ABSTRACT
The question or issue of rape constitutes a blind spot, a particularly salient symptom,
or even a paradigmatic or borderline3 case of what was passed down as the dominant
‘western symbolic order’.4 This chapter forms part of an attempt to come to an
understanding of the ‘meaning’ or significance of rape within this particular order,
which I describe as patriarchal. The relevance of such an understanding within this
limited context pans out in at least two ways: (1) I believe that we quite simply
have a moral, ethical and political duty to form a sound understanding of rape as
a phenomenon, not only to respond more adequately to victims5 and perpetrators
of rape after the event, but also to think more clearly and strategically about rape
prevention. The urgency that underlies or motivates my concern with rape can surely
(estimated to be one of the highest in the world) but the problem does of course not
only affect South Africans. (2) My analysis of rape is also meant to serve my broader
project, namely to explore the question or issue of women’s subjectivity or selfhood
within the western philosophical symbolic order. I argue that ‘the problem of rape’ is
intimately tied up with women’s problematic selfhood within this same order.
