MEN CAN BE VICTIMS TOO A Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Male Victims of Sexual Assault in Official Documents Issued by INGOs and NGOs in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Abstract
Male victimisation of sexual assault is not often spoken about and hidden by the victims. This trend can be found within research as well, where men play a marginalised role in the literature about sexual assault. It is precisely this gap that has been identified in 2012, and that is to be explored again within the following analysis. Several INGO and NGO websites and reports from organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been analysed through a multimodal multi-layered discourse analysis. The conceptualisation of these male victims is reviewed with the help of discourse analytical tools from Spitzmüller and Warnke (2011), Mackay (2015), Van Leeuwen (2007), and Schröter (2018). The latter dives deeper into the silence that can be found as part of the dominant discourse. The silence is what is often recognised by these male victims of sexual assault. This silence is investigated in the conducted analysis, as the male representation of victims of sexual assault is still lacking within several organisations. The analysis and conclusion present how the silence and absence, marginalisation and stigmatisation can be found among male victims of sexual violence. The need for these voices to be heard to take the first step to acknowledge the existence, and the need of these victims of sexual assault is necessary to break the spiral of silence that these men suffer from.
Degree
Student essay
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Date
2024-04-03Author
de Boer, Esther
Keywords
Male Victims of Sexual Assault, Discourse Analysis, Discourse Linguistics, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Silence, Stigmatisation, Marginalisation, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Language
eng