‘Corrective’ Sexual Violence in South Africa: A Crime Against the Deviant Sexualised Other

Although it has been argued that we are living in the most peaceful time in human history, South Africa remains a society characterised by violence. Indeed, it may not be a stretch to claim that (despite our progressive laws and policies, and what I have heard described as our “beautiful constitution”) violence remains systemic in South African society. Put differently, the daily lives of the majority of South Africans are infused with, or haunted by the spectre of, violence. In my contribution, I want to explore the normalisation of violence in South African society—focusing in particular on gender-based violence as a response to those who are considered deviant by hegemonic social standards (for example, the so-called ‘corrective rape’ of (primarily Black) queer South African women or ‘streamlining’ practices in which a group of typically male friends commit gang rape together). These forms of violence are often thought to be justified in the light of hegemonic hetero-patriarchal norms and values, and are exacerbated by what I have described (elsewhere) as the dominant picture of the Other underpinning the public imagination in South Africa—that is, the picture of the Other as a threat to ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ Understanding the normalisation of (these kinds of) violence is, I believe, crucial if we want to work towards assuaging it; if, that is, we are committed to a socially just and equitable South Africa in which the human rights of all are respected and promoted.