Many rape survivors silence themselves. They feel such a confusing mixture of shame and guilt about what has happened to them that they struggle to speak about it. They wonder if they could have done anything to prevent it and feel vulnerable at the thought of other people knowing about it. Counselling gives rape survivors […]
Last week I had the pleasure of joining the WAR Campaign on their school tour. This tour involves visiting various schools around Cape Town where they speak to high school students about rape while dispelling myths and stereotypes present in South African culture. When I arrived at Hillsong Church last Monday I truly had no […]
There is an American televangelist—Pat Robertson—who shares a birthday with me (22 March and I like chocolate, in case you were wondering). But date of birth aside, him and I have precious little in common. He is a rampant homophobe, sexist and racist; justifying his opinions by cowering behind the cross. He has said things […]
I had decided to stay out of the debate on the Rape Crisis blog between “Fifty Shades of Feminism” and “Burlesque”, posts by the present and former directors of Rape Crisis. Many reasons: remembering being the “angry young feminist”, feeling caught between the older and younger generations of feminists, but most of all, affection for […]
Dear Carol and Anne I am one of the burlesque dancers you seem so intent on dehumanizing and invalidating. I am also a rape survivor. When I originally read Carol’s letter, I was hurt, she was after all, effectively telling me that my efforts to support my fellow survivors were invalid simply because our feminisms […]
Why I am unhappy about the Rape Crisis association with Burlesque shows. It has been so difficult writing this blog, I have begun it and deleted it a number of times. As Kath Dey stated in her blog there are different forms of feminism, I want to expand on that. I care about the […]
Message from Kathleen Dey It’s time for change. The Department of Justice needs to roll out the full number of Sexual Offences Courts as promised by the Minister of Justice in 2013. We all have to work together to hold them accountable to their promise. To this end we launched the Rape Survivor’s Justice Campaign […]
Rape is both personal and political. It is a deeply personal violation committed by one person against another. But it is also a symptom of a social context in which inequality, disempowerment and violence continue to shape the daily experiences of millions. Within this context it becomes almost impossible to separate the personal and the […]
It’s such a wonderful thing as you get older as a woman that you finally start realising how beautiful and super human, we women are. We are so unkind to ourselves and other women for so much of our lives – comparing, judging and sometimes ridiculing – this is from lack of confidence most of […]
I found out via a phone call from Anne Mayne that Rape Crisis was benefiting from a burlesque revue (and did in fact receive around R36,000 if memory serves). My initial reaction was disbelief and then a sort of creeping horror. I simply could not understand that what I felt was the objectification of women’s […]