Talk About [Men's Perpetration of] Sexual Assault [Against Women]

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atmire.migration.oldid4146
dc.contributor.advisorGibbs-Van Brunschot, Erin
dc.contributor.authorMikita, Kiara
dc.contributor.committeememberMcCoy, Liza M.
dc.contributor.committeememberNelson, Fiona A.
dc.contributor.committeememberRadtke, H. Lorraine
dc.contributor.committeememberGotell, Lise
dc.date.accessioned2016-02-02T20:43:21Z
dc.date.available2016-02-02T20:43:21Z
dc.date.issued2016-02-02
dc.date.submitted2016en
dc.description.abstractBuilding upon feminist analyses of talk about sexual assault, I use discourse analysis to examine the ways in which speakers construct sexual assault, victims, and perpetrators; describe how sexual assault is and should be prevented; and, set out who is and should be responsible for preventing it. I read from speakers’ talk constructions of women-directed sexual assault “prevention” as a series of unofficial, conduct-circumscribing rules that keep rule-compliant women safe and render or position other women partially or wholly responsible for the sexual assaults that men perpetrate against them. By examining the often subtle and nuanced ways in which women-directed sexual assault avoidance-oriented messages and victim-blaming intersect, I demonstrate how speakers construct women as responsible for men’s perpetration of sexual assault against them. I argue that these constructions are accomplished in speakers’ formulations of sexual assault as a virtually self-perpetuated outcome produced by women who daftly or deliberately breach these conduct-governing rules. Moreover, I maintain that these rules are grounded in hitherto largely unexamined and problematic assumptions about men that in essence task women with compensating for men’s ostensive deficits. I identify and describe seven discursive themes or “interpretative repertoires” that speakers routinely deploy in talk about sexual assault that effaces and/or exculpates perpetrators and implicates and incriminates women. On the whole, in this work that aims to unsettle the sedimentation of perpetrator-concealing, victim-blaming talk, I identify and describe several rhetorical features in speakers’ talk about sexual assault that absolves men and blames women for the sexual assaults that men perpetrate against them. I conclude by identifying a series of alternative discursive practices and strategies that readers might employ in an effort to speak change in terms of how we talk about men’s perpetration of sexual assault against women.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMikita, K. (2016). Talk About [Men's Perpetration of] Sexual Assault [Against Women] (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27973en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27973
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11023/2810
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectSocial Work
dc.subjectSociology
dc.subjectWomenÕs Studies
dc.subject.classificationsexual assaulten_US
dc.subject.classificationrapeen_US
dc.subject.classificationvictim-blamingen_US
dc.subject.classificationsexual assault preventionen_US
dc.subject.classificationsexual assault avoidanceen_US
dc.subject.classificationdiscourse analysisen_US
dc.subject.classificationinterpretative repertoiresen_US
dc.subject.classificationFeminismen_US
dc.subject.classificationfeministen_US
dc.titleTalk About [Men's Perpetration of] Sexual Assault [Against Women]
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineSociology
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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