Sexual terrorism in the post-pandemic nightlife? A feminist critical discourse analysis of the needle spiking media coverage

Abstract

In October 2021, a growing number of women denounced needle spiking occurrences in the United Kingdom. The scientific evidence demonstrates the reduced prevalence of spiking and the difficulties in proving its incidence. However, when communicating spiking stories, the media tends to reproduce harmful rape myths. By using English-written online media as sources, this study aimed to analyze and describe needle spiking stories as gendered discourses that act as sexual terrorism in post-pandemic nightlife. The author performed a web-based search through Google News to collect the data and used the feminist critical discourse framework to analyze the 213 sources and to identify the main themes. The timeline of the sources unveils the impact of the Anglocentric character of global communication in amplifying this new wave of spiking. The data revealed needle spiking as a discourse of sexual terrorism, triggering gendered anxieties by framing all women as potential victims of the ubiquitous male violence in nightlife environments. The stories of spiking analyzed uncovered the concrete social and psychological impacts of needle spiking, demonstrating that the embodiment of the fear generates and is generated by cautionary tales. These emerge as gendered discourses disciplining women to adopt anti-spiking etiquettes and reclaim contextual surveillance procedures in nightlife environments. This paper provides a comprehensive conceptualization of the phenomenological experiences and psychological impacts of needle spiking among women who participate in nightlife environments.