Join this event as part of the Sociology Speaker Series!

 

Since the #MeToo movement of 2017, it has become more common for high profile victims of sexual and gendered violence to disclose alleged abuse in media. Recent notable cases include Amber Heard (who accused Johnny Depp) and Evan Rachel Woods (who made a documentary film about her abuse at the hands of Marilyn Manson). In this talk, Dr. Stacey Hannem discusses the shifting logic of discourse and power that has led people, primarily women, to increasingly disclose through media. I describe some of the unintended consequences of the clash of media logic (Altheide and Snow, 1979) and “criminal-legal logic” for victims whose cases come to trial, and how public reaction to high profile cases in media may obscure the everyday realities of sexual violence and disincentivize victims who are not celebrities from disclosure.

 

Stacey Hannem is Professor of Criminology and Cultural Analysis and Social Theory at Wilfrid Laurier University and was named 2024 Laurier Research Professor. Dr. Hannem’s research focuses on gender, marginalization, and structural stigma in the criminal-legal system; substantively, Hannem has researched and published on sex work, sexual and gendered violence, and the impact of crime and incarceration on families. Her most recent co-authored book (with Christopher J. Schneider), Defining Sexual Misconduct: Power, Media, and #MeToo (URegina Press, 2022) was awarded the 2024 Distinguished Book Award by the Midwest Sociological Society, an honourable mention for the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction’s Cooley Award, and was named on the Hill Times’ “Best Books of 2022” list.