Navigating vulnerabilities and masculinities : how gendered contexts shape the agency of male sexual violence survivors

Touquet, Heleen; Schulz, Philipp

doi:10.1177/0967010620929176

Title

Navigating vulnerabilities and masculinities : how gendered contexts shape the agency of male sexual violence survivors

Author

Touquet, Heleen

Schulz, Philipp

Abstract

In dominant global conceptions of conflict-related sexual violence, the experiences of male survivors, if attended to at all, have thus far almost exclusively been analysed in terms of vulnerabilities. Drawing on empirical evidence from two different cases (Uganda and Croatia), in this article we argue that essentializing and static generalizations of 'emasculation' fail to do justice to the complexity of male survivors' experiences. We show that, in the two cases we examine, male survivors exercise agency and find different ways of engaging with their harmful experiences. Survivors' agency is shaped and conditioned by different opportunity structures, and thus largely dependent on local gender relations and constructions of masculinity. To build our argument, we take inspiration from feminist international relations scholarship highlighting the active roles of women and girls as agents within the context of armed conflict, extending such analysis to the experiences of male survivors of sexual violence. By systematically analysing the forms and conditions of the agency of male survivors of sexual violence, we offer a more holistic examination of the dynamics of wartime sexual violence, contributing conceptually and empirically to research both on local/civilian agency in wartime and on conflict-related sexual violence.

Language

English

Source (journal)

Security dialogue. - London, 1992, currens

Publication

London : Sage publications ltd , 2020

ISSN

0967-0106 [print]

1460-3640 [online]

DOI

10.1177/0967010620929176

Volume/pages