[1] DePauw University, ORCID: 0000-0003-1587-6403, farahali@depauw.edu
Abstract
Sexual violence has become increasingly visible in the public eye, which has in turn prompted scholarly research across disciplines to critically examine how such cases are handled, ranging from the investigation processes to how the accused and accusing parties are impacted. Linguistic research in particular has made an important contribution to our understanding of the role of language in interpreting and evaluating sexual violence by focusing on the narrations of specific cases. Yet linguistic perspectives are somewhat sparse with regard to mass media discourse, which can play an influential role in shaping discussions on sexual violence. This study examines discourse on sexual violence found in online news reports in the U.S., and specifically focuses on contrasts between different discourse participants. Findings reveal that news reports employ various linguistic strategies that distance sexual violence from their perpetrators (faculty, in the cases examined in this study) and offer disparate attention to perpetrators and victims. Given the increasing visibility of public discourse on sexual aggression and the power that such discourse has in influencing audiences, analyzing the language used to construct victims and perpetrators is crucial to our understanding of the various ways that sexual violence perpetuates injustice.
Keywords: sexual violence, sexual harassment, media discourse, critical discourse analysis
References
Acquaviva, B. L., O’Neal, E. N., & Clevenger, S. L. (2021). Sexual assault awareness in the #MeToo era: Student perceptions of victim believability and cases in the media. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 46(1), 6–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09547-y
Aroustamian, C. (2020). Time’s up: Recognising sexual violence as a public policy issue: A qualitative content analysis of sexual violence cases and the media. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 50, 101341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.101341
Bitton, M. S., & Jaeger, L. (2019). “It can’t be rape”: Female vs. male rape myths among Israeli police officers. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 35(1), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-019-09331-3
Cahn, N. (2018). Looseness in legal language: The reasonable woman standard in theory and in practice. Cornell Law Review, 77, 1398–1431. https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol77/iss6/3
Chakraborty, A. (2019). Politics of #LoSha: Using naming and shaming as a feminist tool on Facebook. In D. Ging & E. Siapera (Eds.), Gender hate online (pp. 192–212). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12633-9_10
Christie, N. (1986). An ideal victim. In E. Fattah (Ed.), From crime policy to victim policy: Reorienting the justice system (pp. 17–30). Macmillan.
Clark, K. (1992). The linguistics of blame: Representations of women in The Sun’s reporting of crimes of sexual violence. In M. Toolan (Ed.), Language, text and context: Essays in stylistics (pp. 208–224). London: Routledge.
Ehrlich, S. (1998). The discursive reconstruction of sexual consent. Discourse & Society, 9(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009002002
Ehrlich, S. (1999). Communities of practice, gender, and the representation of sexual assault. Language in Society, 28(2), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404599002067
Ehrlich, S. (2002). Legal institutions, nonspeaking recipiency and participants’ orientations. Discourse & Society, 13(6), 731–747. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926502013006056
Ehrlich, S. (2012). Text trajectories, legal discourse, and gendered inequalities. Applied Linguistics Review, 3(1), 47–73. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2012-0003
Ehrlich, S., & King, R. (1992). Gender-based language reform and the social construction of meaning. Discourse & Society, 3(2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926592003002002
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. London: Edward Arnold / Bloomsbury Academic.
Fedina, L., Holmes, J., & Backes, B. (2018). Campus sexual assault: A systematic review of prevalence research from 2000–2015. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(1), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016631129
Ferrão, M. C., & Gonçalves, G. (2015). Rape crimes reviewed: The role of observer variables in female victim blaming. Psychological Thought, 8(1), 47–67. https://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v8i1.134
Garrick, J., & Buck, M. (2020). Whistleblower retaliation checklist: A new instrument for identifying retaliatory tactics and their psychosocial impacts after an employee discloses workplace wrongdoing. Crisis, Stress, and Human Resilience: An International Journal, 2(2), 76–93.
Gay, R. (2018). Not that bad: Dispatches from rape culture. New York: Harper Perennial.
Grubb, A., & Turner, E. (2012). Attribution of blame in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth acceptance, gender role conformity, and substance use on victim blaming. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(5), 443–452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.06.002
Harris, K. (2019). Beyond the rapist: Title IX and sexual violence on US campuses. Oxford University Press.
Henley, N., Miller, M., & Beazley, J. A. (1995). Syntax, semantics, and sexual violence: Agency and the passive voice. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 14(1–2), 60–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X95141005
Holland, K., Cortina, L., & Freyd, J. (2018). Compelled disclosure of college sexual assault. American Psychologist, 73(3), 256–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000186
Izes, A. (2021). #MeToo, discursive injustice, and shifting social norms: A linguistic case study of Commonwealth v. William Henry Cosby Jr.International Journal of Language and Law, 10, 48–72.
Kelsky, K. (2018). Sexual harassment in the academy: A crowdsource survey. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S9KShDLvU7C-KkgEevYTHXr3F6InTenrBsS9yk-8C5M/edit#gid=1530077352 (Accessed 17.05.2021)
Keyton, J. (1996). Sexual harassment: A multidisciplinary synthesis and critique. Annals of the International Communication Association, 19(1), 93–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1996.11678931
Keyton, J., Ferguson, P., & Rhodes, S. (2001). Cultural indicators of sexual harassment. Southern Journal of Communication, 67(1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/10417940109373195
Kitzinger, C., & Frith, H. (1999). Just say no? The use of conversation analysis in developing a feminist perspective on sexual refusal. Discourse & Society, 10(3), 293–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010003002
Kulbaga, T., & Spencer, L. (2019). Campuses of consent: Sexual and social justice in higher education. University of Massachusetts Press.
Lim, Y. (2017). Multiple perpetrator sexual assault: The relationship between the number of perpetrators, blame attribution, and victim resistance [Master’s thesis, City University of New York]. CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3424&context=gc_etds
Lorenz, K., Hayes, R., & Jacobsen, C. (2021). “Title IX isn’t for you, it’s for the university”: Sexual violence survivors’ experiences of institutional betrayal in Title IX investigations. CrimRxiv. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.a8075399
Mack, A., & McCann, B. (2018). Critiquing state and gendered violence in the age of #MeToo. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 104(3), 329–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2018.1479161
Mathews, T. (2019). Resisting sexual harassment in academia. In M. Whitaker & E. A. Grollman (Eds.), Counternarratives from women of color academics: Bravery, vulnerability, and resistance (pp. 43–50). New York: Routledge.
Mulla, S. (2014). The violence of care: Rape victims, forensic nurses and sexual assault intervention. NYU Press.
NVivo qualitative data analysis software. (2018). QSR International Pty Ltd. (Version 12).
Palomino-Manjón, P. (2022). Feminist activism on Twitter: The discursive construction of sexual violence and victim-survivors in #WhyIDidntReport. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 10(1), 140–168. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00070.pal
Philadelphoff-Puren, N. (2003). The right language for rape. Hecate, 29(1), 47–58.
Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. (2021). Victims of sexual violence: Statistics. https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence (Accessed 14.12.2021)
Ricciardelli, R., Spencer, D., & Dodge, A. (2021). “Society wants to see a true victim”: Police interpretations of victims of sexual violence. Feminist Criminology, 16(2), 216–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085120939734
Schanz, K., & Jones, E. E. (2023). The impact of media watching and victim gender on victim and offender blameworthiness and punishment. Violence Against Women, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231152502
Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. (2015). Victim or survivor: Terminology from investigation to prosecution. https://sakitta.org/toolkit/docs/Victim-or-Survivor-Terminology-from-Investigation-Through-Prosecution.pdf
Sharoni, S., & Klocke, B. (2019). Faculty confronting gender-based violence on campus: Opportunities and challenges. Violence Against Women, 25(11), 1352–1369. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801218807097
Shen, F. (2011). How we still fail rape victims: Reflecting on responsibility and legal reform. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 22(1), 1–80. https://doi.org/10.7916/cjgl.v22i1.2709 (jeśli brak DOI – można usunąć lub dodać URL)
Shrier, D. (Ed.). (1996). Sexual harassment in the workplace and academia: Psychiatric issues (Clinical practice series No. 38). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.
Stubbs-Richardson, M., Rader, N. E., & Cosby, A. G. (2018). Tweeting rape culture: Examining portrayals of victim blaming in discussions of sexual assault cases on Twitter. Feminism & Psychology, 28(1), 90–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353517715874
Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Discourse analysis as ideology analysis. In C. Schäffner & A. Wenden (Eds.), Language and peace (pp. 17–33). Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing.
Viehbeck, V. (2020). The freshman swimmer and the intoxicated woman: Sexist discourse in news coverage of the Stanford rape case. Pragmatics and Society, 11(3), 363–390. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.00047.vie
Wilinsky, C., & McCabe, A. (2021). Agency and communion in sexual abuse survivors’ narratives. Narrative Inquiry, 31(1), 236–262. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19066.wil
Wood, L., & Rennie, H. (1994). Formulating rape: The discursive constructions of victims and villains. Discourse & Society, 5(1), 125–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926594005001006
Zaleski, K. L., Gundersen, K. K., Baes, J., Estupinian, E., & Vergara, A. (2016). Exploring rape culture in social media forums. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 922–927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.036