Rape as a Weapon of Hate: Discursive Constructions and Material Consequences of Black Lesbianism in South Africa

Abstract

When the violent years of apartheid ended in South Africa in the early 1990s, the nation reinvigorated a commitment to equality. Despite institutional gains and the constitutional recognition of gay rights, violence against gay and lesbian people in South Africa persists. This critical rhetorical analysis reveals that much media coverage about the nation constructs Black lesbianism in South Africa as especially liminal. Discursively marginalizing these women positions them such that they become vulnerable to physical/material disciplining in the form of “corrective rape.”

Keywords:

• corrective rape
• discipline
• heteronormativity
• lesbian
• marginalization

Acknowledgments

Megan Elizabeth Morrissey is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. This essay was first presented in 2010 at the Western States Communication Convention. The author thanks Lisa Flores, Larry Frey, and the editor and anonymous reviewers at WISC for their generous feedback in preparing this essay.