In the fall of 2014, Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC’s Q, was accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women. The women who came forward were criticized for the delay in reporting the incidents. As a response, two female Canadian journalists started the hashtag #beenrapedneverreported as a way of using networked media to foster alternative dialogue about sexual assault, ostensibly so women who have experienced rape could control the conversation and say how they understood their own experiences. The literature on sexual assault suggests that discussions of rape involving members of the general public are shaped by myths that foster victim blame and lead to survivors being silenced about the assault. I decided to look at whether or not posters created an alternative discourse around rape by comparing constructions of rape on the hashtag with the common rape myths present in mainstream conversations. I employed a social constructionist lens to approach the data to allow for multiple interpretations of these myths and to explore the way posters discussed sexual assault. In particular, I conducted a qualitative content analysis of 8250 tweets that were posted to the hashtag between October 30, 2014 and June 26, 2016. The findings indicate that each myth identified in the literature was reproduced in the discussion, suggesting that they continue to have salience in the ways that all people, including victims, understand rape as a crime. A number of posters accepted the myths and used them to construct their own understanding of why their rape was not reportable because they felt that it was their fault. This suggests that there is still a long way to go to challenge these myths as they are internalized by some survivors. However, most posters reproduced the myths to explain how the attitudes were mobilized against them by others, in effect, silencing them. This created an alternative discussion of how social assumptions work against female victims of rape at a variety of levels. These assumptions occur not only within policing agencies and the criminal justice system but also within family and friend support networks. A smaller proportion of posters actively contested the myths primarily through discussions surrounding consent. In particular, sexual assault was construed as denying women their agency to choose what happens to their body and rape was constructed as a loss of agency/autonomy. Posters put forward that women have a right to control their own body and that choice/control is taken away by the rapist. From this perspective, rape is not a sexual crime but a violent crime that denies human agency/personhood of the victim. This suggests that the consent debate is a key moment of feminist politics and this transgressive construction of rape upends the social assumptions about female and male sexuality.

While multiple studies have been conducted assessing rape myth acceptance among Whites, few studies have examined rape myth acceptance among a broad range of ethnic minorities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess and examine rape myth acceptance among a diverse set of ethnic minorities. This study had 150 participants divided into four categories: Black, Hispanic, White, and Multi-Racial. Six scales were examined rape myth acceptance, own sex role satisfaction, sex role stereotypes, sexual conservatism, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. Participants were predominately single, young adult, low income, highly educated, African-American females who live in an urban area. Participants were heavily recruited through online social networks which included Craigslist, the root.com, BlackPlanet.com, and amightyriver.com. Also, participants were recruited at a private university in South Florida through posters sharing a link to the survey. Dr. Martha Burt's Rape Myth Scale was used and demographic information was obtained. Results showed that gender significantly impacted rape myth acceptance, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. When gender was held constant, race was significant with Blacks endorsing higher sex role satisfaction, sex role stereotypes, and sexual conservatism compared to Hispanics. Blacks had greater sex role satisfaction and sex role stereotyping compared to Multi-Racial individuals. Lastly, Blacks had greater sex role stereotyping and sexual conservatism when compared to White individuals. Additionally, Hispanic individuals endorsed higher sex role satisfaction when compared to Whites and sexual conservatism when compared to Multi-Racial individuals. These results could impact rape prevention programs and clinical work that targets rape myths.

The purpose of this research was to revise the Male Rape Myths Scale (MRMS; Kerr Melanson, 1999) and gather psychometric information using the gender role strain paradigm (GRSP; Pleck, 1991, 1995) as a theoretical framework in samples of U.S. undergraduate students. I provided evidence for a 16-item revised version of the MRMS (MRMS-R) across three studies. The MRMS items were first revised based on the results of a pilot study and expert reviews. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a correlated two-factor model: (1) Marginalization and Homophobia and (2) Victim Blame and Denial of Trauma. Results of the confirmatory factor analyses provided support for bifactor and correlated two-factor models of the MRMS-R. Criterion validity was supported based on (a) differences in MRMS-R scores between men and women and (b) lower scores for participants who reported experiencing a sexual assault. MRMS-R scores were also correlated with victim blaming responses to case vignettes and female rape myth acceptance in the expected directions. Construct validity was further demonstrated by correlations between MRMS-R scores and measures of traditional gender role attitudes, homonegativity toward gay men, and patriarchal beliefs. Further, the bifactor model met criteria for measurement invariance between male and female groups. The total and subscale scores had high internal consistency estimates of reliability. Results provided preliminary support for the use of the MRMS-R as an updated measure of male rape myth agreement among college student populations, and clarified links to other gender-related constructs. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Through the use of focus groups and interviews, this research aims to increase understanding of the ways in which the public in Adelaide, South Australia draw on well documented rape myths and the influence of this process on their understandings of consent to sexual intercourse. This research explores how individual attitudes and opinions about rape are shaped through social interaction, including comparing the attitudes of men and women. Equal numbers of men and women were drawn from one geographical location by snowball sampling and vignettes were used to facilitate discussion in focus groups. Findings showed that rape myths remain influential amongst the public and are often used to attribute responsibility to women in acquaintance rape scenarios. However, analysis of the public’s engagement with rape myths revealed a complex process. People did not simply adhere to or challenge rape myths but rather these myths were engaged with in different ways at different times and in different circumstances. Findings also highlighted the complexity of the notion of consent and revealed contradictions in the ways in which consent was understood. Moreover, in many cases despite being willing to label an incident as rape, participants were still reluctant to say that they would find the man guilty of the crime of rape. Overall, this study suggests that the public struggle with issues concerning how rape is defined and that this has widespread implications both for rape victims and for the Australian legal system. Findings also suggest that radical attitude change is required before any real improvement will be seen in rape conviction rates.

The present study explored the influence of survivor weight and participant gender, rape myth acceptance and anti-fat attitudes on perceptions of sexual assault. Using an online survey tool, participants (N = 413) read a vignette describing a hypothetical sexual assault scenario and completed several self-report questionnaires. Generalized linear model analyses revealed that participants were more likely to hold the survivor responsible, excuse the perpetrator’s actions, and respond more negatively toward the survivor and more positively toward the perpetrator when the survivor was depicted as thin versus overweight. Interactions were found between rape myth acceptance and survivor weight, gender and survivor weight, and gender and anti-fat attitudes, for certain dependent variables. In addition, men and those with higher levels of rape myth acceptance and anti-fat attitudes were found to make more negative evaluations of the survivor and more positive evaluations of the perpetrator. Recommendations for future research and interventions are discussed.

The present study explored the influence of survivor weight and participant gender, rape myth acceptance and anti-fat attitudes on perceptions of sexual assault. Using an online survey tool, participants (N = 413) read a vignette describing a hypothetical sexual assault scenario and completed several self-report questionnaires. Generalized linear model analyses revealed that participants were more likely to hold the survivor responsible, excuse the perpetrator’s actions, and respond more negatively toward the survivor and more positively toward the perpetrator when the survivor was depicted as thin versus overweight. Interactions were found between rape myth acceptance and survivor weight, gender and survivor weight, and gender and anti-fat attitudes, for certain dependent variables. In addition, men and those with higher levels of rape myth acceptance and anti-fat attitudes were found to make more negative evaluations of the survivor and more positive evaluations of the perpetrator. Recommendations for future research and interventions are discussed.

Sexual assault among college students in the US has prompted debate about how to prevent and punish such crimes. Under Title IX and the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter from the Office for Civil Rights, universities are required to undertake the prevention, investigation, and punishment of sexually violent offenses on college campuses. However, the vast majority of victims do not report their assaults, whether on campus or to the police. The current study investigated the effect of victim reporting on perceptions of sexual assault. Two undergraduate samples, one from a small liberal arts college (n = 197) and another recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 56), were randomly assigned to read a vignette of an alleged sexual assault including one of four reporting conditions: no reporting, reporting to on-campus administrators, reporting to law enforcement, or reporting both on campus and to law enforcement. Outcome measures included whether the participant believed an assault had taken place, measures of victim and perpetrator culpability, and scales measuring the extent to which the participant accepts rape myths (RMA) and believes in a just world (JWB). Results failed to demonstrate an effect of victim reporting type, but did find a significant effect of gender such that males blamed the victim more and were less likely to believe an assault had taken place than females. RMA also mediated this relationship, such that the effect of gender on perceptions was accounted for by differences in RMA. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

A commonality in rape trials is that the legal system is colored by myths and norms – more specifically ‘rape myths’. These myths includes the perception of ‘men as more sex needing’, ‘rape victim brought the offense on themselves’ and so forth. A new law on sex crimes was introduced in 2005 in Sweden in order to create a stronger protection when it comes to rape and sexual assaults of different kinds – especially the removal of violence in child rape cases. Previous research conclude that rape myths are still routinely used at trial in adult rape and sexual assault cases. Rape myths in court often relates to a specific ‘rational’ behavior as the ‘normal’ or ‘right’ way to act, which relates to a masculinized view of reasoning colored by the patriarchal society. The overall purpose of this paper is to examine how rape myths appear in trials involving children; if children are viewed in the same way as adults according to these myths in rape cases – or differently, and how these myths are manifested. Also, a certain focus is on gender similarities and differences when it comes to rape myths. The paper is based upon 20 Swedish court cases from 2005 to 2017. Five cases within each group of victims: girls, boys, women and men. The thesis uses critical discourse analysis along with feminist studies to analyze these rape myths. This study shows that rape myths also are used in child rape cases, and thus, that children are no exception. Moreover, victimized females are often found in a disadvantaged position within court, as opposed to males. Girls seem to be most disadvantaged due to their position as both young and female. The results further indicates that legislation can be a useful tool to create rape myth busters.

This study is an investigation of how exposure to different media content influences self-objectification, body image, and rape myths acceptance (RMA) in female college students. The purpose of this study was to further explore the effects of immediate media exposure on body image, self-objectification, and RMA, as well as address the gap in the literature regarding the relationship between these variables (Dakanalis et al., 2015; Fox et al., 2015). One hundred and one students that identified as female were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions using a partially blind design. The students watched a short video pertaining to the condition they were assigned (i.e. sexualized content, consent content, control content) and then completed a survey, which included measures of self-objectification, negative body image, positive body image, rape myths acceptance, and demographic variables. Results indicate here was no difference between self-objectification, body image, and RMA scores among participants that were assigned to different experimental conditions. Body image was found to be directly related to RMA, and there was a difference in RMA scores among participants that remembered the university training and those who did not. The present study’s finding expands the knowledge of body image and RMA, and supports the need for interventions targeting attitudes and beliefs regarding rape and consent in college female students. Key words: media, self-objectification, body image, rape myths acceptance, college students.

Rape is a highly prevalent crime, and it is one of the most severe traumatic events experienced by women. Previous researchers have found that, unlike other crimes, blame attribution in rape cases is inconsistent and influenced by many external elements (Bieneck & Krahe, 2011; Grubb & Turner, 2012; Masser, Lee, & McKimmie, 2010; Stewart & Jacquin, 2010). In this study, the influence of willing substance use and race on attribution of blame from a sample of 316 undergraduate students attending a large, Southeastern, public, urban university was examined. More specifically, results from this investigation described how the type of substance (alcohol, marijuana, and heroin) consumed by female survivors and survivors’ race/ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, and White) influenced the level of blame assigned to them. Additionally, the researcher explored the interactive effect of the drug type and survivors’ race. The results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that both survivors’ substance use and race significantly influenced blame attribution. Survivors who consumed alcohol prior to the assault were blamed more than survivors who used heroin or marijuana and survivors who did not consume any substances. Regarding the influence of survivors’ race/ethnicity, White female survivors were attributed significantly higher levels of blame than Black and Hispanic female survivors. In addition to the examined conditions of substance use and race/ethnicity, the results of this study indicated that observers’ demographic characteristics influenced blame attribution as well. Observers’ gender, race, and knowledge of a person who has survived rape were all significant factors effecting attribution of blame.