Glenda Simms In the April 8 edition of The Gleaner, staff reporter Petrina Francis wrote a story headlined, 'Reporting abuse could lead to increased HIV among children'.
The basis of this declaration wascredited to remarks made by Dr. Peta-Ann Baker, "a consultant with the Jamaica Association of Social Workers". According to Francis, this consultant argues that "the requirement for health care givers to report instances of child abuse could unwittingly lead to an increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS among children."
Essentially, what Dr. Baker is advocating is a dangerous path on a slippery slope. She is asking that we accept carnal abuse in our effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to her thesis, underage pregnant girls will shy away from going to the doctors or clinics in order to protect the men who have committed the crime of carnal abuse which impregnated them.
Spreading the virus
By extension, Dr. Baker posits that these children will not get tested for HIV and will pass on this virus to their babies at birth.
In essence, Dr. Baker would advise anyone who can be seduced by her 'logic' to sacrifice the life of the little girls who are not only sexually violated at too young an age, but who also are infected with HIV by the violators of their womanhood.
The more we listen to the subtexts of the discussions about how sexual crimes against women and girls are to be treated by the family and the state, the more we are forced to re-educate ourselves about gender and sexuality.
In the January 2007 edition of Bridge Magazine, a publication of the University of Sussex, the issue of Gender and Sexuality is incisively critiqued.
The authors of this report pointed out that sexuality and gender can combine to make the difference between life and death for many persons.
In the case of women, the dominant ideas about womanhood in many societies lead to much pain and suffering (physically and emotionally). For instance, in places where women should be 'pure and chaste', the girl child can be forced to undergo the horrible ritual of female genital mutilation in order that her sexuality can be curtailed and defined in the context of her value as a property of any man who takes her to be his wife. In other circumstances, the girl child who has been raped or sexually violated is killed in order that dishonour does not come to her family.
In the Jamaican society, such extreme forms of the devaluing of the female and her sexuality is absent, but there are other harmful and dehumanising practices and attitudes that texture the life chances of women and girls in the society.
Undervaluing the vagina
When women's bodies are seen as mere commodities, and when the vagina is so undervalued that carnal abusers are seen as deserving protection from the laws of the land, we must come face to face with the persuasive dismissal of the deep concerns that women have in regards to the relationship between their gender and their sexuality.
Within this complex relationship, the bodies of young girls have become the new frontier for the manifestation of the inhumanity of the patriarch. In the April 13 edition of The Gleaner, staff reporter Barbara Gayle informed her readers that at the opening of the Easter session of the Home Circuit Court, Judge Haynes expressed alarm at the large numbers of carnal abuse cases on the court's roster.
In another column of the same newspaper, Rasbert Turner, Gleaner writer, reported that "The high level of sexual offences has not gone unnoticed by the judiciary," during the opening of the Easter session of the St. Catherine Circuit Court.
In another media report it was stated that the St. Mary police are anxious to "stem the rise of carnal abuse in the parish," despite the acquittal of all cases brought before the court.
Dr. Baker needs to decide whether she would rather ignore the "traumatised self" that emerges when young children are forced either by poverty or low self-esteem to endure the cruelty of rape, incest and other sexual violations.
For this growing number of young female victims, the state must put in place all the resources to ensure that the justice system will allow a space for healing.
Yes, Dr. Baker, the Jamaican state is on the right path to justice for all. Carnal abusers, rapists and all such vicious criminals must be punished. By the same token, adults, including parents who neglect the rights of their children and expose them to the ravages of sexual exploiters, must be severely punished.
The Government of Jamaica has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, appointed an advocate for the most vulnerable, established the Child Development Agency, and is ensuring that there is a strong legislative framework that will guide the decisions made in our courts.
Containing HIV/AIDS
On the issue of containing the spread of HIV/AIDS, Jamaica has achieved many important milestones, including preventing the mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
Every effort has to be put into systems to educate the public on the need for every pregnant woman and girl to attend their family doctors and the public clinics to ensure that they do not endanger the life chances of their unborn child by passing on the deadly virus.
Underage girls, who make the decision to protect their abusers by refusing to attend the clinics for medical attention related to their far-too-early pregnancy, must be encouraged to do the right thing.
In the same way that we are advocating that mothers do not protect the gunmen and murderers by concealing the evil deeds that are evidenced in the privacy of their homes, we must find ways to encourage every underage pregnant girl to seek medical help.
Social workers, guidance counsellors, teachers, doctors, member of the police force, all parents, pastors, priests, community leaders and all those who purport to have the capacity to make a difference, must work to ensure that the most vulnerable and the poorest among us get justice.
The nation's children cannot continue to be pawns in the crass marketplace of the sexual exploitation, which is reinforced by the unholy alliance of gender and sexuality.
Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.
