“It's Not You; It's Me:” the Representation of Teen Dating Violence Victimization in Young Adult Literature in the Age of Postfeminism, Neoliberalism, & Victimology

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE

Teen dating violence (TDV) continues to be a significant social justice issue. The prevention of TDV requires an attention to  risk and protective factors across ecological system levels, particularly upstream factors. The media has been implicated as one of the primary cultural drivers of societal-level social scripts about the causes, consequences, and lived experiences of TDV. Framing theory asserts that the media’s portrayal of social issues, including what contextual information is included and/or excluded, impacts individual-level attitudes about TDV and potential policy responses.

This study investigates the representation of TDV in young adult (YA) literature, a media genre that is intentionally marketed to adolescent audiences. Despite the persuasive power of literature to construct “possible worlds” and facilitate “narrative” intimacy with young readers, the depiction of TDV in YA novels has been under investigated. Through an interrogation of the discursive properties of YA novels, this study will examines the enactment of the antecedents, lived experiences and ramifications of TDV victimization.

 METHODS

Data and Sample: Data includes all young adult novels (n=8) published between 2004-2013 that have a primary focus on TDV. All books had to be in circulation at one of the five largest public library systems in the United States.

Analysis: The CDA occurred in four steps. First, we read and screened all novels to familiarize ourselves with the plots of each book. The second reading involved inductive coding and the clustering codes into larger thematic categories. The third step included generating themes about how language was functioning in these texts. Lastly, we identified how these discursive themes reflected dominant cultural conversations about TDV victimization.

 RESULTS

Victimology and postfeminist discourses emerged to contextualize entry into victimization and describe the experience of TDV. Victimology discourses are characteristics of victims that purportedly predispose individuals to becoming crime victims. Framing victims as inherently vulnerable due to their inexperience in relationships, enduring a significant family tragedy, and having a low-self esteem reinforced this discourse.

Postfeminist discourses, which are inclusive of neoliberal ideologies, enact a rhetoric of personal responsibility, choice, and individualism. Due to the gains of feminism, postfeminist discourse implies that state interventions to ameliorate gender equality are anachronistic. Postfeminist discourses were seen through representing TDV as an individual-level issue, where victims are agentic participants in abusive relationships. While there was an underrepresentation of external social systems, victims were positioned as responsible for independently ending their relationships. Furthermore, men were positioned as victims’ desired protectorates.

DISCUSSION & IMPLICATIONS

These results underscore that the structural determinants of TDV have been overshadowed in the media’s portrayal of TDV, in favor of narrow portrayals of victimization that focus on victims’ family histories, characteristics, and personal deficits. The language of gender inequality has been supplanted by a postfeminist rhetoric of choice, personal responsibility, and vulnerability. These findings underscore how victimology and postfeminist discourses have permeated the public vernacular about TDV victimization. Implications for TDV prevention programs including the importance of media literacy will be discussed.