Gender Orthogonality as a Queer-feminist Framework for Understanding Male-male Rape and Carceral Sexual Violence

Abstract

Much contemporary feminist theorising about sexual violence relies on heteronormative, gender-dichotomised thinking. One outcome of heteronormative framings of sexual violence is the sidelining of certain people (including transgender, nonbinary, and genderqueer people, and cisgender men) from sexual victimisation frameworks. After identifying limitations of heteronormative, gender-dichotomised, feminist approaches to sexual violence, we propose a queer-feminist, gender-orthogonal framework that provides a more robust understanding of male-male rape and carceral sexual violence. We draw on examples from southern African prisons, including from Malawi, Namibia, and South Africa, to substantiate this perspective.