Debating rape: to whom does the uncanny 'myth' metaphor belong?

This article focuses on the language and metaphors used in debating rape myths, arguing that it is their uncanny aesthetic and affective qualities that accounts for the debate’s fractious nature but that also brings the possibility of a more productive politics. For much feminist-informed rape myth acceptance scholarship (FRMAS), ‘myths’ in this context are more than merely mistaken beliefs: rather, they comprise a world made up of illusions or spectres that must be laid to rest. Critics of this view, too, while critical of feminists’ reliance on ‘myths’ as a way of stifling open discussion, likewise tend to use a discourse of myths explicitly or implicitly with a similarly disorienting effect. For both sides of the debate then, ‘myth’ serves as a disquieting, uncanny metaphor that displaces and substitutes whatever else apparently erroneous beliefs, attitudes and knowledges about rape might signify