The Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) strongly condemns Zapiro's latest cartoon depicting a black woman being gang raped by the president and his cronies. One cannot compare the current political and economic challenges to a woman being raped. SA citizens may feel helpless and angry but this is nothing like how women feel when they have been raped. By using the rape imagery Zapiro is appropriating women's experiences. There are other ways in which to portray the challenges currently facing South Africa.
South Africa has the highest rape statistics in the world, yet the majority of women do not report and this cartoon enforces the stigma and the reasons rape is under reported. Thus, we condemn this cartoon for a number of reasons:
- Zapiro’s cartoon is a form of violence as it triggers real pain for rape survivors.
- It is a form of white entitlement on Zapiro’s part as he is representing black bodies without thought and acknowledgement of white privilege.
- Rape should not be used as metaphor for anything. This kind of representation normalises rape.
- Zapiro is stoking racial animosity by objectifying black women (and men). Black men as hypersexualised rapists -- black women's bodies as always available to be raped. These are malicious stereotypes of black sexuality.
- Lastly and most importantly black women's bodies do not stand as a representation of the South African nation, or representations for what men fight over.
The greatest pain in this country falls upon the black woman. Zapiro's cartoon is neither humorous or makes a strong political point. It is insensitive and out of touch with the lived realities of women in South Africa.
Issued by Women’s Legal Centre