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Politicization of Sexual Misconduct as Symbolic Annihilation: An Analysis of News Media Coverage of the 2016 “Rape Election”

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Abstract

Sixteen months after Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for president of the United States a Washington Post headline read: “2016 is the rape election.” This paper examines the evolution of the discourse of sexual misconduct in the 2016 US presidential campaign. Using qualitative media analysis as our method, we examined coverage in the Washington Post and New York Times. Our analysis provides insight into the ways in which the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump were framed in partisan terms and as, foremost, a political issue; we refer to this as the politicization of sexual misconduct. We argue that the politicization of sexual misconduct operates as a form of symbolic annihilation to trivialize and omit victims’ experiences in media coverage and we draw on empirical data to identify four rhetorical processes that comprise the politicization of sexual misconduct: (1) focus on the character of the accused (rather than harm to victims); (2) comparing severity of allegations relative to other politicians; (3) leveraging victim stories for political gain; and (4) dismissal of allegations as politically motivated lies. Ironically, however, our findings also reveal that coverage of sexual misconduct throughout the 2016 campaign provided an unforeseen context for dozens of women to publicly narrate their own stories—in an attempt to be heard—the consequences of which, we suggest, set the conditions for a wave of women coming forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men.

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Notes

  1. “Sexual misconduct” is an umbrella term without a specific legal definition. Because legal definitions of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment can vary considerably between legal jurisdictions, not all actions described herein as sexual misconduct are necessarily criminal. Employers may create policies on sexual misconduct that encompass both consensual and non-consensual sexual interactions between employees, recognizing that power imbalances may lead to coercion or pose the threat of professional retribution. For some of these reasons, the term sexual misconduct is used broadly in contemporary media discourse to refer to a wide range of sexual behaviours that are experienced by one party as coercive, unwanted, or inappropriate. We use this term to reflect this broad conceptualization, without distinguishing legal from illegal actions, and without the intention of minimizing the severity of sexual violence and victimization.

  2. Consider that in the post-Weinstein #MeToo era we have identified only three women who have faced public consequences from accusations made by subordinates. Former Democratic Congressional candidate Andrea Ramsey was accused of sexually harassing a male subordinate employee, and Avital Ronnell, a New York University professor was accused of sexually harassing a male graduate student that she was supervising (both denied the accusations) (Hannem and Schneider, forthcoming). The third woman, sociology professor Amy C. Wilkins, is accused of sexual harassment spanning over a decade. She is currently on paid administrative leave while under investigation by her employer, the University of Colorado Boulder.

  3. According to Strinati (1995), “one of the most extensive statements of the argument that the mass media ‘symbolically annihilate’ women has been made by Tuchmann [sic]” (p. 184), and her work was more recently affirmed as a “foundational book” in feminist communication theory (Byerly 2018).

  4. Trump’s expression, “grab them by the p–y,” appeared 90 times across Washington Post reports, thusly censored. The word “pussy” itself never appeared in any Post reports and only appeared twice in New York Times reports on October 7 and 8. All other instances in the Times appeared as “grab them by the genitals.”

  5. Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford’s allegations in the midst of the 2018 Supreme Court nomination process that nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her, and the partisan Republican response to her claim, give further credence to this hypothesis. For instance, prior to testifying about her allegations she said through her lawyers that an FBI investigation should be “the first step” in advance of her appearing “on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.” As further reported in the New York Times, “Republicans signaled […] that they would […] go ahead with the hearing or declare it unnecessary if she refuses to appear” (Baker et al. 2018).

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  1. Brandon University, Brandon, Canada

    Christopher J. Schneider

  2. Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, Canada

    Stacey Hannem

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  1. Christopher J. Schneider
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Correspondence to Christopher J. Schneider.

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Schneider, C.J., Hannem, S. Politicization of Sexual Misconduct as Symbolic Annihilation: An Analysis of News Media Coverage of the 2016 “Rape Election”. Sexuality & Culture 23, 737–759 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09587-6

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