Deconstructing the Myth of the Man Who Cannot Be Raped
We were wrong when we confined the discourse of victimhood to women and children, and ignored the violation of men’s bodily boundaries, because we unconsciously accepted a narrative that sees the male body as a warrior’s body that cannot be raped, as strong and therefore inviolable.
The mass stripping of men, photographing them, forcing them into degrading positions, or raping them in prisons is gendered violence. It seeks to shatter the image of the protective father and to redefine the male body as a violable body.
In a patriarchal society like ours, the man is seen as strong, a protector, a symbol of dignity. Violating the male body at the hands of colonial power aims precisely at striking this point.
As queer people, we must first refuse to see the male body as immune to harm, or to treat assault against it as less of a red line than assault against the body of a woman or a child. Colonialism is practicing gendered violence against Palestinian men, targeting their bodies as men in the first place.
Society’s silence toward the stripping of men and their rape in Israeli prisons, and the treatment of the male body as one created to endure, reveals the intersection of patriarchy with colonialism. Patriarchal authority remains silent when the male body becomes a site of violation because it does not wish to shatter the stereotypical image of masculinity; colonial power, in turn, feels shielded by this social silence and normalization.
The genocidal war on Gaza has taught us that liberation and holding a criminal regime accountable cannot happen without freeing the body from the binary of shame (for women) and strength (for men). We will not resist as long as we are ashamed of our violated bodies. The Palestinian body –regardless of sexual identity – is a site of colonial domination.
Ward is a Palestinian queer platform founded by Palestinian queers from Gaza as a space for expression, free from censorship and stereotyping.
This text was originally published by Ward on Instagram @ward.gaza.queer.
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