Rhetoric and Communication Perspectives on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

Propen, Amy D.; Schuster, Mary L

doi:10.4324/9781315229164

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…9, 18). Moral panic might then start a chain reaction wherein media describe a risk, the public believes that the risk is real and immediate, and lawmakers respond with extreme action, or in the case of civil commitment, the medical and legal communities collaborate to essentialize and confine sex offenders (see also Jenkins, 1998;Schuster & Propen, 2015;Propen & Schuster, 2017). In other words, moral panic and othering are highly related in terms of group identification, marginalization, and containment.…”

Section: Civil Commitment and Disciplinary Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Medico-Legal Collaboration Regarding the Sex Offender: Othering and Resistance

Schuster

Larson

Propen

2018

RHM

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We examined medico-legal collaboration regarding dangerous sex offenders where state legislators have adopted statutes that determine the criteria for commitment to and discharge from civil commitment programs. The application of these statutes relies on medical diagnoses of pathologies such as paraphilia, antisocial personality disorder, and pedophilia along with prognoses for cure or recidivism. In our study, we examined court opinions from commitment hearings and observed a trial in federal court on the constitutionality of these commitments. We found that one result of this medico-legal collaboration is the marginalization or othering of sex offenders by essentializing, dividing, shaming, and impeaching them. We also found that this group attempted to resist othering by rhetorical strategies such as providing evidence of change in character, distinction within the othered group, and proof of internal controls over unacceptable impulses. Finally, we discovered that such othering relies heavily on medical expertise, even though some medical practitioners may disagree with, or be hesitant in, their roles in this medico-legal collaboration.

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Section: Civil Commitment and Disciplinary Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Medico-Legal Collaboration Regarding the Sex Offender: Othering and Resistance

Schuster

Larson

Propen

2018

RHM

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“…These stories represent what have come to be two of the most popular labels applied to those who experience sexual assault: survivors and liars . Feminist scholars have examined discourses of rape specifically through the lens of gender, analyzing how they often lead others to react to those who disclose rape with skepticism, doubt, and even distrust (Alcoff and Gray ; Spry ; Propen and Schuster ). Although these insights are important, I contend that they capture only part of the picture.…”

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confidence: 99%

Survivors, Liars, and Unfit Minds: Rhetorical Impossibility and Rape Trauma Disclosure

Larson¹

2018

Hypatia

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This essay examines how disability interacts with gender in public discourse about sexual violence by investigating the ableist implications of two popular labels commonly applied to people who have experienced rape or sexual assault: survivors and liars. Using a rhetorical approach in conjunction with disability theory, I analyze how discourses of compulsory survivorship ask people who experience sexual assault to overcome disability and appear nondisabled, whereas rape‐hoax narratives frame others as mentally ill, mad, or irrational. Taken together, I argue, these frameworks form a discursive paradox for people who experience sexual assault, specifically marking their mental fitness and placing them in a rhetorically impossible situation when attempting to disclose sexual assault. Demonstrating how these frameworks silence articulations of pain and the realities of mental illness that can result from sexual trauma brings debates about mental disability and pain more centrally into disability studies through a feminist lens.

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