Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/SRAZ.68.5
“A shot reputation:” rape in colonial Australia and why it matters today
Tihana Klepač
orcid.org/0009-0009-4488-5019
; University of Zagreb
Abstract
emotion that is a learned response and its effect on society. The roots of the framing
of rape and sexual assault as we see it today in Australia go back to colonial times and
the narratives of sexual crime executed in racy language that were freely circulated
in Australian colonial press. The reports of Mount Rennie rape case by the frequency
and “cross-cultural references invoked in discussing the crime achieved a singular
level of cultural production which has far wider references than legal history” (Peers
1998). They gave birth to the debate of the “real rape” vs. “simple rape” as defined
by Susan Estrich (1987) and marked Australian public discourse and public attitude
toward rape until the present day. Thus, in November 2015 Michaelia Cash, Minister
for Employment and Minister for Women claimed “We have a national crisis when
it comes to violence against women in Australia” to which testify reports of the
Australian Bureau of Statistics on women’s safety, National Student Safety report,
all the way to Brittany Higgins’ story and the way it was dealt with in the media
and within the legal system. As long as “One in seven young Australians say rape is
justified if women change their mind” according to National Community Attitudes
Towards Violence Against Women Survey (NCAS) there is still a lot to be done to
change the cultural narrative of “real rape” so that rape does not go underreported
and unpunished as women fear shot reputation.
Keywords
“real rape; “simple rape”; colonial Australia; Mount Rennie; Brittany Higgins; ABS report
Hrčak ID:
316967
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2023.
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