Abstract
This chapter analyses online comments regarding the 2017 mistrial in Commonwealth v. William H. Cosby, Jr. to explore how gendered stereotypes and rape myths are activated and deployed across liberal and conservative news media sites. A popular explanation for the result of Election 2016 is the existence of a “media bubble”, the tendency of liberal and conservative US voters to seek out like-minded commenters rather than conversing across political boundaries. Analysing the reactions to Bill Cosby’s first trial for indecent assault, which took place just five months after the swearing in of Donald Trump as the 45th US President, provides an opportunity to examine how gender is discussed across this presumed political divide. Comparing and contrasting comments on the mistrial on traditionally conservative sites, such as Breitbart.com, with comments to similar articles on liberal sites, such as the New York Times, the chapter tests the hypothesis that conservative sites are more likely to promote misogyny, while liberal sites offer more equitable points of view. The chapter concludes that, although there are important distinctions among comments, sexism, misogyny and victim-blaming remain disappointingly common across conservative and liberal online fora. Briefly exploring Cosby’s 2018 conviction, the chapter observes, further, that although such discourse has been lessened, gendered stereotypes and rape myths persist in the #MeToo era.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This chapter adopts a broad definition of social media, “web-based communication tools that enable people to interact with each other by both sharing and consuming information” (Nations 2017).
- 2.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 70% of women and more than 80% of men who report having been raped state that they did not experience physical injury as a result of the crime (Centers for Disease Control 2012).
- 3.
Cynthia Lee argues, however, that concepts of contributory negligence have historically influenced the development of laws surrounding the crime of voluntary manslaughter (Lee 2007, p. 4).
- 4.
Berger 1977, p. 21, citing Ploscowe, Sex Offenses: The American Legal Context, 25 LAW & CONTEMP. PROB. 217, 223 (1960).
- 5.
Id.
References
Armstrong, E. A., Hamilton, L. T., Armstrong, E. M., & Seeley, J. L. (2014). “Good Girls”: Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus. Social Psychology Quarterly, 77, 100–122.
Beard, M. (2017). Women & Power: A Manifesto. London: Liveright.
Beinart, P. (2016, October). Fear of a Female President. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/fear-of-a-female-president/497564/.
Belknap, J. (2010). Rape: Too Hard to Report and Too Easy to Discredit Victims. Violence Against Women, 16(12), 1335–1344.
Benkler, Y., Faris, R., Roberts, H., & Zuckerman, E. (2017, March 3). Study: Breitbart-Led Right-Wing Media Ecosystems Altered Broader Media Agenda. Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved from https://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php.
Berger, V. (1977). Man’s Trial, Woman’s Tribulation: Rape Cases in the Courtroom. Columbia Law Review, 77(1), 1–103.
Bordo, S. (2017). The Destruction of Hillary Clinton. New York: Penguin Random House.
Bowley, G., & Haag, M. (2018, April 30). Cosby Jury Says Accuser’s Credibility, Not #MeToo, Led to Guilty Verdict. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/arts/television/cosby-juror-interview-gma.html.
Brenner, A. (2013). Resisting Simple Dichotomies: Critiquing Narratives of Victims, Perpetrators, and Harm in Feminist Theories of Rape. Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, 36, 503–568.
Bublick, E. M. (2006, February). Tort Suits Filed by Rape and Sexual Assault Victims in Civil Courts: Lessons for Courts, Classrooms and Constituencies. 59 SMU L. Rev, pp. 55–122.
Bumiller, K. (1992). The Civil Rights Society: The Social Construction of Victims. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2017, June 6). Criminal Cases. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=23.
Burleigh, N. (2016, November 14). The Presidential Election was a Referendum on Gender and Women Lost. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2016/11/18/hillary-clinton-presidential-election-voter-gender-gap-520579.html.
Capers, I. B. (2013). Real Women, Real Rape. 60 UCLA L. REV, p. 826.
Centers for Disease Control. (2012). Sexual Violence Facts at a Glance. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/sv-datasheet-a.pdf.
Chamallas, M. (2010). The Measure of Injury: Race, Gender, and Tort Law. NYU Press.
Clay-Warner, J., & Burt, C. H. (2005, February 1). Rape Reporting After Reforms: Have Times Really Changed? Violence Against Women, 11(2), 150–176.
Cole, K. K. (2015). “It’s Like She’s Eager to be Verbally Abused”: Twitter, Trolls, and (En)Gendering Disciplinary Rhetoric. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 356–358.
Corrigan, R. (2013). Up Against A Wall: Rape Reform and the Failure of Success. NYU Press.
Dale, M., & Sisak, M. R.. (2017, June 6). Bill Cosby Accuser Andrea Constand Says She Was Drugged and Groped: ‘I Was Frozen’. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/4808371/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-trial-andrea-constand/.
Daniels, S., & Martin, J. (2000). ‘The Impact That It Has Had Is Between People’s Ears’: Tort Reform, Mass Culture, and Plaintiffs’ Lawyers. DePaul Law Review, 50(2), 453–496.
Estrich, S. (1987). Real Rape: How the Legal System Victimizes Women Who Say No. Harvard University Press.
France, L. R. (2018, October 16). #metoo: Social Media Flooded with Personal Stories of Assault. CNN.com. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/15/entertainment/me-too-twitter-alyssa-milano/index.html.
Franiuk, R., Seefelt, J. L., Cepress, S. L., & Vandello, J. A. (2008). Prevalence and Effects of Rape Myths in Print Journalism. Violence Against Women, 14(3), 387–309.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Harvard University Press.
Harris, C. I. (1996). Myths of Race and Gender in the Trials of O.J. Simpson and Susan Smith—The Spectacles of Our Times. Washburn Law Review, 36, 225.
Hill Collins, P. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.
Jane, E. A. (2014). ‘Back to the Kitchen, Cunt’: Speaking the Unspeakable About Online Misogyny. Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 28(4), 558–570.
Kim, K., Littlefield, C., Olsen, M., & Etehad, M. (2017, June 17). Timeline Bill Cosby: A 50-Year Chronicle of Accusations and Accomplishments. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-bill-cosby-timeline-htmlstory.html.
Lee, C. (2007). Murder and the Reasonable Man (2007). New York: NYP.
Lininger, T. (2008). Is It Wrong to Sue for Rape? DUKE L.J., 57, p. 1557.
Logan, B. (2017, March 20). Former Press Secretary Says the Campaign was Blinded by the ‘Breitbart Effect’. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-breitbart-effect-campaign-2017-3.
Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1994). Rape Myths: In Review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133–164.
Manchester, J. (2017, June 17). Cosby Publicist After Mistrial: ‘Mr. Cosby’s Power is Back’. The Hill. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/338267-cosby-spokesperson-after-mistrial-mr-cosbys-power-is-back.
Mathis-Lilley, B. (2016, October 7). Trump Was Recorded in 2005 Bragging About Grabbing Women “by the Pussy”. Slate.com. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/07/donald_trump_2005_tape_i_grab_women_by_the_pussy.html.
Megarry, J. (2014). Online Incivility of Sexual Harassment: Conceptualizing Women’s Experiences in the Digital Age. Women’s Studies International Forum, 47(A), 46–55.
National Institute of Justice Research Report. (2000, December). The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf.
Nations, D. (2017, May 30). What is Social Media? Explaining the Big Trend. Lifewire.com. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616.
Payne, D. L., Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1995). Rape Myth Acceptance: Exploration of Its Structure and Its Measurement Using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 27–68.
Pearson, P. (1997). When She Was Bad: Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence. Penguin Books.
Sanday, P. R. (1996). A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial. New York: Doubleday.
Pierson, B. (2017, June 17). It’s Far From Over for Bill Cosby. US News and World Report. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2017-06-17/despite-mistrial-in-criminal-case-civil-lawsuits-await-cosby.
Ridgeway, C. (2011). Framed by Gender: How Gendered Inequality Persists in the Modern World. Oxford University Press.
Roig-Franzia, M. (2017, June 5). The Cosby Trial Explained. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-case-against-bill-cosby-explained/2017/05/22/ab36e518-397b-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.76b530cd648a.
Sehgal, P. (2016, May 3). The Forced Heroism of the ‘Survivor’. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-forced-heroism-of-the-survivor.html?_r=0.
Seybold, A. (2012). Lucky. Hachette Book Group.
Sterling, P. (2017, June 17). Andrea Constand’s ‘Courage’ Buoys Spirits of Cosby Accusers. CNN.com. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/17/us/cosby-accusers-reaction/index.html.
Weiser, D. A. (2017, February). Confronting Myths About Sexual Assault: A Feminist Analysis of the False Report Literature. Family Relations, 66(1), 46–60.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Banner, F., Paron, N. (2019). “Hell Hath No Fury ….”: Gendered Reactions to the Cosby Mistrial Across Liberal and Conservative News Media Sites. In: Ging, D., Siapera, E. (eds) Gender Hate Online. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96226-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96226-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96225-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96226-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)