Book review: Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758017718300 |
| Author | Joanne Smith |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Nickie D Phillips
Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media.
Lanham, USA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017; viiþ297p.; ISBN 978-1-4422-4627-0 (hardcover)
Reviewed by: Joanne Smith, University of Surrey, UK
DOI: 10.1177/0269758017718300
In Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media, Nickie D. Phillips sets out to examine
rape culture within popular media and how it shapes social understandings of sexual violence. The
result is an accessible, well-considered analysis which contributes to the ever-growing body of
literature on violence against women. Adopting a cultural criminological approach, Phillips
explores how rape culture provides a framework for understanding how sexual violence is dis-
cussed, debated and contested within society.
Chapter 1 explores what is meant by rape culture, situating the term within the historical
context of developments in feminism over the last forty years. Acknowledging that the term is
contested, Phillips leads us through its evolution, beginning in academic discussion and moving
into popular discourse. Firmly tying the origins of the term ‘rape culture’ to the academic and
activist works of second-wave feminism, we are taken through a concise but detailed summary
of this approach to sexual violence. However, as Phillips astutely notes, to understand the
social meanings of rape culture, one must look beyond the academic and towards popular
media and ‘low culture.’ Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media goes on to
link the increasingly prevalent usage of ideas of rape culture with third wave and fourth wave
feminism, with feminist activity online and offline, and with a growingawarenessanddis-
course around micro-aggressions. After noting the backlash that developed against the term, the
author reminds us of the rates of sexual violence in the US with a brief exploration of the
statistical data.
Having set the background, Phillips uses her second chapter to explore three high-profile events
from 2013 which, although unrelated to one another, are symbolic of rape culture and heightened
awareness of rape culture with in public consciousness and publ ic discourse. In the first example ,
the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in New Delhi, Phillips explores the international news media
coverage of the incident, and in particular its presentation of sexual violence as a structural and
cultural issue. Comparing this with the domestic news coverage of the second event – the rape of
a girl in Steubenville, Ohio – Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media highlights
the incongruity between news media coverage of international (‘other’) and domestic cases,
particularly in terms of structural analysis. In her reflection on the Steubenville rape, Phillips
also considers the role of social media as a forum – albeit one at times steeped in rape culture –
International Review of Victimology
2017, Vol. 23(3) 341–344
ªThe Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permission:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
journals.sagepub.com/home/irv
To continue reading
Request your trial