Description
As part of the multiple gendered and sexual harms, there are developing arguments over the silencing of male CRSV victims (Touquet and Schulz 2021). While some argue that gender norms and a lack of agency contribute to victims' silence, others argue that victims exercise agency by speaking about their experiences, even if they are not heard (Touquet 2022) also known as "disempowered speech" (Hornsby 1995) or their words are lost in translation or filtered (Touquet 2022) or entextualised (Briggs 1993). We argue, however, that despite these improvements in CRSV theories and their implications for survivors, little is known about how the co-existence of normative and non-normative sexualities leads to the silence of male CRSV victims.
This study is based on interviews with male CRSV victims, as well as security agents and aid workers in terrorism-affected northeastern Nigeria, where many survivors recounted refusing to share their experiences in order to avoid being revictimized, stigmatised, shamed, and humiliated for failing to measure up to normative masculine expectations that reject and discredit homosexuality. Building on Steven Pierce's theory that perceived cultural patriarchy and heteronormativity in Northern Nigeria are trademarks of Islamic theological reforms, and that normative and non-normative sexuality coexist and are mutually constitutive in Northern Nigeria (Pierce 2007). Although secrecy or being discreet about one's sexuality enables the co-constrictiveness of normative and non-normative sexualities because it is typically considered as a hallmark of good behaviour (Pierce 2007). As a result, we claim that silence by male CRSV victims is founded in cultural behaviour on the necessity for same-sex identities to be silent about their experiences or avoid displaying non-normative sexual encounters, which is perceived as an example of modesty. However, we propose that these cultural practises contribute to the silence of male CRSV victims, as they show their agency through silence as a form of negotiating societal acceptability, disregarding the sexual violence, or defending themselves from revictimization.
This adds to the ongoing conversation on whether or not male CRSV victims are being silenced. Moreover, While being mindful of the complex sexual subjectivities of women during conflicts or in post conflict societies, understanding the contextual subtleties of CRSV against men may enable researchers and policy makers to gain a better grasp of the CRSV's complicated and multifaceted gender and sexual harms in different countries.
References
Hornsby, J. 1995. Disempowered speech. Philosophical topics 23 (2): 127–47
Briggs, C. 1993. Metadiscursive practices and scholarly authority in folkloristics. Journal of American Folklore 106 (422): 387–434
Touquet, H., (2022) Silent or Inaudible? Male Survivor Stories in Bosnia–Herzegovina, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, Volume 29, Issue 2, Summer 2022, Pages 706–728,
Touquet, H., & Schulz, P. (2021). Navigating vulnerabilities and masculinities: How gendered contexts shape the agency of male sexual violence survivors. Security Dialogue, 52(3), 213–230
Steven Pierce, S. (2007) “Identity, Performance, and Secrecy: Gendered Life and the “Modem” in Northern Nigeria” Feminist Studies, 33, (3): 539–565.
