As we all know, the Congo is a terrible place, filled with rape and adverbs. When last we wrote on this topic, we reported that Congo Rape™ had finally reached the kind of success not even Mad Men can manage: it was given an HBO special of its very own. Complete with an "HBO Does Congo Rape™!" party guide to hosting one's own Congo Rape™ themed soiree!
We hoped that, having achieved that kind of success, Congo Rape™ would take a break to focus on its Academy Awards campaign. Sadly, that has not come to pass. Congo Rape™ seems to be gunning for a sequel. It's as if Congo Rape™ doesn't even understand the kind of legitimacy that an Oscar could bring to its next project!
So now into the breach has stepped Eve "If my vagina could talk, it would criticize other vaginas for not spending enough time on third-world vanity press junkets" Ensler.
Apparently, Ms. Ensler has "spent the past ten years of [her] life in the rape mines of the world." (Refining raw sexual assault ore into precious criminally culpable rape, one assumes.) She was inspired to come to the Congo because she had "never seen anything" like the rapes there. Ms. Ensler was especially impressed by the rapists' sense of nuance, telling the Times that "the details are the scariest part." Personally, we were more impressed by the rapes' overall plot arc, but we suppose a professional like Ms. Ensler really appreciates the polish that "details" like the use of broken bottles and tree limbs can add to the overall tone of a rape. Off-Broadway rapes may be able to skate by on roofies and death threats, but a truly top-level rape production obviously needs that extra je ne sais quoi.
So, Ms. Ensler is doing what she does best: using uncomfortable performance art and cutesy t-shirts to Teach Lessons About Vaginas. The New York Times reports that she has founded a special program to teach women self defense and leadership skills. The women are turning their rapes into performance art, speaking out about what happened to them in graphic detail and awkward metaphors ("I was dinner.") Audience members wear t-shirts emblazoned with the message, "I refuse to be raped."
The Times fails to report whether the backs of the t-shirts say "Unlike that lazy slut, who was totally asking for it."
Ensler plans to put together an "army" of rape survivors, who will "push with an urgency — that has so far been absent — for a solution to end Congo’s ceaseless wars."
Finally, some urgency! There's nothing more annoying than a country that has no gumption when it comes to protecting itself from years of the most brutal ground warfare the world has ever seen. Those Congolese people are just so darned complacent about their bodies and livelihoods being brutally attacked at regular intervals! They lack get-up-and-go, that's their problem! Good thing the nice white lady has arrived to show 'em how it's done.
And when they're finished, just think what the army of rape survivors might be able to accomplish in other conflict situations! We picture an army of rape victims sweeping across Darfur arm in arm, scattering the Janjaweed before them like so many frightened pigeons.
We hoped that, having achieved that kind of success, Congo Rape™ would take a break to focus on its Academy Awards campaign. Sadly, that has not come to pass. Congo Rape™ seems to be gunning for a sequel. It's as if Congo Rape™ doesn't even understand the kind of legitimacy that an Oscar could bring to its next project!
So now into the breach has stepped Eve "If my vagina could talk, it would criticize other vaginas for not spending enough time on third-world vanity press junkets" Ensler.
Apparently, Ms. Ensler has "spent the past ten years of [her] life in the rape mines of the world." (Refining raw sexual assault ore into precious criminally culpable rape, one assumes.) She was inspired to come to the Congo because she had "never seen anything" like the rapes there. Ms. Ensler was especially impressed by the rapists' sense of nuance, telling the Times that "the details are the scariest part." Personally, we were more impressed by the rapes' overall plot arc, but we suppose a professional like Ms. Ensler really appreciates the polish that "details" like the use of broken bottles and tree limbs can add to the overall tone of a rape. Off-Broadway rapes may be able to skate by on roofies and death threats, but a truly top-level rape production obviously needs that extra je ne sais quoi.
So, Ms. Ensler is doing what she does best: using uncomfortable performance art and cutesy t-shirts to Teach Lessons About Vaginas. The New York Times reports that she has founded a special program to teach women self defense and leadership skills. The women are turning their rapes into performance art, speaking out about what happened to them in graphic detail and awkward metaphors ("I was dinner.") Audience members wear t-shirts emblazoned with the message, "I refuse to be raped."
The Times fails to report whether the backs of the t-shirts say "Unlike that lazy slut, who was totally asking for it."
Ensler plans to put together an "army" of rape survivors, who will "push with an urgency — that has so far been absent — for a solution to end Congo’s ceaseless wars."
Finally, some urgency! There's nothing more annoying than a country that has no gumption when it comes to protecting itself from years of the most brutal ground warfare the world has ever seen. Those Congolese people are just so darned complacent about their bodies and livelihoods being brutally attacked at regular intervals! They lack get-up-and-go, that's their problem! Good thing the nice white lady has arrived to show 'em how it's done.
And when they're finished, just think what the army of rape survivors might be able to accomplish in other conflict situations! We picture an army of rape victims sweeping across Darfur arm in arm, scattering the Janjaweed before them like so many frightened pigeons.
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5 comments:
I am going to volunteer in the DRC in 2 weeks. I will be at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, which Eve Asnler visited in September. I feel like such a traitor for saying this but I laughed out loud reading this post. When i started reading it I thought I would cringe and possibly be really mad. But not at all. I think I'm going to get this t-shirt -but only if the back message in on! I seriously think she is doing a good job putting the rape in the DRC at the frontline of women's issues. But yes, maybe her ways of doing so are a bit, er, suspicious. Good job on this post and this blog in general! I always enjoy reading it.
Right on. I think this stuff is really hard to talk about but you have identified a lot of my initial unexplored disgusted reaction to these Congo rape Tupperware party style documentaries. Although I support the Vagina Monologues (and have performed in them) on some levels it I mainly find it totally exploitative, essentialist and victim-fetishizing. Depressing to know those themes haunt all her work. I think this is your best post yet.
Ooof amazing post but left me feel all prickly and annoyed. Its hard to put a word on the type of useless fetishsization that occurs back home (Canadian working in Pakistan) of the most horrific crimes.
It gets deprived of all context and used as a way of portraying the whole society as barbaric. In Pakistan there was the infamous Mukthar Mai case, of a woman who was raped as part of a tribal decision.
I have heard it brought up repeatedly in the west, but rarely have I seen any of the money coming here to support people and organizations here working to prevent crimes like that happening. Usually it gets diverted to more information campaigns in the west about how horrible things are going on in the outside world.
Word, Mahmud, word.
I wonder what we can get done once we’re finished raising “awareness”?
Amen!! As an African woman its so humiliating to be the subject of such misinformed fervor.
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