Eudy Simelane: corrective rape, corrective death

Eudy Simelane was an athlete and a lesbian. In a perfect world that validated love in all of its forms, her sexuality would be a non-issue. In South Africa, however, identifying as a lesbian (or being accused of lesbianism) all too often leads to a violent death, despite a constitution that protects the rights of its GLBT citizens. Simelane was known as a top striker and she became the captain of the nation’s soccer team. Her position would normally have placed her in high esteem.

Instead of being her country’s sports hero, however, Eudy Simelane now lays buried beneath the soil: she was brutally gang-raped and stabbed exactly twenty-five times before dying. For Eudy, the issue was not just that she was a lesbian but that her appearance and gender expression were commonly understood to be butch.

According to the Times Online, at least twenty South African women have been killed in what are known as “corrective rapes” in the last five years. Lesbianism is considered to be unnatural and therefore women are systemically raped to convince them that their “true” orientation is heterosexual. This phenomenon reflects multiple forms of oppression for lesbians, bisexuals and queers who are victimized through these “corrective rapes.”

It is clear that not only do these crimes originate in lesbophobia, but also demonstrate a high degree of misogyny. These rapists believe that they have the right to access women’s bodies at will and they see lesbianism as a rejection of all things male. In a patriarchal world, women exist as possessions and therefore to violate them is quite normalized. Rape in this case functions not only to demand sexual access, but also to reinforce the idea of women being secondary to men in all spheres of life.

Despite the fact that gender is a social construction, we have decided that the difference between male and female is immutable; those presenting as androgynous or gender-bending are seen as a threat to the gender binary. Eudy was also targeted for her appearance because she did not conform to the physical standards that have become socially acceptable for women. The bifurcation between male and female serves to privilege men over women, as well as establishing that those who do not conform to the gender binary are viewed as either invisible or abnormal.

Caster Semenya, a long distance runner who is also from South Africa, was recently forced to undergo genetic testing by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IIAF) because her appearance does not conform to what is popularly understood as “classically” feminine. Her musculature and facial hair have been hotly debated, while in her defence, Semenya states that she was born as, and lives as, a woman. Many of her countrymen have loudly complained about the suggestion that she is somehow misrepresenting her true identity.

Semenya claimed victory on an international stage. The challenge to her femininity posed by the IIAF has become an issue of national pride in South Africa. An attack from an organization that is dominated by Europeans challenging her gender is extremely problematic, due to a long history of colonialism in South Africa. While Semenya’s body may be considered to be problematic by some, her strict proclamation of femininity, combined with the media’s presumption of her heterosexuality, actually serves to protect her identity from becoming spoiled in the minds of some: when she returned to South Africa on August 25th, she received a hero’s welcome

The questioning of Semenya’s gender has not been completely acceptable to certain factions of South African society. Gender DynamiX, a South African based organization dedicated to chronicling the LGBT community in Africa, claims that,

“Instead of being proud of our champion, the South African media and public is on a witch-hunt trying to define Semenya’s sex. DJ’s on radio are dissecting Semenya’s person to a point of reducing her accomplishments to her genitals.”

It is imperative to those both defending and dissecting her gender identity that Semenya is found to be a cisgendered female. Ambiguous gender identity is not well tolerated, though biologists have affirmed that variation in sex is both a widespread and naturally occurring phenomenon.

Soccer is considered a male sport and to excel at soccer is to take on the mantle of masculinity. In contrast, running is viewed as more gender-neutral; this explains why Simelane, as a soccer player, represented a threat that Semenya, a runner, does not. It is in the best interest of kyriarchy to support Semenya because gender is about performance as much as it is about appearance. It is possible to suggest that her femininity is being challenged because of her race rather than the way her body is built.

Regardless of whether gender policing occurs in Europe or South Africa, it has very harmful effects. María José Martínez Patiño, a professional hurdler, was subjected to a gender test at the World University Games in 1985, only to discover that despite living and self-identifying as a woman for the entirety of her life, she was considered biologically male in the mandated genetic sex-determination tests. Her medal was revoked and she lost a scholarship that was paying for her university education.

The categories of man and woman are not as rigid as our pop culture representations would have us believe. We hold desperately to this false binary because it allows us to privilege certain forms of gender identity and sexuality. The issue is not that these women are deceptive, or even abnormal, but that we have created a world in which ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are very narrowly defined. Should one step outside of the boundaries, it could lead to sever disciplinary action, or even death, as the legacy of Eudy Simelane’s life and death all too regrettably demonstrate.