`A Kiss is Just a Kiss': Date Rape,Gender and Subjectivity

Abstract

In this paper, we problematize the issues of coercion and consent in legal discourse through analysing a British `date rape' court case involving two students. Drawing on the extensive newspaper coverage of the trial, we deconstruct these media accounts, exploring the dominant explanatory frameworks. We propose a reading which combines discursive and psychodynamic analysis in addressing unanswered questions and contradictory evidence. This moves beyond the either/or-ism of guilty and innocent, towards the complex and contradictory gendered identities involved in heterosexual relating in this case. Concluding comments summarize the implications both for a theory of subjectivity and for a contemporary feminist politics of date rape.

Keywords

date rape deconstruction discourse feminism press report subjectivity

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