Summary
A South African scientist at the remote Sanae IV Antarctic base has been accused of sexual assault and violent threats, prompting urgent pleas for help.
The 10-person team is stranded for months due to extreme winter conditions. Officials were warned of the escalating situation as early as December but failed to act.
South Africa’s environment department has launched an investigation and is offering counseling.
The incident raises concerns over psychological screening for Antarctic missions, echoing past violent incidents in South Africa’s research programs.
I would think frontier justice would apply nicely in this situation. Just boot the asshole out in the cold and nature will solve the problem for you.
Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.
Don’t put this on the victims. Women are doing their best to defend themselves.
Unfortunately there’s a culture of sexual assault at Antarctica, where the “boys will be boys” crowd overrule the kind of thing @the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world just suggested.
I never once blamed the victims. And I never will.
My point is that the women being sexually assaulted in Antarctica haven’t been passively sitting there saying it “never crossed their mind” to protect themselves - one had to walk around for months wielding a hammer to use as a weapon against her assailant.
It’s the wider system down there and the rape culture society that is creating this system not some kind of passive internaluzed helplessness. Most women field scientists are tough as nails because they have to be.
Absolutely 100%. I think basic self-defense should be a required course in middle school or high school, especially for women. And I would encourage any woman or any person for that matter to take charge of their personal defense, in whatever way is most comfortable for them. Carry a gun, carry a taser, carry pepper spray, take martial arts classes like Krav, etc.
Schools should be teaching boys to respect women and not believe they have a ‘right’ to women’s bodies.
If we hit the source of the problem it can be fixed … and the source is not women, it’s boys/men.
Good to know I’m the problem. How’s that strategy working out for you? Driving up toxic masculinity numbers this month?
While this argument makes sense on paper, it completely nullifies the point. Both should be taught for the following reasons:
- You can educate people all you want, but that will not stop the people who simply never gave a flying fuck.
- Okay, now you’re back to square one, there are evil men out there that don’t give a fuck about anyone and WILL abuse you given the opportunity. Thank god they received a talk about how you shouldn’t hurt women when they were in 6th grade.
- You are now still in a situation where you have to respond to violence, but since self-defence wasn’t taught to you, you have to be a helpless victim of said violence.
“It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”
Problem is everybody focuses on teaching girls/women and lets the boys/men off with nothing.
Yes, both should be taught … so start pushing for the boys/men now.
