University of Sussex
Browse
Final Submission of Accepted Manuscript (Media Rape article).pdf (293.06 kB)

Sadistic scopophilia in contemporary rape culture: I Spit On Your Grave (2010) and the practice of “media rape"

Download (293.06 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 18:20 authored by Despoina MantziariDespoina Mantziari
This article revisits earlier theorisations of cinematic voyeurism and gender-based violence in considering the cross-media connections between cinema and non-consensual pornography online. In particular, it looks at how the remake of a significant rape-revenge film, I Spit On Your Grave (1978/2010), explores the role of technology in the perpetuation of female victimisation. By making a visible connection between the female character’s physical rape and the violation of her subjectivity performed through filming her without her consent, the film raises a larger social/media issue, which I call media rape. In offering a theorisation of this phenomenon, the article analyses the operation of the website creepshots.com, which distributes non-consensual photos of women. The comparison between these two texts promotes an understanding of the visual and discursive continuities between cinema and online spaces in relation to media rape and rape culture more generally. At a time when the distinction between the creators of and audiences for media content is less straightforward within the context of online media, sadistic scopophilia needs to be reconsidered in relation to medium specificity. Although it is already problematic in the cinematic context, when it extends to online media sadistic scopophilia becomes a human rights violation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Feminist Media Studies

ISSN

1468-0777

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Volume

18

Page range

397-410

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-07-09

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-07-17

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-07-17

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC