Can television promote a more progressive definition of rape and help delegitimize it?: Rape in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

• Main Author: Ramos Hernández, Isabel
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Boston College 2016
• Subjects: rape; sexual violence; content analysis; rape in the media; Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:106783

Thesis advisor: Lynda Lytle Holmstrom === Rape is a socially constructed behavior used in patriarchal societies to devalue women and ensure male supremacy. Being socially constructed means that the definition of rape can change. This thesis addresses the question of whether an established institution—television—can promote a more progressive definition of rape and help delegitimize it. It uses a feminist content analysis to examine the main themes on 14 episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) aired from 2012-2015. It is qualitative and inductive in nature, approached from a grounded theory perspective. The data demonstrate that SVU does, to some extent, present a more progressive view of rape instead of perpetuating the common stereotypes of rape. Essentially, SVU represents a new variety of definitions of rape that are reflective of white, privileged, heterosexual and young women's experiences in the United States. Race, class, sexual orientation and identity are barely taken into account even though many social inequalities based on them characterize American life. === Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. === Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. === Discipline: Departmental Honors. === Discipline: Sociology.