Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men: Why so Oblivious?

Abstract

This article explores understandings of, and narratives on, wartime sexual violence against men, as well as some of the questions they raise. Based on interviews conducted since 2009 with male survivors of wartime sexual violence in Burundi and Eastern Congo, the article argues that gender representations that are dominating at local, national but also international levels hinder the acknowledgement of the existence of male survivors of sexual violence, and thus obscure our understanding of the underlying mechanisms sustaining wartime sexual violence. The article explores what accounts for such a silencing at the local, national and international levels, from stories of sexual violence where men always stand as perpetrators, to patriarchal cultures associating masculinity with strength, protection and invulnerability, and to (post)colonial representations of violence and masculinity in the developing world.