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`Cry Wolf', Cried the Wolf: Constructing the Issue of False Rape Allegations in New Zealand Media Texts

University of Auckland, n.gavey{at}auckland.ac.nz

Virginia Gow

99 Wheturangi Road, Greenlane, Auckland 5, New Zealand, vfgow{at}hotmail.com

In this article we analyse New Zealand media texts about so-called false rape allegations from 1995 to 1999, in relation to legislative and social change towards rape. In particular, we focus on a critical reading of a magazine article that stands out as being (the only) relatively balanced investigation into false rape'. We argue that despite the surface neutrality of this text, it privileges an interpretation of the issue in which it is taken for granted that reports of rape claimed to be false by police really are false (that is, women's lies). We show how this happens through the framing of the article, the tacit construction of `the issue' and the denial of the broader social and historical context of rape. In these ways, we argue that it perpetuates contemporary rape myths. Widespread circulation and adherence to such myths, we suggest, hinder the criminal justice system and broader cultural responses to rape that are sympathetic to women who are raped. We further suggest that this construction of the `new issue' of false rape allegations can be read as an expression of `backlash anxiety' about the emergent gains made by feminists in challenging rape-supportive discourses and practices in society.

Key Words: feminism • media texts • rape • social construction

Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 11, No. 3, 341-360 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0959353501011003006


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