something took over, the act was nothing like the usual behaviour of the perpetrator. It was an animalistic, monstrous trait that took over and made them commit the act. When in fact, when one rapes, they have thought about it, they have processed, and they have made a decision to commit that act of violation. The minister and the radio station both hold great influence in the formation of people’s opinions, and for this reason we must grab these educative moments and ensure that problematic statements, which perpetuate dangerous beliefs in our society, are not festered.
The good news is that it is not all gory. I say this because the pupils disputed the statement made by the minister. This goes to show, as much as it seems adults are failing at keeping up with the facts around rape and abuse, the children are clearly keeping up, as seen in their passionate disagreement against the regressive statement.
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