“No” Means Higher Ratings: Rape Fantasies, Seduction, and Submission in Scandal

• In Event: The Study of Media Violence and Graphic Content (TOP PAPER ENTRY)

Abstract

Despite America’s post-network television era, ABC’s Scandal serves as a cultural forum due to its diverse audience, groundbreaking representations, and popularity on Twitter. Scandal also exists in an era saturated with rape culture through victim blaming and other myths reinforced by rape fantasies. This paper conducts a textual analysis of the hit series, tracing the ways in which the primary romantic entanglement perpetuates troubling, even alarming aspects of rape culture through the utilization of rape fantasy narratives. Drawing upon rape fantasy research in the field of Psychology, this study identifies recurring themes in the central relationship (female resistance and submission, male dominance, etc.), and traces their adaptation from trends in rape fantasies. Similarities between their common narratives and Scandal’s most prominent pairing ultimately serve to silence and erase the female protagonist’s protestations and justify the male lead’s use of force and manipulation.

Author

• Laurena Elizabeth Nelson Bernabo, U of Iowa