General News of Saturday, 26 February 2011

Source: Times (South Africa)

Yes, fellas, it is possible to be raped by women

There's nothing like showbiz gossip to get people talking. Africa is no exception. We don't have Hollywood or Bollywood, but we have enough behind-the-screen dramas to keep all our columnists happy.

The latest titbit on the continent concerns an actress from Ghana and a seemingly reluctant man for whom she had the hots.

According to the gossip, Khareema Aguiar, 25, had been attracted to the man for some time. But her advances were not reciprocated.

Sources claim the beautythreatened to teach the man a lesson. One of her favourite warnings to him was that she would spend the night with him one day. And so it came to pass.

But it is now claimed she bedded him only by slipping a substance into his drink. When the potion took effect, he became aroused, and she was more than willing to show him a few moves.

The two had sex repeatedly until he was too weak to continue.

Understandably, Aguiar is annoyed at the reports. Contacted by the News-One organisation, she admitted that "something" had happened, but denied she had drugged him.

She said if she liked somebody, she went for him. "Do I have to go and be praying for the person to come to me? What if the person doesn't come? I am a lady, I am not married and things will definitely happen."

No word has been heard from the man involved, but, as Aguiar said: "If I raped anybody, why didn't he come out to complain?"

The case got me thinking.

Only Aguiar and her lover know what went down, but very seldom do we hear claims of men being raped by women. I did a check and found a surprising number have been reported over the years.

One was in 2005 in Roodepoort, on the West Rand, where three women in a BMW ambushed a 30-year-old man. They tricked him into joining them for drinks at a hotel and then drove to a dark field near the Durban Deep mine. The three women, aged between 20 and 30, undressed and took turns to have intercourse with him.

He reported it to the police, but I couldn't find out what happened after that.

An even more sensational case took place in Zimbabwe two years ago when three women allegedly kidnapped an 18-year-old man. Under headlines such as "Sex-starved women rape man in church", reports detailed how they bundled the man into their car in Harare's city centre in mid-afternoon and then locked him in a room at the city's cathedral. He was forced to have sex before being set free the next morning.

In Pakistan, a 23-year-old man was abducted and taken advantage of by three women. The waiter from Karachi was lured into a car, drugged and then forced to have sex for four days.

From Malaysia comes the tale of a man who claims he was kidnapped and forced to have sex with 10 prostitutes. The 30-year-old said he was taken by a group of men, who demanded a ransom from his family. While they waited, they made him have intercourse with 10 Thai prostitutes.

But the weirdest case was that of a Russian woman, dubbed the Black Widow for her love of horror films and spiders. She went on trial for drugging and having sex with 10 men in 2009. Aged 32 and identified as Valeria K, she would invite men to her home and serve them drinks laced with clonidine. This put them to sleep for 24 hours.

She would undress her victims and then tie a rope around their genitals to assist in her bizarre acts. The men would wake up in the hospital with clonidine poisoning . One victim refused to press charges , saying he loved "hot women" and the assault was "great".

Is it possible for a woman to have intercourse with a man against his will? I researched this and, without going into detail, I can assure you that it is. In any case, any sexual act without consent is illegal, and men should be treated the same as women .

But we don't do that, do we? Can you imagine how we would have reacted if all the genders in the stories above were switched? We would have the Ghanaian actor drugging a young woman he fancied and having his way with her. Not so charming, is it? And can you imagine the uproar if a young woman were forced to have sex with 10 male prostitutes?

I'm sorry to admit that I did find it difficult to stifle a few chuckles about some of the tales. The one that didn't raise any smiles was that of the Black Widow and her lengths of rope.