Defending Heteronormativity: Lesbian Sex and "Corrective" Rape at a Nigerian University

On July 3, 2011, University of Benin, Nigeria, female students recorded themselves performing a strip tease. A few hours later, their video clip had gone viral. "Defending Heteronormativity: Lesbian Sex and ‘Corrective’ Rape at a Nigerian University” explores the events of July 3, as a lens through which to view the perpetuation of hate crimes and violence against lesbian women by Nigerian men. It considers the attitudes of an anonymous spectator audience, and calls into question the role of the Internet in providing, on one hand, a safe haven for sexual minorities; but on the other, easy access for unscrupulous men to exercise violent control over Nigerian women’s bodies.