To Peter - 1 - TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ................................................................................................ 4 1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ..................................................................................................... 6 2. THEORIES OF POWER, SPACE AND RAPE ..................................................................... 7 2.1 POWER AND SPACE ................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 RAPE AND NATIONALISM ....................................................................................................... 11 2.3 SOCIOBIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF RAPE ................................................................................ 13 2.3.1 EVOLUTIONARY THEORY ...................................................................................................... 14 2.3.2 HORMONES ........................................................................................................................... 16 2.3.3 MODERN SYNTHESIS THEORY ............................................................................................... 17 2.4 FEMINIST THEORIES OF RAPE ................................................................................................ 19 2.4.1 SECOND WAVE FEMINISM ..................................................................................................... 20 2.4.2 BLACK FEMINISM .................................................................................................................. 23 2.4.3 NEOLIBERAL FEMINISM ........................................................................................................ 27 2.5 MASCULINITY STUDIES .......................................................................................................... 30 2.6 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 36 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 38 3.1 ENGAGING WITH CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND IDEOLOGY .................................... 38 3.1.1 DISCOURSE AS TEXT ............................................................................................................. 41 3.1.2 DISCURSIVE PRACTICE .......................................................................................................... 44 3.1.3 DISCOURSE AS SOCIAL PRACTICE ......................................................................................... 44 3.2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 44 3.3 FIELDWORK ............................................................................................................................ 46 3.4 POSITIONALITY ....................................................................................................................... 48 3.5 RESEARCH STRATEGY ............................................................................................................ 51 3.6 THE CREDIBILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE DATA OBTAINED ................................................. 52 4. THE GEOGRAPHY OF RAPE: SPACES OF SHAME AND RISK ................................. 56 4.1 ENGAGING WITH THE FIELD .................................................................................................. 56 4.2 THE CASE ................................................................................................................................ 60 4.3 ANALYZING TEXTUAL PRACTICE .......................................................................................... 63 4.3.1 TEMPORAL DISCURSIVE CHANGE .......................................................................................... 65 4.3.2 RAPE BETWEEN BIOPOLITICS AND NATIONALISM ................................................................. 72 4.3.3 DISCURSIVE BATTLES ........................................................................................................... 84 4.4 ANALYZING DISCURSIVE PRACTICE ...................................................................................... 91 4.4.1 HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES ..................................................................................................... 92 - 2 - 4.5 ANALYZING SOCIAL PRACTICE ............................................................................................. 97 4.5.1 HABITS OF THE NEWS ROOM ................................................................................................. 98 4.5.2 NATIONALISM AND IDEOLOGY ........................................................................................... 101 4.5.3 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 110 5. RAPE AND FEMINISM REVISED .................................................................................... 112 5.1 THE HAPPY MARRIAGE BETWEEN FEMINISM AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY .................... 112 5.2 UNCHASTE WOMEN VERSUS “NICE GUYS” .......................................................................... 113 5.3 TOWARDS SPACES OF AUTONOMY ....................................................................................... 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 118 APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................................. 125 APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................................. 128 APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................................. 129 APPENDIX 4 ............................................................................................................................. 130 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The thesis examines discourses about rape in American media. The author has selected a case from 2006 in which three White men from the lacrosse team at Duke University, North Carolina, were falsely accused of raping a Black woman at a party. The research question is as follows: ‖What discourses can be traced in media coverage of the Duke lacrosse ―rape‖ case, and what power effects can be derived from these representations?‖ The author gives an overview on contemporary theories about rape and positions research on rape within political geography. The archive covers 94 articles from New York Times, USA Today and News & Observer. The author examines which explanatory models that are prevalent in the data, and how notions of gender, race and nationalism are produced and reproduced in the media debate. A five-fold discourse typology, consisting of conservative, liberal, neoliberal, feminist and bio-geopolitical discourses, is outlined, followed by an analysis of how particular hegemonic discourses displace alternative ways of understanding rape. The coding of data suggests that feminist discourses are marginal. Conservative discourses often correspond with explanation models offered by sociobiology where rape is understood as an outcome of natural male aggression and moral decay. Liberal discourses problematize how the police and the legal system handle justice. Neoliberal discourses stress individual risk management more than the effectiveness of the legal system. Bio-geopolitical discourses intersect with other discourses, and produce ―spaces of shame‖ and ―spaces of risk‖ where places like Durham and Duke University are discursively constructed in relation to national values about sexual purity and human rights. The geography of rape is mediated and negotiated through technologies of political and sexual exceptionalism on multiple geographical scales where, as the case turned out, it became illegitimate to raise concerns about race, class and gender inequality. The power effects include a depolitization and individualization of rape at home, and a justification of political and military intervention in the name of gender equality and human rights abroad. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Elin Sæther – for your enthusiasm and optimism on behalf of the project. For having ice in your stomach when my confusion sent me off track. Your positivism has been extremely encouraging. Øystein Gullvåg Holter – for your critical attitude to wishy-washy post-structuralism, your thoughtful comments and for dedicating much more time to this project than what could reasonably be expected. Paola Bacchetta – I have taken shamelessly advantage of our many class discussions and your generous comments. You taught me that a feminist geographer always must look into herself and the double standards of the system she is part of, before pointing fingers at Others. You made my stay at UC Berkeley a memorable one. Barrie Thorne – for your thrilling laughter, good sense of humor and for having created an enabling learning environment. You and my co-students gave me the best foundation possible for understanding the American society and improved the theory chapter significantly. Julie Michelle Klinger – for being my geographer in crime at UC Berkeley and your bright comments at the final stages