Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T18:55:08.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rethinking Rape Culture: Revelations of Intersectional Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

ALISA KESSEL Open the ORCID record for ALISA KESSEL [Opens in a new window]
ALISA KESSEL*
Affiliation:
University of Puget Sound, United States
*
Alisa Kessel, PhD, Professor, Department of Politics and Government, University of Puget Sound, United States, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mainstream feminist discourse typically defines rape culture as the normalization of aggressive male sexual violence against women, a definition that emerged out of radical feminist analysis of patriarchy in the 1970s but that does not reflect the intersectionality of sexual violence. I argue that conceptual analysis of rape culture must explore other dimensions of power in addition to patriarchy, such as white supremacy, heteronormativity, and capitalist exploitation. An intersectional analysis reveals how myths, discourses, and practices of rape culture sustain white male control over all subordinates of white heteropatriarchy by evolving and expanding to apply to any group that threatens white heteropatriarchal control. This essay traces the emergence of the idea of rape culture in the United States, offers an alternative intersectional account of rape culture, and uses this alternative account to analyze a 2013–14 news story involving Florida State University student and football player Jameis Winston and Florida State University student Erica Kinsman.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 116 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 131 - 143
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, Michelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Axon, Rachel. 2014. “FSU Finds One Jameis Winston Teammate Responsible.” USA Today, June 4. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/06/04/florida-state-jameis-winston-ronald-darby-chris-casher-code-of-conduct/9972737/.Google Scholar
Bogdanich, Walt. 2014. “A Star Player Accused, and a Flawed Rape Investigation.” New York Times, April 16. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/16/sports/errors-in-inquiry-on-rape-allegations-against-fsu-jameis-winston.html.Google Scholar
Bourke, Joanna. 2007. Rape: Sex, Violence, History. London: Virago Press.Google Scholar
Brownmiller, Susan. 1975. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. New York: Ballentine.Google Scholar
Buchwald, Emilie, Fletcher, Pamela R., and Roth, Martha. 1993. Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2019. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Connell, Noreen, Cassandra, Wilson, and New York Radical Feminists. 1974. Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women, eds. Connell, Noreen and Wilson, Cassandra. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Cohen, Sascha. 2015. “How a Book Changed the Way We Talk About Rape.” Time, October 7. https://time.com/4062637/AGAINST-OUR-WILL-40/.Google Scholar
Combahee River Collective. [1977] 2015. “A Black Feminist Statement.” In This Bridge Called My Back, 4th edition, eds. Moraga, Cherrie and Anzaldúa, Gloria, 210–8. Albany: State University of NewYork Press.Google Scholar
Cooke, Rachel. 2018. “U.S. Feminist Susan Brownmiller on Why Her Groundbreaking Book on Rape Is Still Relevant.” The Guardian, February 18. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/18/susan-brownmiller-against-our-will-interview-metoo.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 2011. “Postscript.” In Framing Intersectionality: Debates on a Multi-Faceted Concept in Gender Studies, eds. Lutz, Helma, Vivar, Maria Teressa Herrera, and Supik, Linda, 221–233. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Curry, Tommy J. 2017. The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Angela Y. 1978. “Rape, Racism, and the Capitalist Setting.” The Black Scholar 9 (7): 24–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Angela Y. 1983. Women, Race, and Class. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Davis, Angela Y. 1990. Women, Culture, and Politics. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
D’Cruze, Shani. 2012. “Sexual Violence in History: A Contemporary Heritage.” In Handbook on Sexual Violence, eds. Brown, Jennifer M. and Valklate, Sandra L., 23–51. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dick, Kirby, dir. The Hunting Ground. Sausalito, CA: 2015. Ro*Co Films. Evideo.Google Scholar
Douglass, Frederick. 1895. “Why is the Negro Lynched?” Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59116/59116-h/59116-h.htm.Google Scholar
Ferreday, Debra. 2015. “Game of Thrones, Rape Culture, and Feminist Fandom.” Australian Feminist Studies 30 (83): 21–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Jaclyn, and Valenti, Jessica 2008. Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.Google Scholar
Gavey, Nicola. 2005. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gay, Roxane. 2018. Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1987. Social Theory and Modern Sociology. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Griffin, Rachel Alicia. 2012. “The Disgrace of Commodification and Shameful Convenience: A Critical Race Critique of the NBA.” Journal of Black Studies 43 (2): 161–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffin, Susan. 1977. “Rape: An All-American Crime.” In Forcible Rape, eds. Chappell, Duncan, Geis, Robley, and Geis, Gilbert, 47–66. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Harding, Kate. 2015. Asking For It. Boston: Da Capo Press.Google Scholar
Harris-Perry, Melissa V. 2011. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Ronald L. II. 2006. Scripting the Black Masculine Body: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
King, Deborah K. 1988. “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology.” Signs 14 (1): 42–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kort, Michele. 2015. “Of Rape Culture, ‘Grievance Culture’ and Mike Tyson.” Ms. Magazine, March 13.Google Scholar
Laird, Sam. 2015. “Florida State Football Has a Problem: Violence against Women.” Mashable, July 10. https://mashable.com/archive/florida-state-football-players-hitting-women.Google Scholar
Leonard, David J., and King, C. Richard. 2011. Commodified and Criminalized: New Racism and African Americans in Contemporary Sports. Seabrook, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Maddan, Sean, and Pazzani, Lynn. 2017. Sex Offenders: Crime and Processing in the Criminal Justice System. New York: Wolters Kluwer.Google Scholar
Marcus, Sharon. 1992. “Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention.” In Feminists Theorize the Political, eds. Butler, Judith and Scott, Joan W., 385–403. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mardorossian, Carine M. 2014. Framing the Rape Victim: Gender and Agency Reconsidered. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, Vivian M. 2015. Pursuing Intersectionality, Unsettling Dominant Imaginaries. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messina-Dysert, Gina. 2015. Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence: Religion, Testimony, and Visions of Healing. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Meghan. 2016. “Rape Culture Is Brock Turner’s Father Describing Sexual Assault as ‘2 Minutes of Action.’” Feminist Current, June 6. http://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/06/06/rape-culture-is-brock-turner-father-20-minutes-action/.Google Scholar
Ortner, Sherry B. 2006. Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Patton, Tracey Owens, and Snyder-Yuly, Julie. 2007. “Any Four Black Men Will Do: Rape, Race, and the Ultimate Scapegoat.” Journal of Black Studies 37 (6): 859–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, Marissa. 2015. “Erica Kinsman, Who Accused Jameis Winston of Rape, Tells Her Story in New Documentary ‘The Hunting Ground.’” Washington Post, February 19.Google Scholar
Pérez-Peña, Richard. 2017. “Woman Linked to 1955 Emmett Till Murder Tells Historian Her Claims Were False.” New York Times, January 27. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html.Google Scholar
Phillips, Nickie D. 2017. Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Projansky, Sarah. 2001. Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). 2014. “RAINN Urges White House Task Force to Overhaul Colleges’ Treatment of Rape.” https://www.rainn.org/news/rainn-urges-white-house-task-force-overhaul-colleges%E2%80%99-treatment-rape.Google Scholar
Rape Culture . 1975. Cambridge Documentary Films. 1983. VHS.Google Scholar
Remnick, David. 2017. “The Weinstein Moment and the Trump Presidency.” New Yorker, November 12. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/the-weinstein-moment-and-the-trump-presidency/.Google Scholar
Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Three Rivers Press.Google Scholar
Richie, Beth. 2012. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Ridgway, Shannon. 2014. “25 Everyday Examples of Rape Culture.” Everyday Feminism, March 10. http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/03/examples-of-rape-culture/.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, Diane L. 2015. “Uncomfortable Conversations: Confronting the Reality of Target Rape on Campus.” Harvard Law Review, June 10.Google Scholar
Smith, Chris. 2017. “The Money on the Line in the College Football National Championship Game.” Forbes, January 9. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2017/01/09/the-money-on-the-line-in-the-college-football-national-championship-game/#3395a7df2777.Google Scholar
Sood, Raema. 2019. “Biases behind Sexual Assault: A Thirteenth Amendment Solution to Under-Enforcement of the Rape of Black Women.” University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender, and Class 18 (2): 405–28.Google Scholar
Stansell, Christine. 2010. The Feminist Promise. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Taub, Amanda. 2014. “Rape Culture Isn’t a Myth. It’s Real, and It’s Dangerous.” Vox.com. December 15. https://www.vox.com/2014/12/15/7371737/rape-culture-definition.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc. 2002. “From Slavery to Mass Incarceration: Rethinking the ‘Race Question’ in the US.” New Left Review (13). https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii13/articles/loic-wacquant-from-slavery-to-mass-incarceration.Google Scholar
Wells, Ida B. 1895. The Red Record. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14977/14977-h/14977-h.htm#chap6.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.