Overview

Why do representations of rape tend to look the same? Why do they frequently feature themes of media technology and surveillance? This book traces the role of surveillance technology in film and television depictions of rape in the 2000s. It shows how the stranger rape narrative is popularly used as a sense-making tool for the entanglement of the body, digital technology, and institutions of power. These films and television series interrogate the digital management of self-representation. In a cultural context defined by digitally galvanized feminist movements, a growing awareness of online gender violence, and a global movement aimed at shuttering these discussions, this book is even more pressing if we are to make sense of the relationship between offline and online forms of gender violence and the evolving cultural meaning of the rape narrative.

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9781032752587

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Reviews

This timely and incisive book interrogates the enduring power of the stranger rape narrative and its entanglement with technology in contemporary media. By asking what the relationship is between rape and technology—and why this partnership persists—the book offers a compelling critique of how cultural attention is strategically misdirected away from patriarchy as the root of gender-based violence. Engaging with digitality not only as a site of harm but also of possibility, the book is part of a crucial and growing body of scholarship that grapples with the complexities of sexual violence in the digital age. Through nuanced analyses of concepts such as the tracked body, trauma, and revenge, it reveals the discursive work rape performs within technological discourse, demanding we reconsider how violence is represented, understood, and ultimately challenged. Kaitlynn Mendes, Professor of Sociology, Western University

This timely and incisive book interrogates the enduring power of the stranger rape narrative and its entanglement with technology in contemporary media. By asking what the relationship is between rape and technology – and why this partnership persists – the book offers a compelling critique of how cultural attention is strategically misdirected away from patriarchy as the root of gender-based violence. Engaging with digitality not only as a site of harm but also of possibility, the book is part of a crucial and growing body of scholarship that grapples with the complexities of sexual violence in the digital age. Through nuanced analyses of concepts such as the tracked body, trauma, and revenge, it reveals the discursive work rape performs within technological discourse, demanding we reconsider how violence is represented, understood, and ultimately challenged. Kaitlynn Mendes, Professor of Sociology, Western University

Author Information

Alex Bevan is a researcher of media culture and gender violence. Formally a Senior Lecturer in Communication at the University of Queensland, Australia, she moved into the field of data science to pursue the same questions around feelings of safety, wellbeing, identity, and respect, online and off. She is broadly published in the areas of television studies, gender, and digital cultures.

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