At least one of Jamaica’s lawmakers, the Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, the People’s National Party’s Lisa Hanna, thinks a woman can rape a man.
It is, in part, because of this reason that the former Miss World moved a motion in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, calling for rape to be gender neutral.
Hanna noted that rape is presently defined in Jamaica as “a man having sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent, or knowing that she does nor consent, or reckless disregard for her consenting”.
She also noted that in Jamaica’s Sexual Offences Act, sexual intercourse is defined as the entrance of the penis to the vagina only.
Continuing her motion, Hanna said:
And whereas if the same man uses an implement or any other body part to penetrate her vagina, mouth or anus, it is considered grievous sexual assault.
Or if he uses his penis to penetrate anywhere else on her body, other than her vagina, he may not be technically charged for rape in Jamaica, but rather grievous sexual assault.
Hanna pointed out that in Jamaican law, “it is only a man that can rape a woman and a man cannot experience rape in Jamaica, whether by a man or by a woman, which is presenting a legislative dilemma, creating inequitable legal consequences surrounding how we treat rape in Jamaica”.
She argued that “because our legal definitions have been unchanged for centuries, many boys and men who have been, or being raped and sexually abused by men and women, continue to suffer in silence and don’t come forward out of fear of being stigmatised or thrown in jail even though they are the victims”.
Hanna said it was time that “we acknowledge and confront the fact that many of our boys and men are raped and continue to be raped, and change the law to give them redress and equality in our treatment of men and women in Jamaica”.
“And be it resolved that we modify our legal definition of sexual intercourse, to make the act of rape in Jamaica gender neutral,” she added.
