Sexual violence and free speech in popular music

Hill, Rosemary Lucy; Savigny, Heather

doi:10.1017/s0261143019000096

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…Popular culture reinforces this normalization of violence in music (cf. Hill and Savigny, in press), and we see men rape women to drive plotlines in TV and films (Projansky, 2001). Not only is this masculine violence, and its threat normalized in our mediated cultural context, but it has real world material effects for this who experience it (e.g.…”

Section: Operationalising Political Analysis Through Lived Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Violence of Impact: Unpacking Relations Between Gender, Media and Politics

Savigny

2019

Political Studies Review

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Engaging in public discussion and debate are crucial aspects of the impact agenda, but what are the politics of this engagement? What happens when female academics engage with, or are reported by, media in disseminating their research? Does negative impact ‘count’ as impact? Adopting a poststructuralist intersectional feminist analysis, this article uses the REF policy agenda as a case study in order to explore these questions. Drawing on extensive qualitative interview data, I operationalize the concept ‘cultural sexism’ as a mechanism to connect micro and macro analysis, using cumulative individual experiences to render visible wider social and political power structures. This article argues that while women may seek to actively build impact and public engagement in to their research agendas, we need to be cognizant that the site of interaction between media and academia is gendered and raced. I argue that we therefore need to reflect upon the ethics of pursuing a policy which (1) disproportionately exposes a diversity of women to structural and symbolic violence (2) has the potential to silence women’s contribution to knowledge and (3) conversely may serve to simply privilege masculinised assumptions as to what does and does not count as knowledge.

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Section: Operationalising Political Analysis Through Lived Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Violence of Impact: Unpacking Relations Between Gender, Media and Politics

Savigny

2019

Political Studies Review

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“…When it comes to sexual violence, the majority of work on rock and, in particular, metal comes from the field of psychology in the 1990s, and was written in response to the moral panic around metal. Conservative cultural commentators feared that metal would induce young men to drink alcohol, take drugs, worship Satan and commit sexual violence (Rosemary Lucy Hill and Heather Savigny 2019). A number of reports examined these claims (Wendy S. Mitchell, Alan M. Rubin and Daniel V. West 2001; Janet S. St Lawrence and Doris J. Joyner Lawrence and Joyner 1991), but there is no causal evidence that listening to songs about rape makes a man rape a woman (American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications 1996).…”

Section: Women and Rock Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normalising sexualised violence in popular culture: eroding, erasing and controlling women in rock music

Hill

Richards

Savigny

2021

Feminist Media Studies

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How does music play a role in normalising men's sexual violence towards women? Using mainstream rock and metal music as an illustrative case study, we offer a nuanced account of the ways in which men's sexual violence is normalised. Using a definition of sexual violence drawn from Liz Kelly's notion of a continuum (1988), which reframes sexual violence as the loss of women's ability to control sexual experiences, we explore the ways in which sexual violence is a prevalent lyrical and audio-visual component of rock and metal songs. We show that a pernicious theme of rock and metal over the last 25 years is the erosion of women's ability to refuse sexual activity and to have voice and be heard. We argue that this erosion of women's consent takes place through the representational use of emotional abuse, controlling/coercive behaviour, and through the objectification of women. The erasure of consent presented through these methods becomes a key means of establishing sexual control. Through manipulation, the confusion of what counts as sexual violence and how it is defined, men's sexual violence against women is normalised.

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“…We begin from the position that the controversy reflects resistance to feminism and social justice work alongside increasingly vocal right wing populism. Arguments in defence of freedom of speech which seek to silence marginalized voices are made in bad faith (Hill and Savigny, 2019). .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In defence of safer spaces: Punk, privilege and safer spaces policies

Hill

Megson

2020

Punk &Amp; Post-Punk

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Increasing attention to the prevalence of sexual harassment at live music events has led to the adoption of safer spaces policies by venues and promoters. Punk’s politics of inclusion and equality suggest that such policies would be welcome as a means to promote access for marginalized groups. However, safer spaces policies are sometimes controversial and their content and implementation patchy. Such policies therefore bear closer examination in order to understand their value and meaning for punk politics. Here we examine the use of safer spaces policies in punk and DIY music spaces asking, how is safety conceptualized, for what purpose, and who benefits from them? We draw on a discourse analysis of safer spaces policies and interviews with punks about sexual violence at gigs. We argue that safer spaces policies can be a valuable tool for promoting access to pleasurable experiences whilst lessening the fear of discrimination, harassment and violence. However, safer spaces can also continue to privilege already privileged punks. We conclude that when safer spaces policies are implemented they must go hand in hand with practical measures to enable inclusion. In doing so the needs of marginalized groups must be prioritized.

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Sexual violence and free speech in popular music

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

The Violence of Impact: Unpacking Relations Between Gender, Media and Politics

The Violence of Impact: Unpacking Relations Between Gender, Media and Politics

Normalising sexualised violence in popular culture: eroding, erasing and controlling women in rock music

In defence of safer spaces: Punk, privilege and safer spaces policies

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