The Shame and Fame of Rape: Sexual Violence in South Africa

The mystifying dualism of shame is that it is at once an isolating, intimately intra-psychic phenomenon seeking concealment, yet remains deeply embedded in a visual and public interpersonal space where the self is violently and unexpectedly exposed to the critical gaze of the Other. This chapter aims to examine how the shame felt around sexual violence in particular occurs at the interface of private and public spaces, an inherently private act with consequences being played out within the public arena, significantly informed by public perceptions of rape. Shame lies at the heart of the traumatic experience of rape – it is the experience of the body being exposed as inherently damaged or defiled and the consequent disconnection of the self from society. An investigation of the noxious affect of shame is especially pertinent in the context of sexual violence in South Africa, a country with one of the highest prevalence of rape in the world (Jewkes et al, 2009).