Associate professor, psychologist,
Lars Jalmert, Stockholm university
“An analysis of
gender-based violence with focus on rape as a way to uphold
the old gender power order.”
Ten years ago I was one of the
participants at the Nordic Forum here in Åbo/Turku. I think a fair
guess is that we were at the most 500 men among the 16000
participants. This of course reflects the fact that men haven´t been
especially interested in gender equality issues – and still there
remains a lot to be done about that.
When I a few days ago looked through
the seminar programme from 1994 I could find a number of seminars
focusing on men under such titles as “mens use of the parental leave
system”, “men as carers”, “men as fathers”, “mens movements” and a
few more. However, only two seminars focused on the topic of
gender-based violence.
In this speech I will try to present
rape as one of many signs of mens´ violence against women. I will
talk about the gender power order in our patriarchal societies. I
will give a number of examples of gender based violence trying to
show that they all are a part of mens trying to upheld a dominant
position towards women and that they all are a matter of showing
power. I will also present some data from quite new reports that
stresses the idea of gender based violence as a means to be in
power.
If we then, in 1994, didn´t talk very
much about gender-based violence we definitely did not at all talk
about it as a responsibility for men. Today, however, there are
quite a number of persons around the world having come to the
insight that the greatest obstacle to gender equality is the
prevalence of gender-based violence. In order to diminish the
gender-based violence an important step is that men realise that
they as well have a responsibility for the gender-based violence –
and that they have to act according to that.
A fairly recent example is this. At
the 48th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, this
year in march, one of the main themes was “The Role of Men and Boys
in Achieving Gender Equality”. This was the first time in the UN
history that men were on the agenda regarding gender equality. But I
guess that you already have noted that it was not an initiative from
men. Anyway, during this session we had the opportunity to present a
report from seven researchers doing critical studies on men. The
report is called “Ending Gender-Based Violence: A Call for Global
Action to Involve Men” It looks like this and you can download it at
www.sida.se (Ferguson et al., 2004) I am mentioning this example not
because I am one of the authors but to show that there is a raising
awareness on this topic.
And it is important to see that
almost all violence is performed by men. Another very important task
in order to achieve gender equality is, of course, trying to end
men´s violence And furthermore it is very important that we name
men. We should not speak of youth´s violence but name it young men´s
violence, we should not talk about wife battering but speak of men´s
battering of wives and so on. It is important to name men.
Men´s violence is a worldwide problem
being the greatest threat to peoples lives and health. The
patriarchal societies that we live in have for a very long period
tried to hide the fact that violence in our societies are men´s
violence. During the last 10-15 years we have however received new
facts and figures stating that this is the case. It has become more
and more evident that violence is men´s violence.
From many different areas we have
received knowledge about gender based violence showing very similar
patterns – giving us good ideas about the mechanisms behind men´s
violence. And of course it is important to be able to analyse and
find such mechanisms – otherwise you have no idea of how to make a
change.
And I will try to present the
mechanisms behind men´s violence because I do think that without a
gender-power-analysis you can not change the old patterns.
Today we live in what could be called
“the gender-power order”. Many persons today are opposing this order
but it still is the dominating order that permeates our societies.
In the gender-power order there are two rules by which many persons
act: 1. Keeping the sexes apart – stressing the differences between
males and females. 2. The primacy of the male standard - men
represent the standard of what is normal and universally applicable.
The effect of the gender-power order
is that men are regarded as superior to women.
This gender-power order has evolved
over a long period of time. In actual fact it shows, quite simply,
the relations between gender and power and - not least important -
that gender relations and power are connected to each other.
An effect of the gender-power order
can be expressed in a simple way, it can be said that it leads to a
situation in which many men take it for granted that they shall have
power over women, that they are superior – by virtue of their
gender. Once again, some men take this for granted.
If deprived of this right/power that
they have taken for granted, some men react with violence, trying to
regain power. There are an enormous amount of examples of this. Very
often the words “respect” and ”honour” are used in these contexts
when some men say that they are upholding respect and honour.
Respect means seeing again, to see once again. However, for these
men, it means that we should be afraid of them since they consider
themselves superior, and actually they try to regain power, not
respect nor honour.
In almost all situations of violence,
it is possible to find men who intend to restore their feeling of
having lost power/rights and use violence to achieve this. Some
examples: we know today that the majority of all outdoor rapes are
planned - i.e. it is not a case of an intense flaring up of
uncontrollable sexuality that lies behind rapes of this type, but
simply just one way of demonstrating the power that one takes for
granted. In situations when a man assaults a woman, it is a common
pattern that the man draws the curtains, turns up the volume on the
stereo. No one shall notice what has happened, i.e. it is planned.
In all these cases, as in all cases of violence, it is possible to
see that men use punishment since the power/right that they take for
granted has been questioned. Think of all the ongoing wars - ”the
others have violated our rights”.
The combination of taking power for
granted with the feeling of being violated and humiliated makes some
men react with violence. A violence that has to end. And to my mind
this is the most important task for gender equality policy.
There have through history and
especially late/modern history been given many explanations to men´s
violence. Very often acts of violence are described as due to
alcohol consumption, drugs, by socially excluded groups and so on.
And of course these factors may play a part – but, the main factor,
the common factor is that men are the perpetrators of violence. The
swedish author Eva Moberg once said “There is nothing wrong with
men. But there is something wrong with the way we teach boys to be
'real men' in our societies" And I definitely agree with her – it is
the patriarchal societies that must change in order to give us all
better lives.
The violence we are talking about is
related to socially dominant and often repeated definitions of what
it means to be a man and a woman – such as masculine norms that
equate being a man with being strong, powerful, successful and
entitled to priviliges over women. Violence is often used by men
when they do not live up to these ideals or feel that they are being
challenged.
Gender-based violence is mostly men´s
violence towards women and girls, but it can also be violence toward
other men and boys (in the form of bullying, violence against
homosexuals, sexual abuse, etc.). Gender-based violence takes many
forms – physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as restricted
freedoms and rights, coercion and/or threats.
Over to a number of examples.
RAPE
According to research results from
the last ten years we now know that a majority of all rapes are
planned. (Eliasson, M, 1997) Even in cases when the perpetrator is a
man unknown to the woman and who rapes her outdoors he has planned
it. Not chosen her as a victim but checked out where he will attack
her, where he will bring her and we also know that this attack takes
place within one kilometer from his home. (Östlund, A., 2000 -
Council of Crime Prevention)
Indoor rapes are almost exclusively
performed by a husband or former husband who doesn´t look for mutual
feelings but instead wants to show that she is subordinated him. He
shows actually his power over her. Gang rapes are also planned – by
definition the men agree on what to do – and therefore planned.
So what conclusions can we draw from
this? Well, there are some. We know now that it is not a matter of
some uncontrollable sexuality or aggressivity, but a very controlled
action. We also know that it contains nothing of mutuality, indeed
not even intimacy but is an expression of his power over her.
MEN WHO GO TO PROSTITUTES
Men that go to prostitutes very often
mention a reason for going to them that is about power. The most
common reason to go to a prostitute is “she doesn´t say no”.
Something his wife or girlfriend some times may say. Instead he buys
a prostitute. So again this is not about getting into a relation
with another human being on mutual grounds – he buys her showing his
power.
MEN WHO BEAT WOMEN
Even in cases when a man batters his
wife – and this is fairly common – he plans his battering. He draws
the curtains so that no one will see, he turns up the volume on the
record player so that no one will hear, he does a number of things
before he starts beating her. Again it is not a matter of
uncontrolled aggression, of any biologically founded aggression, but
instead deliberate, planned abuse.
And at this point I would very much
like to present a new report that was presented this summer from
Statistics Sweden. In it there are new chocking figures about
mens´violence against women. Chocking I say because the figures are
much higher than earlier estimations. You can download the report
and all the figures from www.scb.se
According to the swedish National
Council for Crime Prevention there are more than 20.000 cases of his
battering of her reported to police authorities each year in Sweden.
Earlier estimates has calculated with 4 or 5 times as many
non-reported cases which leads to an estimation of about 100.000
cases of his beating her each year in Sweden. These are the figures
that are very often mentioned in the discussions in Sweden.
What Statistics Sweden reported last
month was data from a yearly interview study they conduct with a
representative sample of persons living in Sweden aged 16-84 (Häll,
L. 2004). From my point of view Statistics Sweden conduct the most
reliable studies at all of the swedish population. And they report
that there are some 290.000 acts of violence against women each
year! This is actually more than 14 times as much as the number
reported to police. And please note that the 290.000 cases does not
include cases of threats of violence. And please also note that no
women under the age of 16 were in the study. Note also that
Statistics Sweden think their own figures are under-estimations.
The conclusion that can be drawn from
the study from Statistics Sweden is, at least in my mind, that
earlier estimations of the number of experiences of violence by a
man to a woman are far to low. This is also in accordance with the
study Captured Queen (Lundgren et al., 2002) that Jenny Westerstrand
was one of the authors to and I think Annika Björk will talk a
little about.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Cases of sexual harassment also show the same pattern.He wants to
show that he has power over her. The harasser almost always has
harassed before. He does it over and over again to different women.
He does not seek mutuality, he does not listen to her ‘no’ – he
wants her to feel subordinated. He uses his power and he shows his
power.
I have earlier mentioned that there
have been given many explanations to men´s violence that do not
include a gender power analysis. For example quite a number of
studies say that men´s violence depends on some kind of misuse, of
alcohol or drugs. I think you always have to have a gender power
analysis when you look at men´s violence. Nevertheless you can gain
information from other studies. For example there was one published
this summer that is very interesting.
A study from the Centre for Violence
Prevention in Stockholm reported that of all individuals who had
committed violent crimes during 1988-2000 and were convicted for
them almost 25% were registered misusers (Grann, M. & Fazel, S.,
2004). The swedish newspapers wrote about this study and the
journalists were evidently schocked by the high frequency. For my
part I am more schocked by the fact that more than 75% of all
violent acts (with a conviction) are committed by not registered
misusers.
Earlier studies have reported that in
some 60% of all cases when a man beats a women one or both of the
two has consumed alcohol. And again I think it is more interesting
to note the opposite number, that means that in almost half of the
cases there has been no alcohol consumtion – he is actually sober
when he beats her – leading again to the conclusion that this is
controlled behaviour.
In this speech I have talked more
about gender-based violence generally than on rape specifically. I
have also tried to make an analysis of the causes to this violence
than on consequences. The outcome of this analysis is among other
things that his violence is a controlled behaviour. There is the
possibility that someone may think that this knowledge is more
painful to have than the knowledge that he can´t controll himself.
But this actually gives us the possibility to change. If it were for
some reason that men can´t controll themselves then no change would
be possible.
In the beginning of the 1980ies I
published a study on Swedish Men (Jalmert, L., 1983) in which I
called many of them in-principal-men. That was because they had many
good ideas about how to live in a gender equal way but actually made
no effort to do so. Instead they are uphelding the old patterns of
male dominance – with their silence – and are therefore responsible
for men´s violence against women.
Finally I will just mention that
there is a new book published about rapists. If anyone wants to know
more about the rapist I think this is the most up-to-date knowledge
there is today. The book is called En riktig våldtäktsman and is
written by the journalist Katarina Wennstam. (Wennstam, K., 2004)
REFERENCES
Eliasson, M. (1997) Mäns våld mot
kvinnor. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur
Ferguson, H., Hearn, J., Holter, .
G., Jalmert, L., Kimmel, M., Lang, J. & R. Morrell (2004) Ending
Gender-Based Violence. A Call for Global Action. Stockholm: SIDA
Grann, M. & S. Fazel Substance misuse
and violent crime: Swedish population study. British Medical
Journal.2004;328:1233-4
Häll, L (2004) Offer för våld och
hotelser bland kvinnor och män 1980-2003. Levnadsförhållanden,
Statistiska Centralbyrån.
Jalmert, L. (1983) Den svenske
mannen. Stockholm:Tidens förlag
Lundgren, E., Heimer, E.,
Westerstrand, J. & A-M. Kalliokoski (2002) Captured Queen.Umeå:
Brottsoffermyndigheten/Uppsala Universitet.
Wennstam, K. (2004) En riktig
våldtäktsman. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag.
