Meanings of sexual violence: media and the public dispute over the construction of rights

• Grant number: 17/02720-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2017
• End date: November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Heloisa Buarque de Almeida
• Grantee: Heloisa Buarque de Almeida
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Beatriz Accioly Lins de Almeida ; Carolina Parreiras Silva
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/21919-6 - Meanings of sexual violence: media and the public dispute over the construction of rights, BP.TT

Abstract

This project aims to understand the public construction of categories of sexual and gender violence which are in the process of transformation or constitution. Specifically, it reflects on the demand for recognition of relatively new notions of rape and sexual harassment that have been in formation or transformation in the public arena in recent years in Brazil, with an emphasis on the media, both hegemonic media and that which defines itself as independent or even militant, in their interaction with social movements and the judicial system. The objective is to understand how these categories of sexual violence are being constituted and debated in some media productions, contents of internet sites and social networks and which social and institutional actors are acting in this process. To a certain extent, this process can be understood as a demand for the recognition of women's rights. Such categories are in dispute, insofar as rape can be seen only as sexual intercourse (and not necessarily violence), just as harassment could be qualified as a "pass". In terms of methodology and empirical choices, the project aims to engage undergraduates and post graduates in several empirical cases: (1) the change in the public image of the physician Roger Abdelmassih and the impact of his process on justice in redefining the notion of proof in the Judicial proceedings of rape cases; (2) the cases of sexual violence in the universities disclosed at the "CPI of hazing" in the state of São Paulo and its repercussion in the written press; (3) the case of the actor Alexandre Frota who reveals jokingly about a rape on a talk show and the circulation of this case in alternative media and the young feminist movement; (4) campaigns on harassment in alternative and hegemonic media and feminist blogs, focusing on Think Olga and "Chega de fiu-fiu" (No more passes). (AU)