What’s in a label? Exploring rape myth and rape culture discourses embedded in perceptions of victims and survivors

Feminist scholars have long asserted that the label assigned to someone after an experience of sexual violence (e.g., victim or survivor) can shape personal outcomes due to the internalization of societal perceptions of these labels. While there is a growing body of literature on the effects of self-labelling, the societal perceptions of victims and survivors are less explored, with little understanding as to how dominant discourses such as rape culture and rape myths are embedded into these perceptions. Adopting from critical discourse analysis and feminist poststructuralism, we offer critical feminist poststructuralism (CFPS) as a useful framework for understanding discursively shaped societal perceptions of victims and survivors. Considering the presence of rape culture and rape myths on university campuses, we set out to explore the potentially mediated nature of rape myths and rape culture discourse and perceptions of victims and survivors among undergraduate students. Electronically submitted responses to an online prompt were analyzed using CFPS to explore how victim and survivor discourses were activated through language and institutional and social discourses of rape culture and rape myth. We describe four dominant threads of discourse from our analysis that suggest sexual violence labels function as regulatory mechanisms for rape myth and rape culture discourse. The findings highlight the need for continued applied work on the multiplicity of victim and survivor identities produced through rape culture and rape myth discourse.