Examining rape culture and rape myths on facebook fanpage of billboard the case of kesha and dr luke

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES GRADUATION PAPER EXAMINING RAPE CULTURE AND RAPE MYTHS ON FACEBOOK FANPAGE OF BILLBOARD: THE CASE OF KESHA AND DR LUKE Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD Student: Phạm Bảo Anh Course: QH2016 HA NOI – 2020 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGHIÊN CỨU SỰ BÌNH THƯỜNG HĨA HIẾP DÂM VÀ NHỮNG HIỂU NHẦM KHÁC VỀ HIẾP DÂM TRÊN FANPAGE FACEBOOK CỦA BILLBOARD: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA KESHA VÀ DR LUKE Giáo viên hướng dẫn: T.S Hoàng Thị Hạnh Sinh viên: Phạm Bảo Anh Khóa: QH2016 HÀ NỘI – 2020 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Phạm Bảo Anh (QH2016.F1.E10), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Phạm Bảo Anh Date May 10, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my conscientious supervisor – Dr Hoang Thi Hanh for her careful guidance, critical feedback and considerable encouragement I am indebted to all of her effort to carefully read my thesis and offer me constructive comments Her patience to accompany me during the whole implementation progress has definitely assisted me to successfully complete this graduation paper I am also thankful to my best companion – Nguyen Hong Hanh for supporting me and sharing with me all the ups and downs during the research process Additionally, I wish to send a deep appreciation to my dearest friend from 16E10 class – Nguyen Lam Phuong Thao I am truly grateful to Thao for intensely listening to my difficulties and encouraging me to achieve my goal Last but not least, a special thank goes to my beloved family for being my pillar of strength during tough time Their wholehearted love and care have provided me with a strong motivation to strive for excellence i ABSTRACT Social media has played a pivotal role in empowering the public to openly discuss sexual assault and its aftermath This study examines rape culture and rape myths on a widely used social media site – Facebook, specifically Facebook fanpage of Billboard via the case of Kesha and Dr Luke Emphasis was placed on how Facebook users respond to the case, and how rape culture and rape myths are portrayed through the responses 1000 comments under four posts around the case reported on Facebook were coded for analysis The study finds that while the slight majority of the comments (more than a half) show support and empathy to the victim, still a significant proportion of the comments (around a third) blame the victim Around 10 percent of the comments demonstrate a tentative, neutral stance suggesting waiting for the decision from the court Support and empathy to the singer are shown by debunking rape jokes and rape myths, sharing personal stories, providing further information about the complexity of sexual assault, and expressing contempt for Dr Luke On the other hand, by blaming Kesha on making a false accusation and not conforming to traditional gender roles, victim blamers perpetuate rape culture and rape myths The study suggests that Facebook is an feasible platform to understand the public perspectives on sexual assault, as well as assess and combat rape culture and rape myths ii TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of research problem and questions 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Sexual assault 2.2 Gender roles 2.3 Rape myths 2.4 Rape culture 10 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 12 3.1 Data sample and data collection 12 3.2 Data analysis procedure 14 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 15 4.1 The presence of victim blaming 15 4.1.1 Kesha’s accusation 16 4.1.2 Gender roles nonconformity 17 4.2 The netizens’ support for Kesha 20 4.2.1 Rape is not something to joke 20 4.2.2 Rape myths debunking 22 4.2.3 Personal sexual assault stories sharing 27 4.2.4 The complexity of sexual assault 29 4.2.5 Contempt for Dr Luke 32 4.3 Waiting for the law and legal system 34 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION 37 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 41 REFERENCES 44 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study The development of technology has significantly taken human beings’ communication to the next level It is increasingly difficult to ignore the key role of social media in people’s everyday life thanks to its ability to widely disseminate information Among popular online social media platforms, Facebook is considered the favoured one, with a larger number of users logging in the site daily than other social networks including Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn (Greenwood, Perrin & Duggan, 2016; Capua, 2012) Individuals can connect and share information instantly regardless of geographical distance Additionally, it becomes easier for people to read the news then immediately share their feelings and viewpoints or join online communities based on what they have in common That more and more people use Facebook to interact online is a subject of great interest to researchers, thereby encouraging them to study how people communicate with each other and discuss a problem online (Capua, 2012; Wilson, Gosling & Graham, 2012) Billboard is a global music media brand that presents a diverse array of music charts, music breaking news, videos, interviews and scoops of artists and their life Launched in 1995 by Prometheus Global Media, an outstanding company in the media and entertainment field, Billboard has widely captured the international music market targeting numerous chiefs and tastemakers in the industry through Billboard Magazine, Billboard Conferences, Billboard Bulletin, etc., together with millions of music fans per year through Billboard.com and Billboard Events (“About Billboard Magazine”, n.d.) The Billboard fanpage on Facebook was created on May 9, 2009 By October 25, 2019, this fanpage has reached a plethora of audiences, specifically 11,940,493 likes and 12,658,507 followers On Billboard fanpage on Facebook, the details in Kesha and Dr Luke’s case were regularly updated from 2014 to 2016 In 2014, Kesha Rose Sebert (also known as Kesha) - an American singer, rapper and songwriter - sued her music producer Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald (also known as Dr Luke), claiming that she was “sexually, physically, verbally, and emotionally” abused for nearly ten years since she signed the contract with him (Gardner, 2014) In her lawsuit filed on October 14th, 2014, she alleged Dr Luke for forcing her to drink and take substances (which he called “sober pills”) then raping her (Lynch, 2014) Shortly after that, Dr Luke filed a countersuit claiming that Kesha was attempting to extricate from their contract In June 2015, that Dr Luke won gave a halt to Kesha’s lawsuit A few months later, Kesha had her lawsuit amended, adding that Sony Music Entertainment (Kesha’s record company) knew and concealed the fact that she and some other female artists had been sexually assaulted by Dr Luke, then requested to be released from the contract to make her own music However, in April 2016, Kesha's claims of sexual assault were dismissed by the New York Judge Shirley Kornreich, who is married to Ed Kornreich, a partner in Sony's legal firm Proskauer Ros (Vincent, 2018) Since it has been updated online, the lawsuit of Kesha and Dr Luke has received great attention from the public, which is portrayed through discussions on different case-reporting posts of Billboard on Facebook In particular, the number of people reaching each post is quite high, ranging from 4000 to 40000 likes, 100 to 400 shares and hundreds of comments Concurrently, various debates around the topic in particular and sexual assault in general were created in those comments under each post, which inspire the researcher to explore peoples’ discussions about the issue 1.2 Statement of research problem and questions In the past, sexual assault or sexual abuse cases and their victims were normalized due to gender inequality and patriarchal values, which conditions the acceptance of “rape myths” (Paulson, 2018) Nowadays, social networking sites have allowed individuals to not only get the information but also openly discuss these issues Despite being exposed to multiple streams of information and educated about human rights and equality, people still accept and spread rape myths or exchange negative language about sexual assault as jokes Studies have found the representation of rape culture and rape myth on mass media including news coverage (O’Hara, 2012), television (Kahlor & Eastin, 2011), online websites and social networks like Twitter (Stubbs-Richardson, Rader & Cosby, 2018) To date, less is known about how viewpoints towards rape cases are expressed or how rape myths and rape culture are portrayed on Facebook even though this social networking site has reached the largest number of users To understand the issue better, the research is conducted and aims at exploring the portrayals of rape myths and rape culture in Facebook discussions about sexual assault in the case of Kesha and Dr Luke on Billboard fanpage on Facebook from October 2014 to February 2016 To be specific, the study aims to answer two questions: How Facebook users respond and discuss sexual assault in the case of Kesha and Dr Luke under posts on Billboard fanpage? How are rape myths and rape culture reflected in Facebook users’ responses towards sexual assault and its victims? 1.3 Scope of the study The study examines a total of 1000 text comments under four Facebook posts of Billboard about Kesha and her lawsuit against Dr Luke that Facebook users express their opinions about the case The posts including chosen comments are those that catch most attention from Facebook users based on the number of likes, shares and comments after searching topic-related keywords on Billboard’s searching tab The comments are selected according to the criteria that they are relevant to the post content as well as portray users’ opinions about sexual assault in general and the case in particular Irrelevant comments that fail to show opinions on the issue are excluded from the analyzed data 1.4 Significance of the study The study is expected to reveal how individuals react online to the sexual assault lawsuit of Kesha and Dr Luke More notably, the results of this research will show proven guilty And friends’ opinions are void due to conflict of interests (Gwen) In this comment, Gwen states a standpoint of not “siding with anyone” She makes an assumption about both the singer’s motive (“She has something to gain”) and the producer’s action (“he may have done something in the past”) The viewpoint “Innocent till proven guilty” implies a message that Facebook users should not blame the case on anyone till the decision from the court is made Moreover, Gwen also mentions “conflict of interests” as a reason that both persons’ “friends’ opinions” are invalid Sometimes memories of a traumatic incident don't even surface or present themselves until later either PTSD It's hard to say as none of us were there We have a court system and a foundation of the Magna Carta If this goes anywhere on him being charged, then he has the right to a trial She could be lying as could he Wtf knows, I don't and won't make assumptions either way The situation as a whole sucks (Kat) The only two people in the world who know exactly what happened are Kesha and Dr Luke One of them is lying, and neither will admit who it is TBH, none of us really have enough information to judge either of them (Griffin) Everybody is so quick to judge but none of y'all actually know these people well enough to make a rational estimate about the situation She says he did, he says he didn't You got no basis for saying one is lying and the other is not The situation suggests to me that she's trying to get out of a contract, but guys can be creeps so maybe he did I'll decide how I feel about it when the courts and you should wait until then as well (Jarvis) Towards the case of Kesha and Dr Luke, Jarvis tacitly criticizes people for making a quick judgment without fully understanding the people involved in the situation 35 He shares the same perspective with William that one of the two characters in the story is truthful Nevertheless, a noticeable point in Jarvis’s idea is that Facebook netizens merely have a cursory look into the case via social media, thereby getting “no basis for saying” about who is actually lying As can be seen in the three comments, these commenters concur with each other that people had better wait for the decisions from the court rather than making assumptions and decisions of whom to take the responsibility in the case All we can is support her, instead of blabbing about things we could only speculate Let the law handle this Support her, don't put more negativity on this, she already has enough of that (Marrie) Marrie shows a supportive attitude towards Kesha; nevertheless, she does not blame the responsibility on Dr Luke She wants people to “let the law handle this”, at the same time stop to exert more negative attitudes on the case and debate on “things we could only speculate” In short, perceiving that outsiders have little knowledge of what exactly happened in the situation, some Facebook users suggest others not leaping to conclusions themselves but awaiting results from the law and legal system, shown in 119 out of 1000 comments (comprising 11.9% of total) 36 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION Social media platforms have created a viable arena for people to tag each other, discuss and share their reactions to sexual assault in general and the case of Kesha and Dr Luke in particular The present study was conducted to investigate Facebook netizens’ responses to sexual assault in the case of Kesha and Dr Luke under posts on Billboard fanpage, as well as the reflection of rape myths and rape cultures in those responses It is found that more than a half of comments (569 comments) are victimsupporting, about one-third (312 comments) includes victim-blaming attitudes and above 11% of comments (119 comments) are neutral stance The data report that Facebook users are more inclined to support the victim than to blame her, which is relatively different from the result of Stubbs-Richardson et al.’s finding (2018) that victim blaming tweets get a higher number of followers and retweets than victim supporting ones Through qualitative analysis, the research finds out the prevalence of three major patterns within people’s responses: (1) the reflection of victim blaming, (2) the netizens’ support for the victim, and (3) waiting for the law and legal system Regarding the pattern - The reflection of Victim Blaming, the study finds a portrayal of rape culture in the form of victim blaming comments Specifically, the victim is blamed for making false accusations, which results in the perpetrator being wrongly condemned This result is similar to the finding by Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994) that the victims are not perceived as not the actual victim of rape Notably, the reason that victims are blamed for “crying rape” is elucidated, which is the victim’s personal benefits (i.e money, fame and attention) The study also finds that gender roles is a significant factor underlying the victim blaming attitude, portrayed via the use of rape jokes Sexism is represented in people’s hostile and sarcastic attitudes when blaming the rape on the victim for not conforming to gender roles (wearing provocative outfits, drinking alcohols, etc.) The finding is consistent with prior research by Burt (1980), Lonsway and 37 Fitzgerald (1995) that traditional gender roles is a predictor of negative blaming attitude towards rape victims Women being categorized as either “good” or “bad” in some comments also reinforces Glick and Fiske (1996)’s hypothesis that the “bad” girls are more likely to be blamed for bad things happening to them This notion is problematic since it helps to foster rape culture and encourages the mindset that a woman should take responsibility for being sexually assaulted The second pattern in the public’s responses is their support to Kesha in particular and rape victims in general Victim-supporting attitude is the most prevalent one arising in comment threads under four posts, demonstrated in more than a half of 1000 comments Previous studies found how social media provoke the pervasiveness of rape culture and rape myths acceptance (Stubbs-Richardson, Rader & Cosby, 2018; Pennington & Birthisel, 2015; O’Hara, 2012; McCann, Plummer & Minichiello, 2010) For example, the research conducted by McCamm, Plummer & Minichiello (2010) regarded jokes as a means to exacerbate sexual assault on social media In contrast, this study finds that social networking site like Facebook is a feasible platform to combat rape culture and rape myths Firstly, rape joke is strongly disputed by commenters They argue that making jokes about rape and its victims trivializes the seriousness of rape in people’s mindset, which could diminish the chance for the victim to speak out or get help People making fun of sexual assault are also criticized for joking based on their assumption about the victim, without not actually knowing the truth This research shows that rape myths are reflected in the way Facebook netizens fight against them The three most popular rape myths debunked in this research paper are “women got rape deserved it,” “she asked for it,” and “she lied about it” Facebook netizens argue that no one deserves rape, and consent is mentioned as a vital factor in sexual activities Consent bears no relation to the victim’s behaviours; therefore, whatever the victim does and whoever she is not mean she asked for it Besides, it is revealed from the Facebook netizens’ perspective that there are no reasons worth lying about rape This finding is in line with the study of Stubbs-Richardson et al (2018) which exposed two myths: “Rape is a 38 deviant event,” and “She asked for it.” Within this pattern, victim blaming and slut shaming are also subverted as the netizens consider these attitudes are reasons that victims avoid speaking out, strengthening the idea of Garcia-Moreno, Guedes and Knerr (2012) that victims not report rape as they are afraid of being blamed The study results also suggest that sexual assault survivors combat victim blaming to support the victim by sharing their personal narratives By doing this, the commenters are showing empathy towards the victims Facebook users further explain the complex nature of sexual assault which results in victim not reporting sexual assault Non-existence of physical evidence, victims’ psychological issue after being assaulted and victim’s being compelled to have sex can lead to victims staying in silence or spending lots of time to report their case This finding contributes to the list of Garcia-Moreno, Guedes and Knerr (2012) about factors that influences a victim’s decision to report rape, namely lack of support system from the authority, and victims’ feelings of shame, fear or risk of being blamed, not believed, and discriminated by society Hashtag #FreeKesha is also made use of to support the singer, providing support to the studies of Horeck (2014) and Manikonda et.al (2018) about using hashtags for digital activism against sexual assault on Twitter and Reddit The netizens’ hatred of Dr Luke or rapists in general is also clearly seen in the comment threads, contrary to the theory of hegemonic masculinity in rape which depicts male as power-dominant and rape is a normal act (Burnett, 2016; Paulson, 2018) Finally, the study finds out the pattern “Waiting for the law and legal system” that shows a neutral standpoint of Facebook netizens People taking this stance suggest that the best solution is to wait for the decisions from the legal system, instead of using social media to make assumptions and blame either side Less is known about a neutral standpoint demonstrated in discussions about rape, and this finding contributes to understanding another perspective of Facebook netizens about sexual assault Thus, the findings in two themes: “The netizen’s support for Kesha” and “Waiting for the law and legal system” imply a shift in the way people 39 discuss rape and sexual assault, as well as how they perceive rape culture and rape myths on social networking sites In brief, as the case has not been finally decided yet, it is impossible to conclude who is the real victim Yet, the comments show an opinion of netizens that Kesha is considered the victim and demonstrate a perspective of society opposing to rape, rape culture and rape myths Facebook netizens are found to be more likely to support the victim than to blame her in terms of the higher volume of victimsupporting comments The findings of this research suggest people’s rationales for their standpoint towards the victim as well as perpetrator not only in the case of Kesha but also in sexual assault cases in general 40 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION The study was set out to explore rape myths and rape culture under discussions on Facebook about the case of Kesha and Dr Luke and has found out Facebook netizens’ responses toward this case in particular and sexual assault in general It can also be concluded from the findings that both rape myths and rape culture are also demonstrated in people’s comments through the way they blame the victim and combat rape myths and rape culture Three major patterns presented in the study findings answer two questions: How Facebook users respond and discuss sexual assault in the case of Kesha and Dr Luke under posts on Billboard fanpage? How is rape myths and rape culture reflected in Facebook users’ responses and attitudes towards sexual assault and its victims? Firstly, victim blaming still exists as about one third of all comments (312 comments) include victim blaming attitudes People blame Kesha and other sexually assaulted victims for making groundless accusations (“She lied about it.”) Gender roles nonconformity (“She asked for it”) is another reason for victim blaming in sexual assault cases In the second place, the slight majority of Facebook netizens express their supportive attitudes toward Kesha, with the number of victim-supportive comments are 569 (accounting for 56.9% of the comments) By debunking rape jokes and rape myths, sharing personal stories related to sexual assault, providing further information about the complex nature of sexual assault and showing contempt for Dr Luke, the comment writers establish empathy and try to raise awareness for people about the seriousness of sexual assault Waiting for the law and legal system is found in the study showing Facebook users’ neutral standpoints of not siding with either the victim or the perpetrator They argue that as bystanders not directly participate in the case, they should not make assumptions via social media 41 Overall, the study found out that the majority of commenters take the victimsupporting side other than blaming the victim, as the number of victim-supporting comments accounts for more than 50% of the total number These findings of the research contribute to better understanding of the public’s attitudes and viewpoints of sexual assault which are expressed in a naturalistic context - Facebook The study clarifies how people demonstrate their standpoints through the use of language (i.e making jokes, sharing personal narratives) The result from this study also strengthens the previous literature by further explaining possible reasons for victim blaming and victim supporting attitudes It can also be seen that Facebook offers a potential climate to assess real-world portrayal of rape myths and rape culture that might be difficult to observe elsewhere The high volume of comments and share per post, and the number of likes per comment suggest that people take advantage of this social networking site to spread information about sexual assault and combat rape myths and rape culture Therefore, I believe that this study is essential to raise social awareness about the complexity of sexual assault and how Facebook could influence people’s perspectives about sexual assault The comments collected are merely the opinions of the commenters writing them, which only constitutes a part of society Therefore, the finding may not be generalisable to the whole society’s standpoints of sexual assault Furthermore, even though social media allow people to convey their ideas with a high level of fidelity, it is hard to evaluate “paralinguistic resources” that can be observed in face-to-face conversation such as gaze, gesture or body posture (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009) Moreover, Facebook itself also brings a limitation for the analysis regarding the access to its data Though the figure (the number of likes, comments and shares) displaying on each post is large, the amount of actual data taken into consideration is quite small Indeed, Facebook itself uses algorithms to sort out the most relevant comments to display, and the others may be excluded According to Facebook Help Center (n.d.), Facebook has a policy which permits the fanpage administrators to take down sensitive or offensive material, thereby 42 creating a real challenge to collect Facebook content Hence, findings from this study should be interpreted with cautions Given the nature of social media platforms, future researchers may need to find new ways to approach and get access to data associated with social networking sites Recently, the role of social media on shaping the narratives of serious problems like sexual assault is undeniable Understanding how social networking sites like Facebook can influence people’s opinions and attitudes may be increasingly crucial for researchers and practitioners Future research should examine what discussions could result when more sexual assault cases are taken into consideration and if there exists any particular factor impacting the netizens’ mindset Additional study is of necessity to investigate if and how virtual perspectives and awareness could be transformed into specific actions in real-life world 43 REFERENCES About Billboard Magazine (n.d.) 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