Men In Militias, Women as Victims

In Chapter 8 of “The Curious Feminist” we see that soldier’s sexuality is determined by their uncontrollable drives and that ultimately if their sex drives are not met their fighting effectiveness becomes jeopardized. One can argue that this idea supports why the commander of Borislav Herak unit ordered his soldiers to rape and murder women. At first It really amazed me how this semi normal person who basically just had an interest in looking at pornography and no passion towards politics or his country end up in the militia. The dialogue of Borislav Herak in chapter 7 along with the statistic that during the 1991-93 war in Yugoslavia between three thousand and thirty thousand women were raped by male combatants blew my mind away. In the interview Borislav reveals that he committed 16 cases of sexual abuse on other women. He argued throughout the interview that he did feel guilty for completing these crimes but that he was ordered to do so and in the end it was for the best interest for the soldiers to gain a scene of morale. Raping these women gave these men a sense of power and masculinity that they used on the battlefields. In the end, it is ironic because Borislav argued that he completed the crimes because he felt like he did not have a choice. He was forced to abuse these women with the threat of being sent to the worst front line or even possibly jail. Ironically, this was not good for Borislav’s morale because at the end of the day he was still sent to the front lines. He further argued that the best boost for his morale or felt the most connected to the other soldiers was when they all ate and drank together.