What is it about?
This paper presents the results of thematic analysis of online comments regarding the report that Shia LaBeouf, an American actor and director, was raped by a female visitor at his silent art project. We found that 55% of the comments expressed negative, blaming attitudes toward the victim, 35% were positive and supportive, and 10% were mixed. The findings show that negative comments depict rape as a sexual act against the victim’s will, whereas positive comments portray rape as sexual acts without the victim’s consent. Additionally, negative comments addressed expectation regarding "real men" and "real rape," whereas positive comments emphasized gender equality in rape comprehension and victim treatment.
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Why is it important?
Our study’s contribution is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, it emphasizes the complexity of social debates by presenting a range of opinions on female-on-male perpetrated rape and explores the contrasts between negative and positive attitudes. Practically, our study draws attention to traditional notions of "real men", "real rape," and "genuine victims" which lead to victim blaming.
Perspectives
I learned alot by reading the online conversation about LaBeouf's rape. The commenters presented very interesting negative and supportive arguments. As our analysis indicates, their arguments represent our society's views on rape victims, gender and masculinity. The full text (view-only version) is available on http://rdcu.be/Hd1H Best wishes, Inna
Dr Inna Levy
Ariel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Online Commenting About a Victim of Female-on-Male Rape: The Case of Shia LaBeouf’s Sexual Victimization, Sex Roles, February 2018, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s11199-018-0893-9.
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