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

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 HÓA 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

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

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Statement of research problem and questions 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Sexual assault 6

2.2 Gender roles 7

2.3 Rape myths 8

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:

1 How do Facebook users respond and discuss sexual assault in the case of Kesha and Dr Luke under posts on Billboard fanpage?

2 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

a clear depiction of the public’s perception of sexual assault and its survivors, as well as its association with rape myths and rape culture on Facebook, one of the most ubiquitous social media networks that people all around the world can freely access and present their opinions

This research is conducted in the hope of helping partially fill the gap in the literature of the field, specifically the complicated nature of sexual assault and the public’s responses to rape myths and rape culture in social media context Moreover, the research could also provide knowledge and lay a foundation for

researchers to further investigate this issue

of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature Review

In the second chapter, a review of relevant literature is provided to introduce theoretical backgrounds of the study, encompassing sexual assault, gender roles along with the concept of rape myths and rape culture

In the fourth chapter, the study will reveal Facebook users’ responses towards sexual assault and its victim via the case of Kesha and Dr Luke, as well as how rape myths and rape culture are reflected in those responses

Chapter 5 - Conclusion

The study ends with the fifth chapter which is a conclusion summarizing the findings, stating limitations of the study and proposing suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Sexual assault

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, sexual assault is illegal physical contact of a sexual nature that compels upon a person without their consent It usually inflicts upon the ones who lack capacity to consent (due to age or mental health) or who put the penetrator in a trust or authority position The conduct may vary from intentional fondling or touching parts of the body to unwanted sexual intercourse (Jelinek, et al., 2009) To be more specific, the Office on Women’s Health [OWH] - U.S Department of Health and Services (2015) states that sexual assault comprises sexual harassment or threats, rape and attempted rape (i.e coerced penetration and drug-facilitated assault), and child abuse

Sexual assault is believed to be a life-changing event that survivors have to suffer trauma such as “depression, low self-esteem, flashbacks, fear, and difficulty with intimacy” (Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape [PCAR], n.d.) During the sexual exploitation, it is common for the survivors not to show their feelings since expressing them may increase their risk of getting hurt In some cases, saying “no” seems useless to protect the victims from being sexually attacked Therefore, silence becomes the only choice that sexual assault victims can do (Rosenbloom

& Williams, 1999, cited in PCAR, n.d.)

The U.S Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network [RAINN] (2019) indicated that on average, the U.S has 433,648 sexual assault victims who are at the age of twelve or older each year Specifically, at least one in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime However, only a small number of survivors report the incident to authorities Studies have found that the rate of rape victims reporting their case lies between 1% and 59%, and sexual assault by non-partners is less likely to be reported as one by intimate partners (Garcia-Moreno et al., 2005; Bott et al., 2012) Garcia-Moreno, Guedes and Knerr (2012) listed some reasons for sexual assault not being reported including insufficient support system from the authority, and victims’ feelings of

shame as well as fear or risk of being retaliated, blamed, not believed, and socially discriminated Thus, it is important to understand the nature of sexual assault and how the publics’ responses pertain to sexual assault victims’ feelings of shame and fear to report their case

2.2 Gender roles

Gochman (2013, p 424) explained a gender role, also known as a sex role, as a socially constructed role comprising a set of behaviours, attitudes and psychological traits that are generally considered proper, accepted and expected for a person based on their biological sex Gender roles are assigned during the socialization process, namely by the society where they are living in (Anderson & Doherty, 1997) As stated by Alters and Schiff (2009, p 143), gender roles can be constructed around the concept of masculinity and femininity According to Hofstede (2001), masculinity cultures expect males to be tough, ambitious, to endeavour material success and respect the big, strong, and fast; while females are supposed to be tender, to take care of the non-material quality of life, of children and what is considered weak In contrast, femininity cultures offer rather overlapping gender roles, in which men need not to be assertive and are allowed

to respect the weak

Gender roles exert an influence on people’s behaviours and beliefs about themselves, encompassing sexual behaviours (Anderson & Doherty, 1997, p 303)

To be more specific, men are usually expected to be the person initiating sexual intercourse, who is more aggressive and dominant; women, on the other hand, are entitled to be more passive (Jenkins & Dambrot, 2006) Burt (1980) found the connection between traditional gender roles and people’s attitudes towards rape

In particular, both genders develop normative gender role behaviours during sexual interaction, leading to the support of sexually aggressive behaviours and thereby creating a hostile climate of rape myths acceptance and false sexual beliefs Traditional gender roles, in accordance with the feminist movement, were found

to be a momentous predictor of prejudices towards rape victims (Burt, 1980; Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995)

Research has also found that sexism, which stems from gender role stereotypes (Parry, 2014), plays a significant role in higher levels of victim blaming in rape scenarios It is claimed that there exist two opposing faces of sexist attitudes: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996) Specifically, hostile sexism consists of negative and antagonistic attitudes towards women that they should be punished for flouting traditional sexual roles The theory further exemplifies that a woman who goes out wearing seductive clothes or drinks much alcohol is regarded to violate normative gender roles and they may receive hostile sexism from society On the other hand, benevolent sexism is portrayed by the attitudes to view women as pure and innocent beings, and women who are conventionally feminine should be protected and rewarded Glick and Fiske (1996) stated that people with sexist attitudes characterize women into either “good” type, who behave in line with traditional gender roles, or “bad” type, who do not conform to their gender roles They also suggested that the “bad” is more likely to

be blamed for being sexually assaulted and considered to deserve to be raped

On the whole, previous studies have shown the association between gender roles and victim blaming as well as the acceptance of rape myths Further investigation

is essential to find out the attribution of traditional gender roles to people’s responses towards victims of sexual assault on social media

2.3 Rape myths

The concept of rape mythology was first mentioned in the 1970s by the feminist movement (Brownmiller, 1975) Rape myths are defined as “prejudicial, stereotyped and false beliefs about rape, rapists, and rape victims” (Burt, 1980, p 217) Despite being generally wrong, the false attitudes and beliefs of rape are widely and consistently spread and used to “deny and justify male aggression toward women” (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994, p 134)

Several studies have been conducted to identify common rape myths One of the most prevalent rape myths is that the victim’s clothes can trigger sexual assault, so

it is that one’s fault to be raped for wearing provocative clothes (Burt, 1980; Hayes,

Lorenz & Bell, 2013) That the victim often “lies about rape,” is also widely accepted (Payne, Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1999; Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013) This common rape myth is apparently known by the public in the form of false accusation “Women often falsely allege rape for compensation or for attention” (Yancey-Martin, Reynolds & Keith, 2002) Some other familiar rape myths include: “She asked for it” (Burt, 1980; Payne, Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1999);

“Women got rape deserved it” (Burt, 1980); “He didn’t mean to” (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994; West & Zimmerman, 1987)

Burt (1980) reported that rape myths are strongly tied to conventional gender roles, thereby provoking interpersonal aggression acceptance and misconception of sexual assault In particular, rape myth acceptance is in a close association with societal gender inequality and the idea of patriarchy (Paulson, 2018; Levine, 2018)

In most cultures, men are given more value than women, thereby generating a power control of men towards women (Deutsch, 2007) Moreover, according to Hunnicutt (2009), patriarchy recognizes gender as a primary feature in organizing social relations, retaining a hierarchical prominence, and establishing social arrangements that emphasize domination and power control Rape myths function

to excuse the rape by male perpetrators (i.e “Boys will be boys”) as such behaviour conforms to characteristics of male gender (West & Zimmerman, 1987) Meanwhile, female rape victims are blamed for flouting their gender category trait via rape myths linked with unfeminine behaviours, such as “She asked for it” (Stubbs-Richardson, Rader & Cosby, 2018) In addition, rape myth acceptance triggers a wide range of issues including a wrong portrayal of false rape allegations made by female victims, or inaccurate perceptions that victims are not the actual victims of sexual assault (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994)

It is well-documented that social media are a favourable environment for individuals to publicly discuss rape myths (O’Hara, 2012; Stubbs-Richardson, Rader & Cosby, 2018; Kosloski, Diamond-Welch & Mann, 2018) Rape myths are prevailing in the content of both newspaper articles and social networking sites Articles with headlines endorsing rape myths allow readers to be less likely to find

accused perpetrators guilty and to adopt more rape-supportive attitudes (Pennington & Birthisel, 2015) As reported by Kosloski, et.al (2018), rape myths are strongly advocated by Internet users on social sites like Twitter or online newspaper articles webs, portrayed under victim-blaming opinions Nevertheless,

a study by Stubbs-Richardson et.al (2018) revealed that Twitter can be used to diminish rape myth acceptance In particular, two rape myths “rape is a deviant act” and “she asked for it” were strongly opposed to on this platform Hence, more research is of necessity to discover the rape myths within the comment threads following a sexual assault case on influential networking sites like Facebook

2.4 Rape culture

The term “rape culture” originated in the 1970s, corresponding with the feminist movement’s second wave (Burnett, 2016) Rape culture is an environment where rape is rampant and sexual violence against women is normalized (Marshall University, n.d.) Burnett (2016) also pointed out that rape culture is nurtured in various ways such as “hegemonic masculinity”, politics, media, language and rape myths Behaviours associated with rape culture encompass the use of misogynistic language (i.e sexually explicit jokes), victim-blaming, sexual and human body objectification, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety (Burnett, 2016; Marshall University, n.d.)

Research has found that victim blaming is a phenomenon which is constantly observed within sexual assault cases, established on the publics’ judgements of rape victims (Muehlenhard & Rogers, 1998; Whatley, 1996) Victim blaming is believed to advocate power relations which declare perpetrator or persons of higher social status from being punished Meanwhile, the victims of sexual assault, despite being the “victim”, are blamed for being victimized, even to the extent of taking responsibility for sexual assault happening to them (Muehlenhard & Rogers, 1998) Rape myth acceptance, gender role stereotypes and victim’s use of substance are found to be the attributionsof victim blaming phenomenon (Grubb

& Turner, 2012)

Studies have shown the prominent role of media in reinforcing rape culture (O’Hara, 2012; McCann, Plummer & Minichiello, 2010) Rape culture highlights the demonstration of sexual violence and abuse toward women through movies, television, advertising, and magazines (Burt 1980; O’Hara, 2012) Hegemonic masculinity is portrayed in the media with the depiction of males as aggressive, power-dominant and rape as a normal act (Burnett, 2016) Paulson (2018) indicates rape culture, specifically male privilege and women as objects, appears in thirteen Disney animated princess movies including Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas (1995), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Mulan (1998), Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Brave (2012), Frozen (2013) The prevalence of rape myths on newspaper coverage is another example

of the media’s role in advocating rape culture (O’Hara, 2012) Social media sites also exacerbate the matter of rape culture and sexual violence through the people’s use of misogynistic language (i.e humor and jokes about genders, sexuality and sexual activities) (McCann, Plummer & Minichiello, 2010) Furthermore, Stubbs-Richardson et.al (2018) found that victim-blaming tweets associated with rape myths on Twitter tend to be more influential with more followers and attract more retweets than victim-supporting ones

Researchers have started to investigate the way rape culture is responded via digital activism Horeck (2014) stated the use of hashtag #AskThicke for feminism takes over Twitter’s online discussions about sexual assault Another study by Manikonda et.al (2018) found the influence of Reddit and Twitter on making the

#MeToo movement against sexual assault viral

Overall, research has found that social media is used to both spread rape culture via survivors’ victimization and combat rape culture via digital activism work Addition research is still needed to examine how individuals may respond to rape culture via social networking sites in a specific sexual assault case

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data sample and data collection

I first looked for keywords “Sexual Assault”, “Kesha” and “Dr Luke” on the searching tab of Billboard fanpage and found eight public posts reporting the case from October 14th, 2014 to February 23rd, 2016 Four posts chosen to analyze the comments below are those with the highest number of likes, shares and comments

in each year

The first post (1) “Report: Kesha suing Dr Luke for alleged sexual assault and emotional abuse” uploaded on October 15th, 2014 reaches 40,000 likes, 2,900 shares and 2,500 comments In the post, the effort of this singer in filing a lawsuit against her producer to regain control on her music and freedom in personal life is reported through her lawyer’s statement A copy of the lawsuit was exclusively uploaded on Billboard, stating that Kesha was forced to drink and drug, then being sexually assaulted by Dr Luke It is revealed that Dr Luke also immediately filed

a countersuit against the singer’s one

The second post (2) on June 18th, 2015 is “Dr Luke wins halt to Kesha’s sexual abuse lawsuit” with 3,600 likes, 47 shares and 88 comments Kesha was reported

to suffer a setback since the judge decided to put her lawsuit on hold Her lawsuit was considered by the judge to implicate her contract with Dr Luke and Sony and her claim for sexual harassment and gender violence was affirmed

The next post (3) “Kesha’s sexual assault lawsuit against Dr Luke” was posted on February 23rd, 2016 (4,700 likes, 218 shares, 112 comments) The whole process since Kesha started working with Dr Luke till how she lost control of her music and her life due to this producer was narrated Details of her lawsuit were also analyzed in this post

The last post (4) chosen to analyze comments is “Dr Luke: ‘I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her’” (4,300 likes, 112 shares, 366 comments) uploaded after post (3) on the same day – February 23rd, 2016 In the midst of their

ongoing duel lawsuit, Dr Luke tried to defend himself by taking advantage of social network – Twitter, reported by Billboard He wrote different tweets saying that: “I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her Kesha and I were friends for many years and she was like my little sister,” “They are getting behind

an allegation only - motivated by money.” or “of course any sane person is against rape and sexual assault but everybody who is commenting is doing so without knowledge or facts.” Also in the post, it is reported that various female artists such

as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato has supported Kesha with tweets and donation

In this study, text comments are the unit of analysis The comments under four posts were collected using the software iClick - Get Comment Facebook Among all comments, only comments that are relevant to the post content, expressing users’ opinions of sexual assault in general and Kesha’s case in particular were chosen to be studied The comments ranked as “Most relevant” by Facebook were considered as well on the grounds that Facebook itself already excluded comments that are considered spam The comments selected to be scrutinized were ones that Facebook users commented around one day after the posts were published The replies (also known as nested comments or sub-comments) in each comment were also paid attention to Spam and irrelevant comments that gave no opinions on the issue were omitted from the analyzed data In other words, these are comments that people only posted stickers or emojis, or tagged their friends to follow the case Specifically, the researcher selected 731 under the first post “Report: Kesha suing Dr Luke for alleged sexual assault and emotional abuse”, 50 for the second post “Dr Luke wins halt to Kesha’s sexual abuse lawsuit”, 64 below the third post

“Kesha’s sexual assault lawsuit against Dr Luke” and 155 under the last post “Dr Luke: ‘I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her.’” Overall, 1000 comments (including both main comments and nested comments) below four posts were taken into consideration

3.2 Data analysis procedure

In this paper, multiple approaches were applied to analyze data Firstly, I conducted a qualitative content analysis The coding system was constructed on the grounds of previous rape myths and rape culture literature Specifically, I used past literature to identify common rape myths and different behaviours associated with rape culture Then, grounded theory coding was employed, which incorporated initial and focused coding (Charmaz, 2006) The collected data were phrase-by-phrase or sentence-by-sentence coding, closely examined and compared for similarities and differences Once all the comments were saturated, they were categorized into major themes During the analysis procedure, each comment writer was assigned to a distinct pseudonym due to the anonymous nature of this study

Quantitative analysis was also used By using Google Sheet, I documented the frequency of lexical co-occurrences, which might indicate the topic-related language commonly used on social networking sites After that, I investigated whether the public was inclined to victim-blaming or victim-supporting sides by evaluating the number of victim-blaming and victim-supporting comments

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS

Since four posts about the case of Kesha suing Dr Luke were uploaded on Billboard fanpage, they have well captured the attention of Facebook netizens In this chapter, different feelings and opinions towards the issue expressed by people

in the discussions below all posts will be reported The data reveal that rape myths and rape culture are reflected in people’s standpoints toward the victim and the perpetrator Descriptive statistics on the percentages of three main standpoints are illustrated in the Table 1

4.1 The reflection of victim blaming

Victim blaming appears at all posts’ discussions under the lawsuit between Kesha and Dr Luke in a total of 312 out of 1000 comments Yet the victim blaming comments mostly appears under two posts “Report: Kesha suing Dr Luke for alleged sexual assault and emotional abuse” posted on October 15th, 2014 (239 comments, accounting for 32.7%) and “Dr Luke: ‘I didn’t rape Kesha and I have

never had sex with her’” uploaded on February 23rd, 2016 (48 comments, comprising 31%)

4.1.1 Kesha’s accusation

Among 312 victim blaming comments, around 57% of all comments (178 comments) centers around Kesha making a groundless accusation of Dr Luke abusing her, which is considered a major reason for the public’s victim-blaming

on Kesha For example:

The point is, this guy should not be jailed if he didn't do anything

Believe it or not, people can lie Shocking I know but women and

men alike lie about rape every day and innocent people get put in

prison every day Who's to say that this case isn't the same thing? To

me, that's exactly what it looks like (Dodson)

Of course, one woman cried wolf (or in this case, rape) and a man,

who seemingly does not have sufficient evidence against him in the

accusation, per her denial of injunction, is vilified and labeled a

monster Everyone is so quick to side with Kesha without knowing

the whole truth… Always woman against man in these cases and

most of the time, the woman keeps her credibility while the man

suffers irreparable slander (Bonito)

In the first comment, Dodson shares the viewpoint that people tend to lie about rape, making “innocent people” suffer He supposes that Kesha’s lawsuit against

Dr Luke is the same case Bonito also shows her suspicion on Kesha being raped

by using the phrase “cried wolf” with a tone of criticism The phrase blames the women on making false allegations, which leads to a man being wrongly “vilified” and “labelled a monster.” Moreover, this comment writer makes a comparison between male and female when it comes to rape accusation to point out the existence of gender bias in the way that netizens easily support the victim (female) who “keeps her credibility” while men are the ones to suffer in almost all rape cases

Everybody on this post is asking why she would lie but fail to realize

that she can force a contract buyout and make millions She's ruining

this guy's life over money The only person getting raped here is Dr

Luke (Dodson)

Then explain to me why she would just throw that in there with no

evidence other than "he raped me"? The rich only want to get richer

and she's willing to destroy this guy's whole life to do so (Dodson)

She wanted to get out of her contract and when the way she wanted

didn’t work she claimed rape Just my guess but that's how I see it

going down in court (Jones)

Kesha is a disrespected woman All she wants is money (Zicko)

In these comments, not only do the Facebook users blame Kesha for lying about her case but they also suppose that she falsely accused being raped for money and escaping from her contract Through their expression and the use of misogynistic language (i.e “disrespected woman”), it can be seen that Kesha is labelled as a person who claims rape to gain personal benefit, such as “All she wants is money,” and Dr Luke should be the real victim whose life is ruined over money by the victim’s groundless allegation In other words, the responsibility in a sexual assault case was shifted from the male to the female These perspectives can be considered

to be in line with hegemonic masculinity in which rape culture is nurtured (Burnett, 2016)

4.1.2 Gender roles nonconformity

Rape culture is also portrayed throughout the comment threads under four posts in the form of criticism towards the victim’s behaviours, which are regarded as flouting tradition gender roles Specifically, women are supposed to conform to their gender roles, or sex roles, encompassing a set of behaviours and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable and appropriate by society Consequently, any woman who does not comply with the social norms will deserve the negative things

that happen to her There are 134 comments showing people’s critical attitudes of victim’s violating gender roles, which account for nearly 43% of all victim blaming comments

First of all, censure for sex roles nonconformity is demonstrated in the way Internet users make rape jokes about the victim’s behaviour and dressing It is reported from the data that rape joke comments constitute 70 out of 312 victim blaming comments Rape joke uses misogynistic language - a behaviour correlated with rape culture, which happens mostly under the first post “Report: Kesha using Dr Luke for alleged sexual assault and emotional abuse.” According to Cambridge Dictionary, misogynistic is defined as the hatred towards women or the belief that males are better than females Examples of rape joke included:

I thought she always woke up in the morning feeling like P Diddy?

(Nate)

Maybe she doesn't remember because she brushes her teeth with a

bottle of Jack? (Sean)

Maybe lay off the bottle of jack and you'll remember a lot of things

(Holliday)

In these comments, people implicitly demonstrate sarcasm toward Kesha’s suing

by using the lyrics in her song named “Tik Tok.” To be more specific, the use of misogynistic language implies that this female singer is an indecent woman who

is too drunk herself “because she brushes her teeth with a bottle of Jack,” which is considered inappropriate behaviour for a woman

Interesting that an artist who consistently sings anthems of getting

drunk, drugged up, wild, and sexual would find herself blacked out

in a stranger’s bed Guess none of that is evidence, huh? (Babin)

According to her music, she always wakes up naked, hungover, and

with no memory I dunno if you sing about it it makes it

harder to take seriously (Nelson)

Hmmm idk about all this I wouldn't doubt that maybe something

happened but let's see her drug screening and see if she was 100%

sober and the dr It could have been a mutual thing just both

drugged up!?!?! I'm just saying most of this stuff happens to girls

who don't hold much respect for themselves Learn how to say no

to drugs and alcohol and maybe u won't be a super slut and flirt with

guys and give them the wrong signals just saying (Morrison)

Along with making jokes, Facebook netizens also directly blame Kesha on her behaviour including “consistently sings anthems of getting drunk, drugged up, wild and sexual” or “according to her music, she always wakes up naked, hungover.” In other words, this artist fails to gain trust from many people due to what she sang in her songs It can be seen that the above comments adopt sexist attitudes which classify women into two categories: good or bad, and suggest that women who have improper behaviours such as getting drunk and hungover are untrustworthy and deserve to be raped (Glick & Fiske, 1996) This idea is further explained by the following comments: “Good that what she gets for being a slut!” (Kelly), “After whoring now she’s suing WHORES AINT LOYAL” (Joseph),

“The abuser is only at fault when he sexually assaults someone who is not

"slutty"!” (Chou), and “Guess that image as a drunk party girl didn't help much.” (Tom) Once again, Kesha is condemned for being sexually assaulted and rape is considered a normal act as she is viewed as “slutty” By calling her “a slut”,

“whoring”, or depicting her “a drunk party girl”, the writer slut-shames Kesha, lowers her value and regards her as an object for male aggression These victim-blaming comments are closely linked to the rape myths: “She deserved it.” and

“She asked for it.”, meaning that a woman got raped “deserved it” because “she asked for it” by dressing and acting promiscuously, as represented in the comments: “Hey Kesha stop dressing how you don't want to be treated And stop singing about it too then people wouldn't think you are easy and don't have to ask you before they go for it” (Vicky), or “She deserved it Get over it.” (Ambrose)

As a whole, these comments exemplify a viewpoint of Facebook users that dressing and acting improperly is a root of sexual assault

To conclude, the discussions under four posts point out that Kesha is blamed on what happened to her, as a consequence of the existence of rape myths: “She lied about it”, “She deserved it”, and “She asked for it.” and conventional gender roles She is accused of making false allegations and currently characterized to act in accordance with what society considers appropriate or desirable for a woman This victim-blaming notion is posing a grave problem that it shapes a mindset of women taking responsibility for being victimized Furthermore, it fosters the continuation

of rape culture which trivializes the seriousness of sexual assault and exonerates the perpetrator from all responsibilities Concurrently, the comments show that gender inequality is manifested in the way people tend to blame the rape on the women for having behaviours that do not adhere to the gender norms

4.2 The netizens’ support for Kesha

It is reported that the most popular standpoint witnessed in the comment thread is the support for Kesha specifically and of sexual assault generally, as more than 50% of all comments (569 out of 1000 comments) tend to be victim-supporting

To be more specific, approximately 11% of all (114 comments) are ones that fight against rape joke and 213 comments (above 21%) involve rape myths debunking The number of comments that commenters who are rape survivors bringing their personal experience into the discussion are 116 comments, comprising more than 11% of all comments; comments that provide information about the complexity of sexual assault constitute almost one third of all with 302 comments; and there are

85 comments that express hatred towards the perpetrator

4.2.1 Rape is not something to joke

Regarding rape jokes, while only 10 comments feel that these jokes are funny, for example, “I love that Joke!! Like come on each one of her songs are about random hooks and not remembering where you were!!!” (Owens), “This guy won

‘comment of the year’” (Andrew), “Nate you had me laughing till tears were rolling down too funny!” (Kim) or “All of you nobody can go back to jerking off instead of pretending to be a Facebook freedom fighting detective I thought it was

funny If u don't like it Close your eyes.” (Kyle), a plenty of Facebook’s users show their anger and dissatisfaction of people making fun of sexual assault and its victim, which is illustrated through 114 comments The following comments exemplify how rape joke is opposed:

A joke can be a joke, Hunter But when it comes down to a topic that

no one is taking seriously AT ALL, that’s where you draw the line

When someone tells you that your rape is justified with a joke, that's

too much If Kesha is comfortable joking about it, that's fine, but if

the joke is being dragged out to the point that she can't get the help

she needs and actually has to SUE him because of it, that’s when it

isn't a funny joke anymore Know the difference (Donald)

Donald takes a stand against making a joke about a serious problem like rape He opposes the idea that “rape is justified with a joke” He points out the difference between a normal joke and a serious rape joke The joke will be acceptable if the singer is “comfortable joking about it,” otherwise if she cannot get the necessary help, “it isn’t a funny joke anymore.”

I'm not saying the joke is as bad as rape, I'm saying that it's fogging

up the lines between a REAL joke and a situation where someone

may need help I've a friend who is a MALE and was raped, he went

to get help and a restraining order and was literally laughed out of

the courtroom THAT is the problem I'm talking about Jokes are

one thing, someone getting denied help because that it's seen as a

joke is not funny For the record, I AM speaking from personal

knowledge from not only being sexually abused by several different

people, but from knowing others in varying cases I know when it's

okay to make a joke, this is not one of those times I'm not saying a

joke is as bad as the actual rape, nowhere have I said that I'm not

saying I'm superior, calm down and stop acting defensively if you're

so sure of your joke (Donald)