As a social plague that has been with mankind for all time, rape has left many stereotyped, stigmatised, and sometimes, irreparably damaged. The act is an evil that defies the age, race, location, and social status of its sufferers. Despite the heavy legal penalties that this crime attracts in many parts of the world, its occurrence has, nonetheless, been on the increase. Research reveals that many rape cases go unreported by their sufferers for fear of further harm from their attackers and for fear of stigma. In Nigeria, even when they are reported to the police, the authorities do too little to bring perpetrators to justice - a misnomer that gives the rapists more impetus to repeat their act. The few of these cases that are carried by the mass media, ostensibly, project the sufferers as hopeless and pitiable individuals, whose lives are ruined. Theoretically situated within the framing ideology, this paper adopted the textual analysis method to establish that Nigerian newspapers exploit the use of headlines and photos to re-victimise raped persons in the ways they are portrayed. Rather than ameliorate the effects of the evil done to such individuals, these texts present them and their loved ones as hopeless victims. This paper holds that rapists should be portrayed as the ones needing of pity and help. Although the paper agrees that both the rapist and the raped need dissimilar psychosocial (and medical) rehabilitations, it recommends that Nigerian newspapers should deemphasise angles that throw pity parties for those affected by the incidents, while the rapists should be projected as the real victims of themselves and of their acts.
Mitologia artystyczna na kontrkulturowych ścieżkach: Roy Harper