성폭력, 누구에 대한 어떤 공포인가: 언론의 성폭력 재현과 젠더질서의 재생산

초록

This study aims to analyze ideologies that are reproduced through the representation of sexual violence in the mainstream newspapers. Based on textual analysis on articles of two representative newspapers, Chosun Ilbo and Hankyoreh, from 2008 to 2013, this paper examines how and what kind of fear is constituted, how existing gender order is reproduced, and how identities of victim/offender are (re)constructed through the ways of representation on sexual violence. We found that the newspapers framed the meanings and identities of victims and offenders by limited and distorted way of representation as dismissing a variety of contexts of sexual violence regardless of the ideological tendencies of each newspaper. For victims, newspaper articles emphasize the innocence, virginity, and weakness of children and irresponsible mothers who did not fully perform motherhood, and make a distinction between the innocent victim and the responsible victim who presumably caused the crime. Due to this tendency, women may have complicated feelings of fear for sexual violence as well as anxiety about social blame and stigma. On the other hand, male offenders are generally represented as different ‘species,’ pathological or evil being. This kind of representation functions to hide the existing unequal gender relationship and the androcentric culture which mainly cause sexual violence against women. Even more, it distorts realities of sexual violence that mostly occurs between intimate relations, and leads to women’s fear towards absolute ‘strangers.’ To conclude, the ways of representation of sexual violence in the newspapers function not only to construct women’s fear and anxiety toward sexual violence but also to discipline their daily behaviors as a ‘proper’ woman to reproduce the existing gender order.

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