Browsing by Subject "Rape"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Boys will be boys : feminist and patriarchal perspectives on sexual violence and masculinity in coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape scandal(2007-08) Gardner, Elizabeth Louisa, 1980-; Harp, Dustin, 1968-This thesis examines how the news media respond when rape allegations first enter the public discourse, as exemplified by local newspaper coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape scandal in the spring of 2006. Guided by the academic literature on feminist and patriarchal understandings of sexual violence and gendered representations in the media, a textual analysis explores how journalists framed and articulated a rape story in its earliest inception and what this coverage reveals about patriarchal and feminist ideologies operating in the public realm. This research demonstrates that feminist voices have fractured the dominant traditional perspective by challenging and re-articulating patriarchal narratives on rape. However, a reluctance to critically examine misogynistic or aggressive male behavior demonstrates the normalized state of sexually violent masculinity and the hegemonic power of patriarchal ideology.Item The foundational rape tale in Medieval Iberia(2009-12) Castellanos, María Rebeca; Bailey, Matthew; Harney, Michael, 1948-; Nicolopulos, James; Sutherland-Meier, Madeline; Ebbeler, JenniferThe present study examines the rape episodes in Muslim and Christian historiography of the Iberian Peninsula between 9th and 13th century. These episodes possess a structure which the author defines as “rape tale.” The rape tale has a stock cast of characters—a rapist ruler, the female rape victim, and her avenging guardian, and a predictable ending: the ruler will be deposed. In the works studied in this dissertation, every version of the rape tales is part of a discourse that legitimates an occupation, an invasion, a conquest. The stable structure of the rape tale may reveal its mythic origins. It is possible that before these stories were put into writing, they were elaborated orally. The importance of these allegorical tales requires the necessity of memorization by means of oral repetition, which is possible only through a paring down of details in order to obtain a clear pattern. The images, the actions, must be formulaic in order to be recovered effectively. Characters—no matter their historicity—are simplified into types. Hence in all myths, heroes are brave and strong; princesses in distress are beautiful; tyrannical rulers, lustful. The myth studied here appears in chronicles and national/ethnic histories written by a community that saw itself as the winning character in a story of conquest—or Reconquest. It is a myth that features not one but two rape tales: the rape of Oliba (also known as Cava), daughter of Count Julian, which brought about the Moorish invasion of Spain, and the rape of Luzencia, which signaled a Christian rebirth with Pelayo’s rebellion.Item Intersectionality and the Perpetuation of White Male Power through Interracial Sexual Violence(2014-04-02) Feinstein, Rachel AnneThe purpose of this dissertation research is to investigate the reactions and attitudes of white men, white women, black men, and black women to the sexual violence of enslaved black women carried out by white men. Using an intersectional approach, these reactions and attitudes elucidate the way intersecting institutions of oppression interact and reinforce one another. Whereas most intersectional analysis emphasizes the location and experience of black women, or other oppressed groups, the current study focuses predominantly on the role of dominant groups. Examining the reactions and attitudes of various groups reflects the set of incentives, tactics, and consequences particular to each intersectional location which bolster institutions of oppression broadly by reducing resistance from subordinated groups. Using original sources including diaries, autobiographies, Works Progress Administration slave narratives, court cases and petitions from slavery allows for an analysis of this historical form of exploitation and oppression and the racialized gendered norms that were commonly used to perpetuate power and privilege of the dominant group.Item Protecting Argentina : lawmaking, children and sexual crimes in Buenos Aires, 1853-1921(2011-05) Rahe, Julia Grace; Twinam, Ann, 1946-; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia"Protecting Argentina" explores how the definitions of sexual crimes (rape, seduction, abduction and the corruption of minors) changed in Argentine penal law during the process of congressional codification between 1853 and 1921. It contextualizes an in-depth analysis of legal definitions within the legislative process and the shifting ideologies of criminology that influenced it. It argues that, as nineteenth century positivist criminology replaced Enlightenment-inspired "Classical" criminology, the meaning and foundational presupposition of these crimes shifted from those of their colonial predecessors. Where in colonial times "Acts of lechery" were criminal when committed against chaste women, in the republican era, the law punished "Crimes against honesty" when the victims were children. Liberal lawmakers defined these sexual acts primarily by the age of the victim and secondarily by the violence used in their perpetration. The year 1903 was a watershed in this process, as it marked Positivism's displacement of "Classical" criminology as the guiding ideology of criminal law. These conclusions suggest there were substantive correlations between elite campaigns to ensure the future of the nation by saving children and the codification of national criminal law undertaken by Congress. As argentine elites began to witness what they perceived to be the negative effects of modernization, rapid population growth, industrialization and the accompanying increase in crime, they sought to ensure the future of the nation through "child saving" campaigns. The increasingly age-based definitions of sexual crimes, which aimed to protect young victims, fit within the broader state-led campaign to protect future citizens. "Protecting Argentina" therefore suggests that historians should consider legislative processes of state building as forming an integral part of turn-of-the-century nationalist projects in Latin America. Tying together positivist penology, nationalist discourse, and congressional codification, this report places children at the center of Argentine elites' attempts to ensure the future of the nation through the protection of children.