Wartime rape and other-related offenses have been a consistent feature of South Sudan’s conflict since the war started in December 2013 with sexual violence becoming emblematic of the broader protection concerns faced by civilian women in the intractable crisis. While the increased attention and interest in sexualized and gendered violence in South Sudan’s war is welcome, there has been little effort to place these acts in their gendered, social and economic context. This paper builds on analyses of the gendered continuum of violence and militarized masculinity in South Sudan to argue that conflict actors are able to exploit and reinforce social norms that commodify women’s bodies when they recruit and reward their supporters. The paper explores the forms, dynamics and impacts of sexual violence in the current war, based on interviews and focus-group discussions with 360 research participants, including rape survivors, in affected communities. It then considers the wider patterns of gender-based violence and exploitation that manifest at community-level. Based on the analysis of over 400 customary court hearings, it demonstrates that young women’s sexuality has a high price in the local bridewealth economy, young men are dependent upon their elders to pay the costs, and local conflicts erupt when these regulations are breached. Gender-based violence is also prolific and courts rarely punish perpetrators – instead families are seen as the ‘owner of the girl’ and the emphasis of judgments is on maintaining community relations. This commodification of women has been exacerbated by military forces over decades and by the current economic crisis. Military and militia leaders now explicitly use bridewealth payments, rape and abduction as incentives in transactions with fighters. South Sudan’s customary courts have perpetuated norms that facilitate sexual violence in war, and ‘negative peace’, yet they may also be the only accessible forum in which women can challenge their exploitation. Through the court hearings we examine court’s handling of sexual violence at a community level (in displaced and non-displaced communities) and highlight where courts have sought to reinforce gendered norms and where they have adapted during crisis. Finally, we reflect on whether and how South Sudanese women have resisted their commodification both individually in the courts, and collectively in advocacy on sexual violence during the crisis.