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The Landscape of Silence: Sexual Violence Against Men in War
Why is it that men and boys have been and still are violated in human conflict, be it in conventional war, insurgencies or periods of civil and ethnic strife? Above all, why, throughout history, have victims, perpetrators and society as a whole refused to acknowledge this violation, and why do episodes of male-on-male rape and sexual abuse feature so rarely in accounts of war, be they official histories, eye-witness accounts or popular narratives? Is there more to this elision of memory than simply shame? Is there more to it than the victor's desire to violate the enemy body?
Amalendu Misra's startlingly original research into male sexual violence explores the meaning and role of the male body prior to its abuse and how it is altered by violation in wartime. He examines the bio-political contexts of conflict in which primarily men and occasionally women sexually violate men; he details the inadequate legal safeguards for survivors of such events; and in unearthing and analysing an ignored aspect of war, he inquires whether such violence can ever be deterred.
Amalendu Misra's startlingly original research into male sexual violence explores the meaning and role of the male body prior to its abuse and how it is altered by violation in wartime. He examines the bio-political contexts of conflict in which primarily men and occasionally women sexually violate men; he details the inadequate legal safeguards for survivors of such events; and in unearthing and analysing an ignored aspect of war, he inquires whether such violence can ever be deterred.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 31, 2014
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April 28, 2021
This is stunningly bad. It's shocking to me that this was published in 2015. Aside from its persistent homophobia, the book seems consistently to confuse male/male rape and homosexuality. Further, Misra constantly avoids claiming anything at all. The book is filled with the phrases "one could claim" and "one might argue". And as for conclusions, Misra dodges them, concluding that we don't know much at all and we need to know more.
At one point in the book Misra wonders if male victims of sexual violation ought to be allowed some kind of legal violent revenge. (No, he decides. They shouldn't be.) Then he wonders how revenge might be achieved if the victim doesn't have the opportunity for revenge. And then it takes a turn. He asks: "What if the victim in question suffers from some form of latent homosexuality (for it is a fact that male-male wartime victims are always targeted when they show some signs of diminished masculinity)?" This question appears at the end of a section in the chapter on "Biopower" and is followed with a brief discussion of Sartre's reading of Jean Genet, in which Misra describes Genet as a heterosexual who is transformed into a homosexual following a prolonged period of sexual violation.
Huh? Not only does this have nothing at all to do with sexual violence against men in war (the ostensible subject of this book), but it is also an interpretation of Genet's The Thief's Journal, which ought surely to be read as literature rather than interpreted as raw sociological data.
Throughout the book, in fact, and even in the last chapter, Misra claims to be without data and so will analyze a literary or cinematic example as if it is sociological data. We get shallow readings of Deliverance, of The Shawshank Redemption, of Confessions of a Mask, of Sebastiane. But none of these is treated as fictional or even literary. They're just interpreted as if they represent facts.
At one point in the book Misra wonders if male victims of sexual violation ought to be allowed some kind of legal violent revenge. (No, he decides. They shouldn't be.) Then he wonders how revenge might be achieved if the victim doesn't have the opportunity for revenge. And then it takes a turn. He asks: "What if the victim in question suffers from some form of latent homosexuality (for it is a fact that male-male wartime victims are always targeted when they show some signs of diminished masculinity)?" This question appears at the end of a section in the chapter on "Biopower" and is followed with a brief discussion of Sartre's reading of Jean Genet, in which Misra describes Genet as a heterosexual who is transformed into a homosexual following a prolonged period of sexual violation.
Huh? Not only does this have nothing at all to do with sexual violence against men in war (the ostensible subject of this book), but it is also an interpretation of Genet's The Thief's Journal, which ought surely to be read as literature rather than interpreted as raw sociological data.
Throughout the book, in fact, and even in the last chapter, Misra claims to be without data and so will analyze a literary or cinematic example as if it is sociological data. We get shallow readings of Deliverance, of The Shawshank Redemption, of Confessions of a Mask, of Sebastiane. But none of these is treated as fictional or even literary. They're just interpreted as if they represent facts.
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