I think that's a fantastic idea. I absolutely LOVE Lifetime for that very reason. However, side from infrastructure and logistical difficulties in bringing enlightened television to rural African women, there are certain societal tendencies that I think would make such a program's success implausible.

For example, while I admire the people at Lifetime for their initiative and I watch the movies pretty regularly, all of my female friends deride me for it. They curl their lips, saying they don't want to watch a movie about a woman being raped, beaten, stalked, or otherwise abused by a man - not because it disturbs them or reminds them of their own experiences to see it, but because they largely blame the women for the situations they've found themselves in, rendering the misused women unworthy of consideration or empathy. I've always found the viciousness with which these opinions are expressed to be a bit perplexing. These women friends of mine never reveal a dislike for sappy Lifetime movies with the same indifference that I express my disinterest in war movies or movies about frat boys. It's not enough that they don't have to watch them if they don't want to; they seem to wish that I wouldn't watch them either.

I think they don't want to identify too closely with the women portrayed, as it would ruin their chances of being intimate with men who feel (and I won't speculate as to the underlying reasons for the sentiment, although it would make very interesting discussion) *attacked* by the mere existence of such television programming. Unfortunately for women in Africa, because marriage is still their only real economic opportunity (unlike here, where we have the option of taking a job for 3/4 a man's pay), traditional-minded women will use their willing subjugation to ostracize and marginalize more feminist-minded women. In fact, I predict that the traditional women will strive to become even more so, perhaps even re-adopting older practices that may have been falling by the wayside, as a way to distinguish themselves from the unmarriageable, feminist-tv–watching harlots.

Yes, it’s a fantastic idea if not for the self-hating women who would undoubtedly sap the plan of any real benefit.

I think Nairobi needs a few weeks of some good old fashioned movies of the week, and I'm not kidding. In the US, TV movies have helped us all see the point of view of others and understand certain subjects more throughly. I'm sure if many Broadsheet readers stop and think about it, they'll realize that they may have learned about AIDS, rape, prostitution and other subjects through low brow tv movies, when in another time these subjects would have gone ignored by those who didn't want to think about them. I've read that there has been a world wide project to do the same with soap operas, although I can't remember the details.

The priest doesn't get it, the way a lot of people don't get it about rape because they can only imagine it, and prostitution, as titillating and sexy, instead of brutal and violent. But most people can be made to understand if they can be made to identify with true victims and the reality of the crime. This is where movies of the week and soap operas come in.

Remember that study where they cast people in the roles of warden and prisoner? It's pretty clear we've done that on a society-wide level: prisoners simply aren't human to most people. Prison rape and the rape of these Kenyan women, paired with the fact that we actually joke about it, demonstrates this in a brutal, physical fashion. When you rape someone, they aren't a person with their own needs, desires, and sexuality to you, they're something else whether it's an outlet for aggression or libido or any number of other things. When society stands by, we're telling the rapist they're right.

He jokes about prison rape all the time.

But everyone laughs, so it must be funny.

"In our culture, when women say 'No,' they mean 'Yes' unless it's a prostitute."

Well, at least the prostitutes get a little respect.