South Africa: Analysis - So What If Pistorius Screams Like a Woman?

analysis

In dissecting the character of Oscar Pistorius, much has been written about a certain culture of South African hyper-masculinity within which Pistorius is taken to fall: valorising guns, fast cars, anger, speed, physical strength and violence. If his defence against murder is that he "screams like a woman", we may have to re-write some of our simplistic gendered assumptions and responses, writes REBECCA DAVIS.

In the first two days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, three witnesses who lived close to Pistorius have testified to the fact that they heard what they believe was a woman talking, yelling or screaming shortly before - and while - gunshots were fired. This is not a trivial point. It is, in fact, the point that could send Pistorius to jail with a life term. The heart of his defence rests on the idea that he had no reason to believe that Reeva Steenkamp was not safely tucked up in bed while he went to deal with an imagined intruder.

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