Rape Myths and Beyond: A Commentary on Edwards and Colleagues (2011)

Abstract

This article comments on Edwards et al. (2011) who review the state of the current literature on rape myths, defined as "prejudicial, stereotyped or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists" (Burt 1980; p. 217). I argue that while studying rape myths is important to understanding the persistence of sexual assault against women in Western societies, other factors that contribute to this problem need to be considered. Specifically, I focus on the importance of examining societal messages regarding women's sexuality, as well as examining how individuals conceptualize and define rape more broadly. I conclude by discussing directions for moving toward producing real changes in the prevalence of sexual violence as well as ways to intervene more effectively with victims of sexual violence.

Explicating the Role of Sexual Coercion and Vulnerability Alcohol Expectancies in Rape Attributions

“…As Littleton (2011) notes, there is a need to think beyond the standard attitudinal construct of rape myth acceptance in attempting to understand a culture that perpetuates sexual aggression and public perceptions of sexual violence. Based on this study's findings, at an individual level of analysis, sexual coercion alcohol expectancy appear to represent an important sociocognitive concept in explaining why people excuse intoxicated sexual perpetrators while blaming intoxicated victims (Grubb & Turner, 2012).…”

A Critique of Carceral Feminist Arguments on Rape Myths and Sexual Scripts

“…According to carceral feminist arguments as characterized so far in this article, sexually coercive male behavior is so deeply normalized that rape involving an intimate partner (Littleton, 2011;Rumney, 1999;Anderson, 2010), a promiscuous woman (Russell, 2013;Anderson, 2010), drunken sex (Gunby, Carline, & Beynon, 2013), or emotional pressure (Russell, Oswald, & Kraus, 2011) may become invisible. A variety of studies advance this view of a popularly endorsed and scripted gulf existing between the myth of real rape and rape in its more typical forms 17 that explains negative attitudes toward many rape complainants and high attrition rates in rape trials.…”

“…See Jones (2012) on the first point, and Tadros (2006) and Dsouza (2013) on the second. norms, and so it would be naïve to assume that apparent choices are always straightforwardly and authentically free and unconstrained (Littleton, 2011;Coy et al, 2011;Turchik et al, 2010;Krahé et al, 2007). This section acknowledges the importance of feminist arguments that the traditional sexual script and sex role enactment provides a blueprint for behavior that may well be coercive and victimizing.…”

“…However, since the real rape myth anticipates a rapist to be the opposite of a committed sexual partner (i.e., a stranger), does crediting such beliefs and practises with legitimacy and lawfulness amount to endorsing the myth? Certainly it is because mock jurors look to signs of a pre-existing sexual relationship in discrediting a complainant's account that they are criticized for indulging in rape myth acceptance (Ellison & Munro, 2009Littleton et al, 2009;Littleton, 2011). And in cases in which consent is in doubt and in which the accused tries to use the prior existence of a sexual relationship to bolster his defense, 22 appeal judges and (for example) media commentators have been criticized as endorsing the myth that heterosexual relationships are a context in which safety may be anticipated (Busby, 2012;Gotell, 2012;Craig, 2014).…”

“…It may indeed be right to say that by building in a necessary assumption of victimization in situations involving, say, sex that is not positively desired for its own sake, involving an actively pursuing and possibly forceful male and a passive woman, or a woman engaged in sex whilst intoxicated, we will catch more men who have committed rape and sexual assault. It is also true that women may themselves be unwilling or unable to acknowledge that they have been victimized by coercive or manipulative male strategies (Peterson & Muehlenhard, 2007;Littleton, 2011;Coy, Thiara, & Kelly, 2011;Turchik, Probst, Irvin, Chau, & Gidyez, 2010;Krahé, Bieneck, & ScheinbergerOlwig, 2007;Busby, 2012;Gotell, 2012). However, there is a danger that building such assumptions into our thinking also implicitly relies on the same principle that makes rape myth acceptance so odious: in judging a particular incident, we rely not on information as to what actually happened but on a generalized set of beliefs as to what usually happens.…”