WGS 333: Rape Culture and the Media
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Let's Talk About Yes: UK Universities Activism Toolkit
` Let’s Talk About Yes: UK Universities Activism Toolkit Moving from a ‘rape culture’ to a ‘consent culture’ ` Overview The Amnesty Student Network have joined a Europe-wide campaign to make it clear that sex without consent is rape. The UK is among the few European countries where the law already makes it clear that rape is defined by a lack of consent. But that does not mean consent is always sought. A clear understanding of what sexual consent means can prevent rape and other sexual offences. This toolkit has been developed by contributions from Amnesty International staff and activists, and has been edited for use by student groups in the UK. The campaign is expanding to other countries in Europe and builds on years of work and activism on sexual violence in different countries. We hope the campaign will help start or engage youth in conversations about sexual consent and contribute to a cultural shift where positive, enthusiastic consent is the norm, and people don’t feel awkward to ask someone if they want to move forward. We envisage a student culture based on mutual consent, respect and positive sexuality. • Rape is an important human rights issue which can affect people of any age, sex, gender or gender identity. Rape is a gendered crime that is disproportionally perpetrated by men against women. For an overview of the campaign and why this is an important matter see https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/11/rape- in-europe/ The #LetsTalkAboutYes campaign seeks to engage activists, creatives and young people of all genders and backgrounds to talk about sexual consent, and contribute to: • Increasing the number of conversations about sexual consent among young people • Increasing collaboration with, and involvement of, youth activists and artists in these conversations • Increasing awareness of myths surrounding rape. -
Legitimate Concern: the Assault on the Concept of Rape
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 9-2013 Legitimate concern: the assault on the concept of rape Matthew David Burgess DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Burgess, Matthew David, "Legitimate concern: the assault on the concept of rape" (2013). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 153. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/153 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Legitimate Concern: The Assault on the Concept of Rape A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Matthew David Burgess June 2013 Women’s and Gender Studies College of Liberal Arts and Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois 1 Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3 A Brief Legal History of Rape………………………………………………………………….....6 -Rape Law in the United States Prior to 1800…………………………………………….7 -The WCTU and -
Rape Culture in Society and the Media
Rape Culture in Society and the Media February 28, 2012 COPY Elisabeth Wise WomenNC NOTCSW 2013 Fellowship DO Abstract Sexual violence is a pervasive problem not only in the United States, but also throughout the world, with women and young girls being assaulted every day. Rape can occur at the hands of a stranger, an acquaintance or intimate, family member, or be used as a tool of war. In fact violence against women is one public health issue that transcends all borders – women and girls of any socioeconomic class are affected dissimilar from many public health issue, which are divided into global north and global south. Definition of rape and rape culture Rape statutes have changed throughout the years and can vary in definition; however is essentially defined as vaginal, oral, or anal penetration by the penis, finger, or any other object without consent of the other person. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.) recently changed its definitionCOPY of rape for the Uniform Crime Reports, which collects reported crime data from police around the country. The definition of consent is also imperative in understanding rape, as there are different legal definitions of consent and when someone can give consent. The law recognizes two kinds of consent: expressedNOT and implied. Expressed consent is one that is directly given, either verbally or in writing, and clearly demonstrates an accession of will of the individual givingDO it. Implied consent is indirectly given and is usually indicated by a sign, an action, or inaction, or a silence that creates a reasonable presumption that an acquiescence of the will has been given. -
MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School
MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Bridget Christine Gelms Candidate for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ______________________________________ Dr. Jason Palmeri, Director ______________________________________ Dr. Tim Lockridge, Reader ______________________________________ Dr. Michele Simmons, Reader ______________________________________ Dr. Lisa Weems, Graduate School Representative ABSTRACT VOLATILE VISIBILITY: THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE HARASSMENT ON FEMINIST CIRCULATION AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE by Bridget C. Gelms As our digital environments—in their inhabitants, communities, and cultures—have evolved, harassment, unfortunately, has become the status quo on the internet (Duggan, 2014 & 2017; Jane, 2014b). Harassment is an issue that disproportionately affects women, particularly women of color (Citron, 2014; Mantilla, 2015), LGBTQIA+ women (Herring et al., 2002; Warzel, 2016), and women who engage in social justice, civil rights, and feminist discourses (Cole, 2015; Davies, 2015; Jane, 2014a). Whitney Phillips (2015) notes that it’s politically significant to pay attention to issues of online harassment because this kind of invective calls “attention to dominant cultural mores” (p. 7). Keeping our finger on the pulse of such attitudes is imperative to understand who is excluded from digital publics and how these exclusions perpetuate racism and sexism to “preserve the internet as a space free of politics and thus free of challenge to white masculine heterosexual hegemony” (Higgin, 2013, n.p.). While rhetoric and writing as a field has a long history of examining myriad exclusionary practices that occur in public discourses, we still have much work to do in understanding how online harassment, particularly that which is gendered, manifests in digital publics and to what rhetorical effect. -
Does Yes Mean Yes? Exploring Sexual
Does Yes Mean Yes? Exploring Sexual Coercion in Normative Heterosexuality HEDDA HAKVÅG Dans cet article l’auteure assure que la rhétorique du consente- inherently distinct from sex. MacKinnon argued instead ment utilisée dans l’activisme anti-viol actuel est obnubilée that violence is inherent to sexuality because sexuality par la présence de la coercition sexuelle dans les relations is constructed from the viewpoint of male supremacy hétérosexuelles La sexualité des hommes a été définie comme (480). While this has often been (mis)interpreted as an active et celle des femmes comme en manque de désir. Cette “anti-sex” argument, MacKinnon’s argument is in reality coercition est intégrée ce qui donne des pratiques sexuelles far more complex. Consent, according to MacKinnon, is non-désirées et consensuelles. Pour enrayer cette culture du not an impossibility. It is, however, contentious because viol il faut une ré-figuration radicale de l’hétérosexualité et it occurs in a context of women’s inequality and limited de la place du sexe dans les relations personnelles. possibilities (484-85). Our cultural understanding of sex and heterosexuality has been shaped around the erotici- Current feminist anti-rape activism centres around a zation of dominance and submission, and this cultural rhetoric of consent versus non-consent. With slogans like discourse is likely to affect our desires (480-82). From this “No Means No” and “Only Yes Means Yes!,” anti-rape perspective, consent becomes a contentious issue, because activists emphasize the importance of consent and foster false consciousness or internalization of submission is awareness of sexual assault in the public consciousness. -
Intersectionality: T E Fourth Wave Feminist Twitter Community
#Intersectionality: T e Fourth Wave Feminist Twitter Community Intersectionality, is the marrow within the bones of fem- Tegan Zimmerman (PhD, Comparative Literature, inism. Without it, feminism will fracture even further – University of Alberta) is an Assistant Professor of En- Roxane Gay (2013) glish/Creative Writing and Women’s Studies at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. A recent Visiting Fel- This article analyzes the term “intersectional- low in the Centre for Contemporary Women’s Writing ity” as defined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (1989, and the Institute of Modern Languages Research at the 1991) in relation to the digital turn and, in doing so, University of London, Zimmerman specializes in con- considers how this concept is being employed by fourth temporary women’s historical fiction and contempo- wave feminists on Twitter. Presently, little scholarship rary gender theory. Her book Matria Redux: Caribbean has been devoted to fourth wave feminism and its en- Women’s Historical Fiction, forthcoming from North- gagement with intersectionality; however, some notable western University Press, examines the concepts of ma- critics include Kira Cochrane, Michelle Goldberg, Mik- ternal history and maternal genealogy. ki Kendall, Ealasaid Munro, Lola Okolosie, and Roop- ika Risam.1 Intersectionality, with its consideration of Abstract class, race, age, ability, sexuality, and gender as inter- This article analyzes the term “intersectionality” as de- secting loci of discriminations or privileges, is now the fined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in relation to the overriding principle among today’s feminists, manifest digital turn: it argues that intersectionality is the dom- by theorizing tweets and hashtags on Twitter. Because inant framework being employed by fourth wave fem- fourth wave feminism, more so than previous feminist inists and that is most apparent on social media, espe- movements, focuses on and takes up online technolo- cially on Twitter. -
1 Rape Culture and Social Media: Young Critics and a Feminist
1 Rape Culture and Social Media: Young Critics and a Feminist Counterpublic Sophie Sills, [email protected] Chelsea Pickens, [email protected] Karishma Beach, [email protected] Lloyd Jones, [email protected] Octavia Calder-Dawe, [email protected] Paulette Benton-Greig, [email protected] Nicola Gavey, [email protected] (corresponding author) School of Psychology, University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand This study was supported in part by the Marsden Fund Council from New Zealand Government funding, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and by the University of Auckland. Accepted for publication, Feminist Media Studies, November 2015, to be published in 16(6) 2016 2 Abstract Social media sites, according to Rentschler (2014) can become both “aggregators of online misogyny” as well as key spaces for feminist education and activism. They are spaces where ‘rape culture’, in particular, is both performed and resisted, and where a feminist counterpublic can be formed (Salter 2013). In this New Zealand study, we interviewed 17 young people (16-23 years) who were critical of rape culture about their exposure and responses to it on social media and beyond. Participants described a ‘matrix of sexism’ in which elements of rape culture formed a taken-for-granted backdrop to their everyday lives. They readily discussed examples they had witnessed, including victim-blaming, ‘slut- shaming’, rape jokes, the celebration of male sexual conquest, and demeaning sexualized representations of women. While participants described this material as distressing, they also described how online spaces offered inspiration, education and solidarity that legitimated their discomfort with rape culture. -
Metoo and the Promise and Pitfalls of Challenging Rape Culture Through
#MeToo and the Promise and Pitfalls of Challenging Rape Culture through Digital Feminist Activism Kaitlynn Mendes, University of Leicester Jessica Ringrose, University of London, Institute of Education Jessalynn Keller, University of Calgary On 24th October 2017, the #MeToo hashtag began trending on Twitter. Although the phrase was initiated by African American women’s rights activists Tarana Burke in 2006, it gained widespread attention when actress Alyssa Milano used it as a Twitter hashtag in response to allegations of sexual assault by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Through the #MeToo hashtag, Milano encouraged members of the public to join in to showcase the magnitude of the problem of sexual violence. Capturing both public and media attention, the hashtag was used 12 million times in the first 24 hours alone (CBS, 2017). Since 2014, we have been studying the ways feminists have increasingly turned to digital technologies and social media platforms to dialogue, network and organise against contemporary sexism, misogyny and rape culture (see Mendes et al., forthcoming).i As a research team the sheer volume of attention paid towards this hashtag took us by surprise, but the fact survivors took to social media to share their experiences and engage in a ‘call-out culture’ resonated strongly with our research findings over the past three years. Although #MeToo is perhaps one of the most high-profile examples of digital feminist activism we have yet encountered, it follows a growing trend of the public’s willingness to engage with resistance and challenges to sexism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression via feminist uptake of digital communication. -
The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research CUNY Graduate Center 2016 The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet Jessie Daniels Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/194 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet” by Jessie Daniels, PhD Professor, Sociology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY 2180 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10035 email: [email protected] or [email protected] Submitted for consideration to the volume The Intersectional Internet, Section Two: Cultural Values in the Machine (2016) PRE-PRINT VERSION, 16 FEBRUARY 2015 ABSTRACT (210): In August, 2013 Mikki Kendall, writer and pop culture analyst, started the hashtag #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen as a form of cyberfeminist activism directed at the predominantly white feminist activists and bloggers at sites like Feministing, Jezebel and Pandagon who failed to acknowledge the racist, sexist behavior of one their frequent contributors. Kendall’s hashtag activism quickly began trending and reignited a discussion about the trouble with white feminism. A number of journalists have excoriated Kendall specifically, and women of color more generally, for contributing to a “toxic” form of feminism. Yet what remains unquestioned in these journalistic accounts and in the scholarship to date, is the dominance of white women as architects and defenders of a framework of white feminism – not just in the second wave but today, in the digital era. -
A Theory of Rape Culture in American Public Policy
THE UNITED STATES OF RAPE: A THEORY OF RAPE CULTURE IN AMERICAN PUBLIC POLICY ______________ A University Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, East Bay _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Sexuality and Social Justice _______________ By Alexandra Kelner September, 2013 Abstract Rape is a crime in the United States. But it is also one of the most underreported crimes in America, has very low prosecution and conviction rates compared to other violent crimes, and the level of social disdain attached to rape is rarely reflected in the formal punishments enacted for its perpetration. "Rape Culture" has become a popular term in rape prevention education and advocacy; it refers to a society that contains within it practices and ideologies that minimize the negative impacts of victimization, while condoning and perpetuating the perpetration of acts of sexual violence. This paper outlines some of the characteristics of a so-called "rape culture" and explores how these characteristics are manifested in law and policy at the federal level in the United States through the examination of marital rape laws, sexuality education policy and welfare policy. i ii Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Methods and Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………9 Why “Rape Culture?”: Key Definitions and Assumptions……………9 Culture………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9 Rape……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11 Ideology and Practice in Public Policy…………………………………13 Paper Organization………………………………………………………………………………………17 Chapter One: American Rape Culture……………………………………………………………………………………………22 The American Rape Narrative………………………………………………………………22 Defining Rape Culture………………………………………………………………………………29 Chapter Two: Law and Order: Rape Culture In American Public Policy………51 To Have, To Hold and To Rape: U.S. -
Babbmakingmeaningsot2013.Pdf (856.7Kb)
MAKING MEANING OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN ANCIENT CHRISTIAN SACRED LITERATURE JEANNIE K. BABB Project under the direction of Doctor Paul Holloway Sexual violence against women appears in many genres of literature sacred to ancient Christianity, from foundational myths in Genesis through apocalyptic symbolism in the Revelation, and on into the martyr stories used liturgically by the church. These passages have damaged women, men, church, and society when taken as normative or prescriptive passages about human behavior. Recontextualizing sexual violence against women as a literary trope allows us to consider its symbolic meaning in the text, while resisting that presumption that male domination and sexual violence are part of God’s plan for the church. This project involved analyzing selected passages featuring sexual violence against women, classifying the stories by genre, and considering the purpose of sexual violence in each text. Modern scholarship was considered along with analysis of the stories and comparison within and among the genres. Although each genre uses sexual violence against women differently, its meaning remains fairly consistent for a given genre. In the foundational myths of Genesis, rape serves an etiological or ethnological purpose, establishing relationships between tribes. Rape stories in Judges and 2 Samuel play off earlier use of sexual violence, but deploy it to advance political messages. In prophetic and apocalyptic literature, political entities are represented as women and threatened with sexual violence. In one variation (known as the marriage metaphor), Israel is depicted as the wayward wife of God whose downfall is the result of being unfaithful. In another version, a foreign city is feminized and raped. -
"We're Taking Slut Back": Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics in Chicago's 2012 Slutwalk March Aphrodite Kocieda University of South Florida, [email protected]
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholar Commons | University of South Florida Research University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2-19-2014 "We're Taking Slut Back": Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics in Chicago's 2012 Slutwalk March Aphrodite Kocieda University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Kocieda, Aphrodite, ""We're Taking Slut Back": Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics in Chicago's 2012 Slutwalk March" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5054 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “We’re Taking Slut Back”: Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics in Chicago’s 2012 Slutwalk March by Aphrodite Kocięda A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Communication College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Aisha Durham, Ph.D. Abraham Khan, Ph.D. Kimberly Golombisky, Ph.D. Date of Approval: February 19, 2014 Keywords: activism, race, gender, sexism, postfeminism Copyright © 2014, Aphrodite Kocięda ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing a thesis takes a lot of time, emotional energy, and support. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, mentor, and friend, Dr.