Melissa Chan is not the only person who makes a connection between war and sexual violence.
The image of Ukraine as a 'provocative' woman in a short skirt and Putin as her rapist is not new.
"Rape Rhetoric and Russia’s War on Ukraine
Putin’s rhetoric towards Ukraine is characteristic of rape culture—and the international community can’t afford to ignore it."
"Those who enact state violence also often employ rape rhetoric. Two weeks before giving the order to invade Ukraine, Putin
was reported to have made reference to a joke about marital rape, saying, “It’s your duty, my beauty” when he spoke of compelling
President Zelinsky to comply with the Minsk agreements. Putin takes a “whether you like it or not” approach in the case of an accord
that Ukraine finds unfavorable, and feels to have been “foisted upon the country’s leaders with little room for recourse.”
Zelinsky demurred, agreeing that Ukraine was a beauty, but objecting to Putin’s use of the possessive adjective “my” in his statement."
"Sexual violence as ‘weapon of war’ to rise after Russia’s invasion, campaigners warn"
"Increasing numbers of Ukrainian women will endure sexual violence wielded as a “weapon of war” in the wake of
Russia’s invasion of the country, campaigners have warned."
"Oksana Pokalchuk, the director of Amnesty International Ukraine, warned female civilians will bear the brunt of Russia’s invasion.
Speaking to The Independent from a bomb shelter in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Ms Pokalchuk said: “It will have a bad impact
on women in the country. Domestic violence and sexual violence rises in wars.'
I expect that feminist analysis would be hardly tolerated, if at all, in this generally conservative male-dominated forum.
