Masculinity, Rape Culture, and the Will-to-representation in Technology-facilitated Juvenile Sexual Assault

• In Event: Masculinity, Feminist Inquiry and Sexual Coercion

Abstract

This paper investigates young people’s motivations for capturing and distributing sexual assault through new technologies. Analysis of high profile incidents of digitally mediated sexual assaults and group interviews with teenagers show adolescents are still negotiating their social media usage and their risky behavior. Generally, interviews suggest new media facilitate an unthinking and unfeeling culture, one where kids are less preoccupied with ethics (especially as bystanders) and far more interested with performing and getting ‘likes’ from their peers for their digital activity. Discussions of sexual assault reveal this attitude extends to illicit behavior, with issues of consent and self-incrimination overridden by a concern for displays of hetero-masculinity and peer recognition. Heteronormative gender and sex scripts explaining and normalizing sexual violence were prominent and frequently employed by teens in these exchanges. The paper argues that the digital recording and dissemination of sexual assault should be understood in light of of gender performativity and a search for status, a pervasive rape culture, and the imperative for mediated representation fostered by social media.

Author

• Anna Gjika, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY