The Power Of Wartime Rape

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When an individual or group has the ability to exert control over the behaviour of others or events, they have power (Dawson, 2016). There are many different methods and strategies of power an individual or group can use to gain control, many of which have differed through history and according to place. One form of power, can transform across the centuries, moulding into an efficient means of gaining control and demanding obedience. On top of this, characteristics of the specific region in which a group is aiming to control can influence the form power can take in order to be the most capable means of gaining authority in that particular place. These two significant factors give us a clear understanding of the individual concepts as to why …show more content…
Wartime rape has differed through history. In the beginning it was conceptualised as a reward for weary troops to relax, a form of retaliation to get back at the enemy soldiers or an expression of victory. Overtime, groups aiming to seize control of a particular territory have used the strategic, efficient means of raping thousands in order to destroy their victims, and their families, communities and nations, all with a single act of sexual violence (Quillinan, 2016). It’s advancement to a military weapon has seen it used on mass scale in severe ethnic conflicts, such as Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Rape as the form of power in these ethnic conflicts had many particular region specific characteristics that enabled power to be executed in such a manner. The Balkan region was an area of high conflict and warfare across many centuries. The notion of border making and the combination of many different ethnic groups, that despised one another, saw the region turn to chaos in the late 20th century as the groups rejected the singular government and fought for their own power and control (Quillinan, 2016). This specific characteristic of years and years of hatred and conflict between the ethnic groups, and the combining of particular nations into one, was a key factor in determining the forceful and aggressive nature of control that the group chose to implement in order to illustrate power over the territory. Another factor that enabled wartime rape to be so effectively carried out in these regions have been linked to the control of the female bodies being a large part of the culture of these areas and the heightened role of masculinity in the nationalism of these groups. The control of the female body and its connection to wartime rape ties in with the concept of women as the biological reproducers of
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