Representation and portrayals of woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration in movies and television: A critical, feminist, auto/biographical perspective

Rebecca Twinley

Representation and portrayals of woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration in movies and television: A critical, feminist, auto/biographical perspective

School of Sport and Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Representations of rape or sexual assault perpetration in film and television popular discourse have increased. To date, woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences are under-represented and have not been researched. In this study, I critically examine how real-life woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences are portrayed in the existing non-scripted stories in film and television. As a victim/survivor of such assaults, I worked auto/biographically. I conducted a comprehensive online search to identify all available representations of real-life woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences in non-scripted stories in film and television up to February 2021. There were three available titles. Within these five storylines, three featured the primary characters as either perpetrator or victim/survivor. The remaining two storylines showed women discussing being victims implicitly and within contextualised discussions of intimate partner abuse/violence. Findings revealed that woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration-related storylines infrequently occur in movies or on television compared to portrayals of rapes and sexual assaults perpetrated by men against women. This study is a window into this culturally silenced and invisible form of rape or sexual assault perpetration.

Original language	English
Journal	Auto/Biography Review
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 12 Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Rebecca (Bex) Twinley, PhD, is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Brighton. Bex’s research focuses on the dark side of occupation and emphasises the need to critically examine the assumed link between occupation, health, and wellbeing. Bex is interested in the ways in which people may cope during and after traumatic events and is also furthering her doctoral research into woman-to-woman rape and sexual assault

Keywords

Culture
Media
Woman-to-woman
Rape
Sexual assault
stories
Content analysis

Cite this

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abstract = "Representations of rape or sexual assault perpetration in film and television popular discourse have increased. To date, woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences are under-represented and have not been researched. In this study, I critically examine how real-life woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences are portrayed in the existing non-scripted stories in film and television. As a victim/survivor of such assaults, I worked auto/biographically. I conducted a comprehensive online search to identify all available representations of real-life woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration experiences in non-scripted stories in film and television up to February 2021. There were three available titles. Within these five storylines, three featured the primary characters as either perpetrator or victim/survivor. The remaining two storylines showed women discussing being victims implicitly and within contextualised discussions of intimate partner abuse/violence. Findings revealed that woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration-related storylines infrequently occur in movies or on television compared to portrayals of rapes and sexual assaults perpetrated by men against women. This study is a window into this culturally silenced and invisible form of rape or sexual assault perpetration.",

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Representation and portrayals of woman-to-woman rape or sexual assault perpetration in movies and television: A critical, feminist, auto/biographical perspective

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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