Modiga kvinnor och sviniga män : En diskursanalys av medietexters konstruktioner och förhandlingar av sexualbrott, femininitet och maskulinitet i tre fall uppmärksammade under #metoo i Sverige 2017

This discourse analysis looks into discursive constructions of sexual acts as sexual crimes or as “regular” sexual practices in the media debate following the #metoo movement in Sweden. The analysis is focused on three cases of accusations of sexual crimes against famous men. By relating linguistic constructions of sexual acts to how the women and men involved are portrayed, the analysis shows how the meaning of sexual practices as crimes or not seems to be dialectically related to discursive constructions of men and women. The analysis shows that women inhabit three different positions in the material, that of the brave hero warning others of sexual criminals, that of the revenge artist mobilizing media storms and that of the active victim, who is partly responsible for the crimes committed against her. The men in the material inhabit three positions as well, the role of the sexual criminal, the role of the “asshole” and the role of the victim of harsh media storms and revengeful women. The findings shine light on the #metoo movement by showing there might be a preferred narrative involved. The analysis points to the female victims of sexual crime having to be heroes for the sexual acts to be linguistically constructed as actual crimes in the media reports. However, the results also show a contradicting story, that of small changes in narrative from earlier “rape myths” which may make possible small shifts in discourse being circulated throughout different institutions in society. The most important finding is that the juridical discourse seems to have a prominent place in the order of discourse surrounding sexual assault, since all discursive constructions of the acts, the men and the women relate in some way to the law and the justice system. Following this, there seems to be a need for other ways of talking about sexual acts that for some reason cannot lead to a conviction but still feels like violations to one of the parties involved