Abstract
Most research on alcohol consumption and related sexual violence focuses on Western societies. Drawing on traditional masculinity scripts, this article contributes to the culturally specific understanding of how Nigerian sociocultural constructions of alcohol consumption facilitate sexual violence against women. In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 male and female undergraduate students (aged 19-23 years), exploring how the gendering of alcoholic beverages facilitates men’s perpetration of sexual violence against women in a Nigerian university. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 10 software. Men were found to exclude women from consuming beer, which they described as “inappropriate” feminine behavior, confining them to drinking sweetened/flavored alcoholic beverages. To maintain a notion of “respectable” femininity, women consumed these drinks, but this created gender-specific risks. In comparison with beer, sweetened alcoholic beverages have a higher alcohol content, which many of the men were aware of, unlike the women interviewed. Some men admitted buying such drinks for women, pressuring them to drink above their limits and raping them when they were inebriated. Public health interventions that focus on the deep-seated gendered consumption rituals anchored in patriarchal beliefs, the commodification of women’s bodies, and the stigmatization of rape victims should be pursued more vigorously in Nigeria and other non-Western societies.
Introduction
Internationally, sexual violence is one of the growing public health concerns, and women are the main victims. Based on 2010 global statistics, 7.2% of women (aged 15 years and above) have suffered sexual violence by nonpartners (Abrahams et al., 2014). As McKie (2003) asserted, “men’s sexual violence against women is a gendered, oppressive practice” (p. 128). Although women can also perpetrate violence against men, research shows that a greater number of men perpetrate both physical and sexual violence (Abbey, 2011; Haugen, Salter, & Phillips, 2019). Importantly, studies conducted in the United States and Europe show that the use of psychoactive substances by victims and/or abusers is an important factor in some of this violence (Dorandeu et al., 2006; Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2009; Lawyer, Resnick, Bakanic, Burkett, & Kilpatrick, 2010; Stöckl, Heise, & Watts, 2011). In sub-Saharan Africa, there is growing evidence of sexual violence against women (Abrahams et al., 2014; Jewkes & Abrahams, 2002). In a study of 1,370 young adult males in South Africa, Jewkes et al. (2006) found that 16.3% had either raped a nonpartner or been involved in gang rape, 8.4% had raped a sexual partner while 44.3% had raped both sexual partners and nonpartners, particularly acquaintances. Another South African study of 1,275 young men reported that 11% had perpetrated sexual violence against their current or ex-girlfriends, and alcohol consumption, among other psychoactive substances, facilitated the act (Dunkle et al., 2006).
Globally, research shows that alcohol is the most commonly used substance in facilitating sexual violence (Abbey, 2011; Armstrong, Hamilton, & Sweeney, 2006; Dunkle et al., 2006; Ellsberg et al., 2015; Koo, Nguyen, Andrasik, & George, 2015; World Health Organization, 2013). As such, it is argued that there is an association between alcohol consumption and men’s perpetration of sexual violence against women (Abbey, 2011; Abrahams, Jewkes, Hoffman, & Laubsher, 2004). Among student populations, research indicates that alcohol use increases the perpetration of sexual violence against female students (Abbey, 2002; Haikalis, DiLillo, & Gervais, 2017; Tyler, Schmitz, & Adams, 2017; Williams et al., 2014). According to Mohler-Kuo, Dowdall, Koss, and Wechsler (2004), 72% of U.S. college women who experience rape are inebriated at the time, and as Armstrong et al. (2006) found, this is likely to be because male students often use “the promise of more or better alcohol . . . to lure women into private spaces” where they perpetrate sexual violence against them (p. 490). In a similar vein, two thirds of participants in a U.K. study described sexual violence against women “as a normal part of university life” (Phipps & Young, 2015, p. 311). They argue that the rape-supportive “laddish” cultures that pervade universities support male students’ beliefs that they can do anything they want to any female student who is drunk (Phipps & Young, 2015).
According to laboratory analysis of blood or urine of rape victims (Scott-Ham & Burton, 2005), the analysis of police case files (Horvath & Brown, 2007), and field research (Burgess, Donovan, & Moore, 2009; Sheard, 2011), the incapacitation of women before rapes is frequently due to women’s consumption of alcohol, taken voluntarily with male acquaintances or strangers, although victims often deny their alcohol consumption (Burgess et al., 2009). This denial is engendered by sociocultural factors that stigmatize women’s drunkenness in most societies (Peralta, 2010). Despite the fact that drink spiking (i.e., to add alcohol/drug to a drink without the drinker’s knowledge) may constitute a risk factor in women’s socialization in public drinking spaces (Brooks, 2014), evidence shows that the risk associated with spiking drugs is often blown out of proportion (Weiss & Colyer, 2010). For example, studies (e.g., Donovan, 2016; Hindmarch & Brinkmann, 1999) have found that some women who thought that spiking drugs had been used on them were victimized after consuming alcohol that had not been spiked.
Alcohol’s effects on men and women differ. Compared with men, women generally become intoxicated more quickly after consuming alcohol, and they also experience more alcohol-related impairment than men (Zakhari, 2006). Because of this, some men encourage women to consume large quantities of alcohol, believing that when women are intoxicated, they are more unlikely to resist sexual advances (Abbey, 2011; Sheard, 2011).
In the Nigerian context, a number of studies have shown that rape occurs, but little is known about alcohol-assisted rape and even less is known about the experiences of university students in this regard. In addition, to our knowledge, no research exists in Nigeria or elsewhere on how the gendering of alcoholic beverages engenders rape. This article builds on previous work that explored how young Nigerians use heavy alcohol consumption to construct social identities and gain social capital (Dumbili, 2015). This article has two interrelated aims. First, it explores how young people from the Igbo 1 ethnic group socially construct alcohol consumption by determining what is “appropriate” in terms of what men and women drink. Second, it examines how the social construction of alcohol consumption facilitates the rape of female students.
The remainder of this article is divided into four sections. First, we present a review of the literature on sexuality and rape and offer an overview of how alcohol consumption is gendered in Nigeria. Next, we present the study’s methodology, which is followed by the “Results” section. This is followed by the discussion and conclusion, where we explore the implications of the findings for public health and recommend possible interventions that Nigeria and other non-Western societies might adopt to tackle the problem of sexual violence and rape cultures.
Sexuality and Rape: The Nigerian Scripts
In Nigeria, women are nurtured to act as sexual gatekeepers and sexual intercourse among unmarried people is also taboo (Izugbara, 2008). Despite this sociocultural constraint, evidence shows that sexual exploitation is one of the ways in which boys and young men demonstrate that they have approached manhood in contemporary Nigeria (Dumbili, 2016; Izugbara, 2008). Although this practice is one of the ways in which men construct masculine identities in many parts of the world, Izugbara (2004) noted that the “dominant sexuality discourses in Nigeria are premised on patriarchal ideologies which privilege men . . . and also demean women and support their socialization into forms of femininity that are submissive” (p. 27). Again, he argues that even popular songs and chants among the Igbo ethnic group depict sexual adventure where men are seen as clever and good risk takers, and women’s bodies are demeaned as objects to be enjoyed by men (Izugbara, 2005).
Anchored to this commodification of women’s bodies, Nigerian women continue to suffer physical, psychological, and sexual violence by men (Antai, 2011; Okenwa, Lawoko, & Jansson, 2009). For example, in a cross-sectional survey of 345 young female vendors in south-western Nigeria, Fawole, Ajuwon, Osungbade, and Faweya (2002) found that 36.3% of the participants had suffered attempted or completed rape. These scholars also revealed that of the 19 young females who had experienced rape, only one had reported it to the police (Fawole et al., 2002). In another descriptive-correlational study of 338 male adolescents, Ogunfowokan et al. (2016) reported that 6% of adolescent boys had raped adolescent girls. Among the 6% who reported raping girls, 55% had engaged in gang rape while 55% had raped a sexual partner.
Ogunwale and Oshiname’s (2015) qualitative study of “date rape” survivors from a south-western Nigerian university also found that while these rape survivors continued to be traumatized, they also reported health-related adverse effects such as bleeding and other psychosocial consequences. While Nigerian men use some of these kinds of violence to reproduce their beliefs regarding hegemonic masculinity (i.e., women’s subordination to men (Ediomo-Ubong, 2014), women hardly ever report these acts of violence to the police or seek medical help at a hospital (Ogunwale & Oshiname, 2015). As Fawole et al. (2002) argued, the inherent stigma attached to being raped in Nigeria discourages victims from reporting rape, but this culture of silence appears to facilitate the perpetuation of rape culture (Hlavka, 2014) in Nigeria, especially among the Igbo men, who now use having multiple sex partners to construct superior masculinity (Izugbara, 2008).
Gendering of Alcohol in Nigeria
Hegemonic masculinity scripts not only manifest themselves in men’s devaluation and commodification of women’s bodies as indicated above, but also affect leisure experiences. In the traditional era (i.e., before 1949 when beer production began in Nigeria), informal social structures that set the limits for “appropriate” masculine and feminine behaviors made alcohol consumption an adult male leisure activity. In this era, while adult males were expected to drink alcohol, adult females were supposed to abstain from drinking, or in a few communities, drink once every male had been served (Oshodin, 1995). Under this social construction of alcohol consumption, women who used alcohol were considered to be subverting feminine roles and identity, and were labeled “feckless” if they got drunk (Ikuesan, 1994). Alcohol use among young people was taboo because “alcohol consumption was a sign of being an elder” (Heap, 1998, p. 29). Although these beliefs still prevail to a large extent, especially in villages, young men are not only drinking, but some are also using the ability to hold their drinks to construct a superior gender identity (Dumbili & Williams, 2017). Anchored to these patriarchal beliefs, young males consider alcohol consumption an “appropriate” masculine gendered behavior, while women who drink are discriminated against, especially by being tagged feckless, wild, and/or transgressors of gender boundaries (Dumbili, 2015).
Although some young Nigerian women are beginning to deviate from the mainstream culture, which largely encourages “passive” and “respectable” femininity by consuming alcohol, alcohol use is still highly gendered. Indeed, men continue to dominate drinking spaces as well as to determine who should drink and what should be drunk (Dumbili, 2015). While beer, gin, rum, and other similar alcoholic beverages are considered “men’s alcohol,” sweetened alcoholic beverages such as wine, Smirnoff Ice (flavored vodka), REDD’S, SNAPP (flavored apple ale), among others, are referred to as “women’s alcohol” (Dumbili, 2015). Because of these sociocultural beliefs, which disapprove of women’s consumption of beer or gin, transnational alcohol companies are targeting women with large numbers of female-friendly sweetened alcoholic beverages (Obot, 2013). A very striking part of this gendering of alcoholic beverages is that some of these women’s beverages are either more potent than the beer brands that are considered men’s alcohol or contain the same alcohol percentage. For example, “Star beer” (one of the most popular beers among men) contains 5.1% alcohol by volume (ABV) while beverages that are popular among women, such as wine, Smirnoff Ice, and Orijin contain 12% to 17.5%, 5.5%, and 6% ABV, respectively (Dumbili, 2015). Against this backdrop, this article explores the role of alcohol consumption in men’s perpetration of sexual violence against women on this campus.
Method
Study Setting, Design, and Participants
The analysis is based on qualitative research conducted on a university campus located in a city of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria. The Office of the Dean of Student Affairs of the Nigerian university and Brunel University London Ethics Board granted ethical approval before the data were collected. Written informed consent for participation was sought from the participants. The participants were recruited across the nine faculties on the university campus using convenience and snowballing techniques (Robinson, 2014). On campus, the researcher approached students who were available and introduced the project to them. After establishing rapport, the students were then asked if they drank alcohol. Those who self-identified as current alcohol users were then asked if they would consider participating in the study to share their experiences of alcohol use. Those who indicated an interest were provided with an information sheet detailing the aims of the study, the role of participants, the potential benefits and harms of participation, the methods for securing data and maintaining confidentiality, and the voluntary nature of participation.
While 26 (six females; 20 males) were recruited via this convenience sampling approach, snowballing methods facilitated the recruitment of an additional three females and two males. These techniques became necessary for the successful recruitment of female participants. While alcohol consumption (and sexual activities) among young people is a sensitive issue in Nigeria and elicits sociocultural disapproval, young female drinkers are particularly stigmatized (Dumbili, 2015). Young people, especially females, are not easily accessible for such studies, and reaching them through any means that may expose their identity will hinder their participation. All the interviews were conducted in the English language, and were recorded with a digital device with the permission of the participants. All but one of the participants were from the Igbo ethnic group, as gaining admission to universities outside one’s “catchment area” or ethnic group is difficult in Nigeria. No incentive was given to the participants because the ethical procedure that guided this research did not support it. The names used in the “Results” section are not the participants’ real names.
Interviews and Data Analysis
Following ethics approval, 31 semistructured interviews lasting between 33 and 90 min were conducted by E.W.D. 2 with 22 male and nine female undergraduate students, aged 19 to 23 years, between September and December 2013. The interview protocol was tested through a pilot study, and this led to the design of a topic guide, which consisted of 12 main questions (that were expanded through probes during the interviews). Some of the questions that were asked included, “Anytime you hear about alcohol, what comes into your mind?” “Can you tell me why you use alcohol?” “What brand of alcohol do you use?” “Why do you prefer the brand?” “Where do you normally drink alcohol?” “Among males and females, who do you drink with?” “Can you share with me the reason why you drink with them?” “Can you tell me the quantity you normally drink on an occasion?” “Among males and females, who do you think should use alcohol, and why do you think so?” “What brand of alcohol should men and women consume?” “Can you share with me the reason why men/women should consume that brand?” and “Can you share some of the experiences you have had under the influence since you started using alcohol?” Those who disclosed drinking with women were asked, “Can you shed more light on why you drink with them?” “Do you know whether other boys drink with females?” and “Can you say a little more about why they like drinking with women?” These and other questions/probes facilitated the exploration of the extent to which alcohol is gendered and how they use alcohol to facilitate date rape.
The interviews were anonymized and transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis was undertaken (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Following Silverman (2011), the preliminary analysis was initiated immediately after the first interview. The fieldnotes and audio recordings were reviewed to check for accuracy and to identify additional areas to explore further in subsequent interviews. Tentative coding schemes were developed at an early stage (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and initial extracts were categorized into broad themes and subthemes. This provided an early grasp of the data (Morse, 2012), and some of these subthemes, grouped manually, became the parent nodes (e.g., alcohol and sex; perceived causes of rape; response to rape; etc.), while others were condensed into different child nodes (e.g., gendering of alcohol; bar attendance; going on a date; rape dismissal/denial; reporting to police, etc.) that formed the thematic coding framework when the data were imported into the NVivo software. When the 31 interviews had been completed, the transcripts were read many times and searched to identify patterns in the data sets (Braun & Clarke, 2006). To enhance consistency and coherence, this process was repeated a number of times (Holloway & Todres, 2003) before the coding was completed. Collaborative analysis between E.W.D., C.W., and another academic supervisor was also adopted to help ensure analytical rigor (Cornish, Gillespie, & Zittoun, 2014).
Results
Gendering of Alcoholic Beverages
Men’s perspectives
This section explores the ways in which alcoholic beverages are gendered and what motivates these beliefs. Some of the men interviewed stated that alcohol should be used only by men, while others argued that women may drink alcohol. Although some men stated that women could drink if they wished, all of them argued that they should not drink beer, spirits, and rum, which they identified as men’s alcohol because “they are alcohol for the strong.” Some of the phrases they used to describe the beverages they identified as women’s alcohol included “drink that is sweet” and “women’s drinks,” among others. These beverages included ready-to-drink Smirnoff Ice, REDD’S, SNAPP, red wine, Amarula (a cream liqueur with 17% ABV), and palm wine (sap from a palm tree). Fred, for example, shed light on what a woman who wishes to use alcohol should drink, arguing that “females should take the ones they refer to as light alcohol. I mean all these Gordon Spark, Smirnoff Ice . . . ”
In this study, men used the consumption of large quantities of alcohol to “do” gender (i.e., to construct and express a range of masculine identities), but a superior masculinity was determined by the number of beer bottles a drinker consumed rather than the potency of the brand. Therefore, to remain competitive during drinking sprees, male drinkers switched from beverages with a higher ABV to brands with lower alcohol content. A striking contrast to this was manifested in men’s categorization of women’s alcohol. No matter how potent alcohol is, men stated that once it is sweetened or flavored, it should only be used by women:
Why would you recommend these beverages for females in particular?
Let me use the Smirnoff [Ice] as an example, it is sweet; so females like something nice and sweet. So giving them something like the Star [beer], they might not go along with it because of the taste. So you have to give them what they will enjoy.
While some men drew upon the taste of alcoholic beverages to explain why women should not drink beer, others employed similar but more specific cultural notions among the Igbo people to defend their opinion. When one of them was asked to shed light on this, he said, “it’s abnormal, it does not make sense, and it’s not good for women to drink beer” in eastern Nigeria because consumption norms “categorize” beer as men’s preserve.
Men did not only employ taste and culture to defend their beliefs regarding why women should not drink beer, but they drew upon the notion of “slim-is-beauty” to suggest that consuming beer could render women unattractive. As such, one revealed that, on the grounds of maintaining their slim bodies, he might permit women to drink spirits (these are believed to “dry” fat in Nigeria), while another noted as follows:
A man who drinks beer gets a big tummy, and that just makes you look very disgusting . . . We have other drinks like Smirnoff Ice, REDD’S, Amarula; they do not mess up your body. Girls really love to keep their [twiggy] shape . . . Guys don’t really care; they are not too concerned about what the drinks make them look like.
In addition, some of the men argued that women may consume wine. Interestingly, the wines that are available in Nigeria contain between 12% and 17.5% ABV (e.g., “Night Train”). As such, it can be argued that the cultural notion that “sweetened beverages are for women” facilitates women’s consumption of alcohol with a higher alcohol percentage.
Women’s perspectives
On the contrary, none of the women interviewed consumed beer, and their accounts showed that to a large extent, they did not subscribe to other women’s consumption of beer. Although their reasons were diverse, they can be summarized as relating to the social stigma attached to women’s use of beer. Some of them drew on cultural notions of respectable femininity to describe why women do not drink beer in Nigeria:
Let’s say for instance that we are at a social event, and you come to a table where a girl is sitting and you see a bottle of Gulder or Star [beer]. Anybody in his right mind . . . will be like wow! Is this girl really taking this drink? It’s not a crime . . . but it doesn’t portray responsibility as a lady.
Genny also supported the notion of maintaining an “ideal feminine look” to explain why beer should not be used by females:
Beer is not lady-like, and again, as I learnt, it makes your stomach come out [protrude] . . . So as a lady, I think . . . you ought to be feminine and your stomach coming out doesn’t show that feminine thing in you.
Although some of the women saw the use of beer as unfeminine, to a large extent their beliefs were nurtured and policed by the prevailing culture. As such, they tended to consume what has been culturally categorized as women’s alcohol. Pretty argued that alcohol should be drunk by both males and females. With regard to what should be drunk by men and women, she noted that although people should be left to make choices freely, drinking beer is seen as contravening the limits of femininity in Nigeria:
Okay, most girls take Smirnoff Ice on occasions. And it always appears indecent when you go to an occasion and take Star or Gulder beer, but when you take Smirnoff [Ice], they [society] see it as feminine . . .
Why is it indecent to see females take Star or Gulder beer on an occasion?
Because the society sees Star, Gulder, and most of these beers as masculine . . .
Another female participant presented a similar view, noting that she has never seen a woman drink beer since arriving at the university. As she indicated, consuming beer would be seen as transgressing cultural boundaries. In the traditional era, palm wine (which is naturally sweetened) was consumed by adult males. Even when Western-made alcoholic beverages were introduced during colonization, palm wine remained central to men’s leisure and religious activities, especially among the Igbo people (Umunna, 1967). The new consumption culture, which arguably began with the establishment of the first local brewery in 1946, has facilitated the use of sweetened but potent beverages for women. As we explore below, this culture creates different levels of risk for women.
Men’s perspectives of rape culture
Although some seemingly selfless views (i.e., by recommending sweetened drinks so that women can enjoy tasty drinks and also remain attractive) on why women should drink sweetened beverages were shared by men, the accounts below contradict such views by demonstrating how the gendering of alcoholic beverages facilitates date rape. Indeed, double standards were shared by some of the men, who argued that women should not drink alcohol. Chike, for instance, argued that alcohol is meant for males, but from his account it appears that he belongs to friendship groups that probably use alcohol to facilitate date rape:
Most guys do it, and I have friends that do it . . . Most of the time they do it to a girl they’ve actually wanted to have sex with and the girl probably has been refusing them sex . . . Probably the girl is a friend . . . , but she is not willing to give in to sex . . .
Can you explain a little more about how they do it?
They’ll decide to just take her out [on a date] under the pretext of taking her out. Meanwhile, they are trying to get her drunk because they know that when you get drunk, you become less able to suppress your urges. So when the girls get intoxicated, you find out that they are less able to resist the guys. So as guys we know about these things, so we just use them to try and get the girls, and it works . . .
Offering women alcohol with this intent was disclosed by nearly all the men. As alcohol is gendered, the participants’ accounts showed that who they choose to drink with is also gendered. In this study, men drinking with men served two key purposes: to identify who can hold his drink and to loosen up to share men’s stories. Although some men drink in male friendship groups, others, including Boniface, revealed that they like drinking with women, although he and other men also highlighted that what men and women drink differs. When asked to unpack why some men prefer drinking with women, Boniface replied, “mostly, it’s to get what they want from the girls.” Expanding on this, he stated as follows:
Guys always do stupid things; they actually want to give the girl alcohol . . . so that they can make her tipsy . . . So, boys actually want to set them up, lay it out for them. We guys have more knowledge about alcoholic drinks obviously than girls. ‘So they actually bring alcohol that will knock them out’ . . .
Let me put it now that most guys actually want to drink with a girl because they feel they might have a chance with that girl sexually by making the girl drink and “dulling” [weakening] the senses of that girl. They [males] have this edge. They also join the girl and drink . . . most guys have the body to withstand the effects of alcohol. Girls don’t have that kind of body. So they’ll join them and drink, and while the girls are drinking and getting high, they actually know what they want.
Some of the women in the current study reported that they use drinking large quantities of alcohol or knowing other girls who do so to gain social capital and express their independence. Despite this fact, patriarchal beliefs still pervade the Nigerian society, and men want to continue dominating women and even to control their leisure. There appears to be an express reproduction of this in Boniface’s account, whereby a man determines what a woman he takes on a date will drink. Although men also recommend these beverages because they are culturally acceptable, consuming them facilitates rape because they are potent.
A striking aspect of men drinking with girls with the intention of raping them is that the tone of the stories shared by those interviewed who have perpetrated this act and those who claimed that they have never been involved in such practices but know men who do such things was similar. In what appears to be a realization that rape is not culturally acceptable, Kelly claimed that he has never engaged in date rape but added that he knew how other males perpetrate this act of violence. Larry aptly explained the tactics that men apply:
Very, very simple. You make the person tipsy or drunk, so there is little resistance both physically and mentally because I know well that alcohol affects the brain . . . The majority of girls don’t take large quantities before getting drunk. If a girl happens to take alcohol, say two to three bottles, she becomes drunk so they [males] kind of make an advance to the person, and at that time they cannot resist.
This notion that a woman becomes sexually available when she drinks alcohol or gets drunk (Horvath & Brown, 2007) was reproduced by a number of men. For example, Buchi used slang to explain how men perpetrate rape acts:
If she’s a bit tipsy, you will know the kind of person she is. You’ll know if she is the kind of person you’ll just “run” [have sex with] straightaway. Yes, sometimes if she refuses to have sex with you, you can just make her tipsy.
Our analysis also shows that men apply “subtle persuasion” to convince unwilling potential victims to drink. For example, Levin revealed that, “any boy you see drinking with a female and forcing her to take more than she can drink has ulterior motives.” The male participants also highlighted that when men are unable to achieve their aim of buying flavored drinks and making their potential victim inebriated voluntarily, they adopt coercive tactics:
They will get a drink and maybe tell you to take a glass, that it won’t do any harm and that the alcoholic content [is low]. They will tell you that it has only two percent. Of course, you know women and the kind of reasoning they have. With the way they reason, they might believe that the guy is telling the truth and take the drink. After taking it, they will start getting this kind of sensation you get [under the influence], and you cannot control yourself. Then, you start feeling sleepy, and you will sleep off. They [the males] will now do whatever they want to do.
The men, of course, had revealed that one of the reasons why they want women to use sweetened beverages is to maintain their slim stature, and Kelly seemed to extend such views. His account shows that through the application of deception (“take a glass, it won’t do any harm, it has only two per cent”), females may presume that men recommend these beverages with good intentions. Thus, they are duped into drinking above their limits, which can lead to inebriation and a decreased ability to resist sexual advances.
A similar account was shared by Edulim, who narrated how his friend had been victimized:
I have a friend . . . she told me that two boys raped her on her matric day [Fresher’s Day] . . . She said she met these guys at [name of site], and they were like, “you are new” . . . She said “ah yeah . . . ” They actually hung out, and she took Smirnoff [Ice]. She took the first bottle, second, third, and the girl was no longer herself. The guys were like forcing her to take [more], and she took the fourth bottle, the next thing was that she found herself on the bed of these guys, so the two boys made love to her.
Smirnoff Ice (flavored vodka) is potent and pressuring a woman to consume four bottles on a drinking occasion can facilitate blackouts. Indeed, this reveals the extent to which men can go to achieve their goal of rape. Two out of nine women in this study were aware of the potency of some of the sweetened alcoholic beverages that are available in Nigeria, but there appeared to be the lack of awareness of this among other women interviewed. A reason for this ignorance appears to be because there is no definition/specification of “standard drinks” due to a lack of alcohol policy in Nigeria (Dumbili, 2014; World Health Organization, 2014). In addition, as women are generally excluded from drinking due to the sociocultural belief that alcohol is for men, the majority may not be conversant with these high potent beverages, as men who regularly use alcohol are.
Women’s perspectives of rape culture
The accounts of the women also shed light on how girls known to them have been victimized. For example,
Talking to a girl and she refuses, you try to make her drunk so that you can have sex with her because when some girls are drunk they cannot hold themselves. When you touch them they can respond because at that moment there are these horny feelings that come with some drinks, but in your mind you may not want to have sex with the person but you see yourself having sex with him and in the morning you get so pissed off . . .
Agatha’s view was supported by another female participant, Chioma. Like Edulim, who narrated his story from his friend’s firsthand account, Chioma shed light on how her male friend had perpetrated sexual violence:
My friend told me about this girl; he felt the girl was using him, as in wanting him to just spend his money on her and all that. He was now like, “okay; I will take you out if you want to go out.” They went to a place [a bar]. He knows the guy [barman] . . . He told the guy to put plenty of alcohol that is sweet into the cocktail so that the girl would drink it; so that the girl would get high and all that. So he did it, and the girl was really high and he had sex with the girl . . .
Okay, how did your friend explain the reaction of the girl when she became aware of what had happened?
When she got herself [when she sobered up], she was like, “what happened? How come I didn’t go home?” He said “ah, it is not my fault. You said you wanted to go out, so we did it.’’ He was not even remorseful; he was like “we did it.” The girl was really sad because she felt he had taken advantage of her because she had taken alcohol.
Indeed, Chioma’s account reinforces the type of masculinity script that Boniface shared—Men determine what should be drunk, especially when the intention is to facilitate loss of control.
As Peralta (2010) noted, using alcohol to facilitate sexual violence “is not necessarily considered rape by acquaintances or friends,” (p. 397) and this is played out in Chioma’s reference to “you said you wanted to go out, so we did it.” In a society where men use heavy consumption or drunkenness to construct social identity, but women who get drunk are labeled transgressors, Chioma’s friend played the victim-blaming game (“ah, it is not my fault”) to defend his rape act, but this can be seen to perpetuate gender-specific violence against women in Nigeria.
Discussion
This study contributes to culturally specific understandings of how alcohol consumption facilitates gender-based sexual violence by demonstrating the ways in which the gendering of alcoholic beverages, which is anchored to the sociocultural beliefs of the Igbo ethnic group helps create “rape cultures” in the Nigerian higher education system. Our data reveal that the hegemonic masculinity practices that generally excluded women from using alcohol in the traditional era (Ikuesan, 1994; Oshodin, 1995) are not only still prevailing among Nigerian students, but are now also manifesting in the form of excluding women from consuming beer and confining them to using sweetened and potent beverages. As such, it can be argued that new consumption rituals are evolving in contemporary Nigeria, and these are facilitating sexual coercion and rape cultures.
Globally, men use the consumption of potent alcohol or the ability to hold their drink to reproduce masculine norms (Thurnell-Read, 2011) and this reaffirms that “bodies are the site for performing masculinity” (Lyons, Emslie, & Hunt, 2014, p. 275). The consumption ritual in which men consume beer brands with low alcohol percentages and distance themselves from sweetened but potent alcoholic beverages appears not to conform to the popular hegemonic masculinity norms in which men are seen as daring risk takers (Thurnell-Read, 2011). In specific terms, it does not illustrate the highly prized machoism among the contemporary Igbo young men (Izugbara, 2004a, 2004b, 2008), because the male participants were not only knowledgeable about the names of these sweetened beverages but were also aware of their potency.
In most Western countries, women can choose what to drink and can consume alcohol in public spaces, especially in the current era of the nighttime economy (Burgess et al., 2009; Sheard, 2011). Drinking and socializing in bars or pubs, for example, has become one of the ways in which young women in the United Kingdom challenge hegemonic masculinity scripts, which consider such activities to be men’s preserve (Brooks, 2008). For the women in our study, consuming beer constituted “inappropriate” feminine behavior that was discriminated against, especially by men. As such, women’s choices were limited, and this had various consequences.
Although men mainly drink in their male friendship networks, due to the traditional beliefs and practices that categorize public leisure spaces as masculine (Dumbili, 2015; Umunna, 1967), this study revealed that when their intention is to get women drunk for sex, men go on dates with women to public leisure sites, and choose what the women will drink by purchasing “women’s alcohol” for them. This provides men with opportunities to pressure women to drink more and become intoxicated, before rape takes place.
Indeed, our findings show that alcohol-facilitated rape is common on this campus. While a few “stranger danger” (Sheard, 2011, p. 631) rapes were spoken about, the participants particularly reported widespread acquaintance rapes (Abbey, 2011). Previous research elsewhere indicates that rape victims and the perpetrators use bars more than any other locations before rape occurs, and most rapes that happen as a result of drinking in bars occur among people who know each other prior to the rape incident (Horvath & Brown, 2007). Our findings to a large extent support and develop Horvath and Brown’s (2007) results. While Horvath and Brown found that women voluntarily used alcohol before they were raped, not all the victims in our study voluntarily drank alcohol before they were raped. In fact, similar to Lawyer et al.’s (2010) and Armstrong et al.’s (2006) findings among American students, some of the women in our study were deceived and coerced into consuming large quantities of potent alcoholic beverages before being raped. That is, in what some of the participants identified as “forcing girls to drink more than their limits,” men seemingly bragged not only about being knowledgeable about alcohol in general but also about how they used diverse tactics to pressure and convince unwilling potential rape targets to consume large quantities of alcohol and become inebriated before perpetrating their predatory rape acts. Of course, this outright confession would have necessitated notifying the police but for the ethical agreement that guided this research.
In most parts of the world, women’s drunkenness is often labeled as gender-specific deviance (Day, Gough, & McFadden, 2004; Peralta, 2010). Although male acquaintances in our study intentionally pressured women to drink and raped them when they were inebriated, the blame was frequently passed on to the women. Despite the fact that these men target women with potent drinks for sex, they appear to draw upon the previously mentioned Igbo sociocultural beliefs that distinguish between men’s and women’s spaces, to demonstrate that by “transgressing social boundaries” (i.e., by drinking in public or “men’s spaces”), these women “asked for it.” This systematic way of eliciting nonconsensual sex and the subsequent attribution of fault to the rape victims not only reproduces and perpetuates rape cultures and women’s exploitation but also strengthens the strategies that men employ to reinforce women’s subordination in Nigeria (Izugbara, 2004). Because in most societies, violence against women is rooted in a patriarchal system, sexual violence particularly promotes “patriarchal terrorism” (Johnson, 1995, p. 283).
Traditional masculine sexual scripts show that how many females a man sleeps with is used to demonstrate that he possesses superior masculinity (i.e., the higher the numbers, the greater the accomplishment (Wiederman, 2005). In Igbo culture, having multiple wives and concubines is permissible among adult males (although culturally, abstinence before marriage is encouraged (Izugbara, 2008). This appears to have changed because abstinence from sex among young males is now seen as a sign of weakness that attracts ridicule and disrespect among peers, and young men “sometimes boast to each other how many girlfriends they have had sex with” (Izugbara, 2008, p. 272).
In Western countries, sexual violence serves as one of men’s weapons to reclaim power and spatial control, especially in higher education settings where women’s assertiveness, quests for self-realization, and independence are common (Phipps & Young, 2015). For example, leisure and sporting sites on American campuses that are often male-controlled or occupied based on the status of male-dominated fraternities or sporting groups are “sexually dangerous” (Armstrong et al., 2006, p. 485; Humphrey & Kahn, 2000). In parties organized by fraternities, for instance, female students are often invited but they are required to “wear scant, sexy clothing” and are placed “in subordinate positions to men” (Armstrong et al., 2006, p. 489).
Because the men manage leisure resources such as alcohol and access to the party venues, they often get women drunk to facilitate women’s inability to resist their sexual advances (Armstrong et al., 2006). Scholars argue that rape serves as a tool to nurture and sustain the male dominance of these spaces and women who are raped as a consequence of having occupied these contexts are often blamed “for asking for it” (Humphrey & Kahn, 2000). As our findings reveal, this culture of coercive control, which tends to perpetuate unequal gendered relations and reproduce rape culture, is manifesting in contemporary Nigerian universities.
The female participants did not draw on their personal experiences, but rather discussed how their female friends had been victimized by assailants (arguably due to the sensitive nature of the topic). Nonetheless, their accounts suggest that their friends who had been victimized were raped, which is increasingly common in Nigeria (Fawole et al., 2002; Okenwa et al., 2009). As Ogunfowokan et al. (2016) and Fawole et al. (2002) argued, rape victims rarely report these acts of violence to the police, nor do they seek help from medical practitioners. The current study supports this, in that none of the participants stated that their friends who had been raped had reported the incident to the police. Elsewhere, Armstrong et al. (2006) argued that such a “systematic and effective method of extracting non-consensual sex is largely invisible, which makes it difficult for victims to convince anyone . . . that a crime occurred” (p. 492). In the Nigerian context, there may be additional reasons for not reporting rape acts. For example, the entrenched hegemonic masculinity practices among the Igbos increasingly subordinate women and commodify their bodies as objects to be enjoyed by men (Izugbara, 2004). Therefore, women may not be taken seriously if they report that they have been raped. In addition, the culture of socializing women to be silent, passive, and submissive in Nigeria may generally discourage them, and most importantly, there is the fear of stigmatization (Fawole et al., 2002).
Even in Western societies, where women’s leisure in bars is more acceptable, some women do not consider that they have been raped, especially “when the assault involved a boyfriend, or . . . the woman was severely impaired by alcohol” (Brooks, 2014; Kahn, Jackson, Kully, Badger, & Halvorsen, 2003, p. 233). One of the reasons for this is fear of being blamed for deviating from sociocultural constructions of women’s “appropriate” drinking behavior (Brooks, 2014). Because these Nigerian women had consumed alcohol (although they were made drunk by men for sex), this may contribute to the difficulties of reporting rape, but this makes women “dual victims” (i.e., rape victims and social outcasts due to discrimination). While this reproduces and normalizes the rape culture (Hlavka, 2014), it hampers women’s well-being and raises public health concerns.
Conclusion
This study contributes to the sparse literature in Africa on how alcohol consumption can facilitate sexual violence against women. Our data have shown that the Igbo culture, which socializes women to play the role of sexual gatekeepers (Izugbara, 2008), also engenders their inability to perform this role by recommending sweetened but potent alcoholic beverages as culturally acceptable for them. The findings suggest that this practice contributes to the risk of attempted and completed rapes on this campus.
This study has a number of notable limitations. First, while our study generally involved a small sample, we did not include many women due to the recruitment constraints indicated earlier. Because this is a qualitative study, caution should be applied when drawing conclusions from our results. Second, the cultural specificity of the study further limits the generalizability of our findings. Because Nigeria is a multiethnic and multicultural country, the opinions of these participants may not represent those of students in other regions. Further research is therefore needed in other regions of the country, to gain a fuller understanding of how social constructions of alcohol consumption might reproduce sexual violence against women. Also, the gender of the interviewer may have affected the responses of some of the female participants. This may be the reason why none of them reported drinking beer or being raped. Studies that involve female researchers should be conducted in Nigeria. In addition, while we relied on self-reporting, future studies might consider using ethnographic methods to directly observe students’ leisure cultures and their implications.
There are also a number of implications of this study for public health interventions. The widespread ignorance of the potency of sweetened alcoholic beverages among women should be redressed through the formulation of effective alcohol policies that specify standard drinks. While interventions need to primarily focus on boys and men to discourage sexual violence, Nigerian women could also adopt individualized and group strategies (e.g., refusing free alcohol from men or being in the company of friends) that are used by women who drink in public spaces in Western societies to protect themselves from being raped under the influence (Brooks, 2014; Sheard, 2011). “Safe Dates” preventive strategies that address “attitudes, social norms and healthy relationship skills” (DeGue et al., 2014, p. 358) and well-equipped hotlines and trained staff (Armstrong et al., 2006) who understand different Nigerian cultures should be part of the intervention programs in Nigerian secondary schools and universities. Workshops and seminars on the causes and consequences of sexual violence and how to avoid them should be organized, especially for first-year students. Most importantly, as some countries in South America and Asia have responded to violence against women by establishing women’s (specialized) police stations (Ellsberg et al., 2015), Nigeria might consider adopting a similar measure, especially because the women interviewed did not report consuming beer or raped. Adopting such a measure might increase access to reporting and handling gender-based violence in Nigeria. For health interventions to be effective in Nigeria (and other non-Western societies where patriarchal beliefs are resilient), urgent steps should be taken to redress the entrenched gendered consumption rituals, the commodification of women’s bodies and the stigmatization of rape victims.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants in this study, who gave so generously of their time and discussed freely about their alcohol use. They also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedbacks.
Authors’ Note
An earlier version of this article was presented at the British Sociological Association Conference held at Aston University, Birmingham, UK, April 6-8, 2016.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is supported by a Mildred Blaxter Post-Doctoral Fellowship received from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness (R33409).