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Social Text 22.1 (2004) 17-33


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Girl Bodies

Sarah Nuttall

It is a hot day in Johannesburg, the last day of work before the summer vacation. December 2001. From the central foyer of the offices where I work, I can see into the inner city, shards of light on the glass building shaped like a diamond, the new taxi rank, one of four going up in the city for the 800,000 commuters passing through every day, the Market Theatre, and the Mandela Bridge starting to take shape. I am reading the Sowetan, South Africa's largest-selling daily newspaper. On the front page, a full-color, full-page photograph of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, ready to spar for the soccer cup on the weekend. On page 2, the "In Brief" column offers snippets:

R21,000 for Baby Tshepang
A non-governmental organization, the Coalition for Children's Rights (CCR), yesterday handed over R21,000 collected from the public for nine-month-old baby Tshepang, who was raped and sodomized by six men in October.

"Fire" Held over Child Support
Sundowns star midfielder Joel "Fire" Masilela is expected to appear in the Mamelodi Magistrate's Court today after he was arrested for alleged failure to pay maintenance.

The first snippet refers to a baby rape, the rape of the youngest baby yet, one of many since the start of the year, and the one that has most upset the public. The second snippet, detailing the arrest of a well-known soccer player for failure to pay maintenance to his ex-wife, reveals the law in action, protecting the rights of women, bringing to book men who try to get away without paying child support. Two snippets, mini states of the art unfolding along two South African trajectories: violent histories of the body, and rights that have come, if intermittently and in important redemptive pockets, to be protected by the most liberal constitution in the world. As I turn to page 4, another "In Brief" snippet tells me that "Gauteng, MEC for Safety, liaison Nomvula Mokonyane, and Social Welfare MEC Angie Motshekga are expected to address hundreds of men who will be marching against children and women abuse and rape in Ivory Park, North Rand, at the weekend." Another redemptive pocket. If this is [End Page 17] one kind of action taken in relation to the dramatic conundrum of men, women, and girls' bodies that is unfolding, page 7 reveals a quite different kind. High on the page is an image, drawn by hand. See figure 1.


Click for larger view		 Figure 1
Chastity belt for infants. From "Keeping Safe Below Belt," Charity Bengu, Sowetan, 14 December 2001. Illustration by Sunette Ehlers

It is a chastity belt for babies, for small girl bodies. Not girl bodies in general but for specific parts of their anatomy—their vaginas, buttocks, torsos, and, up in a loop, their shoulders. The headline reads "Keeping Safe Below Belt," setting up a link with safety as it draws on the euphemistic phrase below the belt, with its origins in sport's ritualized violence. Charity Bengu (2001a, 2001b) has the story: "A chastity belt with a lock and a key has been developed in a desperate attempt to protect children from escalating incidents of rape. The device, which is designed to prevent the woman wearing it from having sexual intercourse, comes after a series of reports of child rapes."

Although the first sentence refers to the protection of children, it is only girl children, and babies, who are involved. The second sentence refers to "the woman" who will be wearing the device, but it is not for women—it is for young and baby girls. Perhaps children and women carry a greater moral invocation, as political categories, than girls? The story continues: "The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said 58 children were raped or nearly raped in South Africa every day. ... Developed after extensive research spanning ten years, the device will be officially launched [End Page 18] in Pretoria in January next year by a group of independent researchers led by Mrs...

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