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Thank U card holders! Before the day ends head on down to your nearest Jet store...
16 hours ago
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The violent ‘cure’
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This article was published in the July/August 2011 issue of Jet Club Magazine and was chosen by editor, Linda Mali, as one of the top articles of the year.
 Imagine being raped for being who you are. Luthando Kortjaas investigates the atrocious crime that is known as ‘corrective rape.’
Nomsa Nosizwe Bizana was your average 21-year-old. When a friend suggested that they go to a party together, she was excited at the prospect of meeting new and interesting people. Looking beautiful, she tagged along to the braai, in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
Men flocked around her, but Bizana wasn’t interested. What she didn’t know was that her ‘friend’ had told these men that she was lesbian. Later, as she was leaving the bathroom, the five men who had earlier been so keen to ask her out greeted her. This time, though, they overpowered her at gunpoint.
They didn’t want her belongings, but to ‘cure’ her of being a lesbian. They repeatedly raped and beat her up, with the mistaken intention of ‘healing’ her of her sexual orientation. Bizana thus became victim to the crime that society calls ‘corrective rape.’
The criminal mind
Corrective rape is largely driven by ignorance and intolerance for other people’s freedom of choice. Trish Dzingirayi, a Pretoria-based therapist at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisation OUT, said: “By committing such a crime against lesbians, these men not only want to ‘cure’ them of their sexual orientation, but to show them that they can have good sex with a man.” It seems some men take it personally when women don’t find them attractive – which says a lot about their self-esteem and self-worth. Men who behave in such a manner feel a misplaced sense of entitlement, and there truly is no logic behind their actions, says Dzingirayi. “They allow stigma and discrimination to inform their deeds, and they usually cannot accept others because they firstly cannot accept themselves,” Dzingirayi said.
Respecting choice
South Africa has been a free country for nearly two decades. This means that everyone has the right to choose the life they want to live (provided their choices don’t interfere with other people’s rights) without fear of prejudice and ill treatment. As a society, we need to think about how we might be fuelling the stigmatisation of gay and lesbian people. Gossiping, staring and treating gay and lesbian people differently are just some of the ways we encourage viewing them as 'other' or 'different.' Just as we educate ourselves about different cultures, we need to educate ourselves and have an understanding about those of a different sexuality. This will help build our communities instead of breaking them down.
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