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Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. ‘A Prank Between Mates’: Social Media Responses to Sexual Assaults Against Men. A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies at Massey University, Distance Learning, New Zealand. Megan Easterbrook-Smith 2014 1 Abstract This thesis analyses social media commentary and its influence on the production of discourse around sexual assaults on male victims. It draws together a number of strands from different disciplines, including issues of representation in social media, rape myths affecting victims more generally, the specific challenges to masculinity caused by assuming a victim identity and myths of male sexual invulnerability. The analysis centres on a promotion run by Hell Pizza in 2012 which rewarded an entrant who confessed to committing an act which appeared to describe unlawful sexual connection. Covering questions of the construction and enactment of masculine identities in New Zealand and how these masculinities are enforced, the research identifies themes within the comments which indicate an adherence to and reinforcement of hegemonic masculinities. Behaviours and attitudes such as victim blaming are also apparent in the online discourse along with an assumption that male victims of sexual assault do not exist or are not affected by mental and emotional harm in the wake of an assault. The commentary is indicative of the wider social attitudes to sexual assaults against men which victims may be exposed to, and the problem of low reporting rates among male victims is also touched on and considered with reference to the largely unsupportive environment which victims may find themselves in. The key findings of the thesis are that evidence exists of a number of different kinds of dismissal and minimisation of the seriousness of assaults on men in the commentary around the specific incident analysed, and that when this is directly addressed and mentioned by victims their own experiences are frequently ignored or silenced. The thesis suggests that many of the challenges faced by female victims of sexual violence are equally applicable to male victims, a finding which may have implications for awareness campaigns and education about consent. 2 Acknowledgements Thanks are due to Dr Jenny Lawn and Dr Ian Huffer for their assistance and encouragement during the writing of this work. I have appreciated their insight and advice. Deepest gratitude is also extended to Bernie, for his relentless enthusiasm and patient listening ear. I am also indebted Matthew, Sebastian and Robert for their thought provoking conversation, voices of reason and late night Facebook chats which helped to propel me forward. 3 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………….….Page 5 Chapter 2: Masculinities: Their Enforcement and Enactment……….……….Page 13 Chapter 3: Legal Definitions and Reporting Rates ……………..………........Page 28 Chapter 4: ‘It’s Just Facebook’: Social Media as Discourse.............................Page 35 Chapter 5: Hell Pizza’s Confessional Competition: A Case Study……….......Page 46 Chapter 6: Conclusion........................................................................................Page 95 Works Cited.......................................................................................................Page 99 Appendix..........................................................................................................Page 106 4 Chapter 1: Introduction Don’t read below if you’re easily offended. Below is last week’s winning confession in our confessional: I was once at a party and saw this utter wanker, he passed out so I put a mask on and stuck my cock and balls into his mouth til he woke up. To this day he still has no idea who it was, and gets shit for it all the time. – Hell Pizza Confessional entry (Imgur 2012) In this thesis I hope to contribute to a greater understanding of the attitudes and barriers which are faced by men who have been raped or sexually assaulted and wish to seek counselling or other professional help or to formally report the assault, particularly men living in New Zealand. My motivation to undertake deeper study of this topic was manifold. Firstly, the Hell Pizza ‘Confessional’ case outlined in chapter five for greater analysis attracted my attention when it first arose and I was deeply bothered by some of the comments I read. The incident included the quotation above, which was posted on the Hell Pizza Facebook page by the page administrator, with the offender winning a voucher for free pizza. Hell Pizza responded to extensive online backlash first by saying they had posted the Confessional believing it to be in the spirit of “a prank between mates” and later by offering to match donations to Wellington Rape Crisis. The online discussion about the incident lasted for several days after the retraction and apology from Hell Pizza, and the following chapters will explore the social factors underpinning the online commentary. Secondly, I already had an interest in reading extensively about the ways in which the set of social circumstances commonly termed ‘rape culture’ manifested and made it easier for people who committed assaults to escape without sanction or consequence, and more difficult for the victims of those assaults to obtain proper help and to be treated with respect. At around this time a number of incidents also led me to question the ways in which the behaviours associated with rape culture, including victim blaming and the minimisation of the seriousness of assaults (evidenced by the minor media furore over United States political candidates and others speaking of ‘rape’ 5 and ‘legitimate rape’) affected men (Blake). The specific incidents in the US included political candidates implying that there were different degrees of rape, often in response to proposals to amend abortion laws and access to abortion following rape. Statements were made to the effect that women who become pregnant following a rape had not suffered a ‘legitimate’ rape, which served to underline that many people including those in positions of power believed that people lied about rape and that third parties could presume to know the seriousness and impact of a crime on a victim. Much of what I had read understandably focussed on the impacts on women, and this makes sense as women who are assaulted are affected by still more problematic discourse and the treatment of women’s sexuality more generally. Nonetheless, there seemed to be a lack of discussion of assaults on men, and so I made the decision to pursue this line of study. My decision was motivated also by a strong conviction about the importance of discussing consent for all people and encouraging discussions about bodily autonomy. In conducting this analysis of social media commentary I want to determine the kind of social climate in which male rape and sexual assault victims find themselves, and the attitudes which they will be exposed to, whether or not they have chosen to disclose their status as a victim or have identified their experiences as rape or assault. From this I will discuss, with reference to other studies on male victimisation and writings on masculinity, the impacts which the views most prevalent in the social media sample may have on male victims including views which support and perpetuate victim blaming and minimisation of the impacts which violence has on men. I will consider the possible impact the views have on the likelihood of male victims self identifying themselves as having suffered an assault or rape, and on their willingness to report the attack. I also wish to explore the role which expected performances of masculinity and the societal pressure to enact behaviours aligned with dominant masculinities play in the behaviour and treatment of male. I will use the online media commentary as a lens through which to illustrate the kinds of pressures men are subject to. Based on my reading, outlined in detail in chapter two, my expectation was that the online commentary stigmatising male victims of rape would fall broadly into two camps. Based on Smith, Pine and Hawley’s “Social Cognitions about Adult Male Victims of Female Sexual Assault” (1988) I expected that some comments would likely 6 identify male rape victims as having lost their masculinity and their position of power in society, viewing rape and sexual assault as a tool of control and humiliation rather than a sexually motivated act, or conversely would underestimate the trauma caused to the victim by the attack. This proved to be the case, but many of the comments criticising the victims or those who spoke out in support of victims were more subtle in their stigmatising and used a variety of approaches, discussed in chapter five and in my conclusion, to achieve this upholding of the masculine status quo. In keeping with the findings of Sandesh Sivakumaran in “Male/Male Rape and the ‘Taint’ of Homosexuality” I also expected that some online comments would suggest that male victims of assaults by other men are homosexual either because they were targeted for the assault or as a result of being assaulted (Sivakumaran, 2005). Such suggestions rely on the homophobia of a society for their effectiveness, to impress upon the victim that being attracted to or being

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