Gender, age, and racialization of sexual violence in American newspapers, 1870–1900

In “Crimes Which Startle and Horrify: Gender, Age, and the Racialization of Sexual Violence in White American Newspapers, 1870-1900,” Estelle Fredman situates rape as a series of interconnected power relations, focusing on the intersection between race and gender in particular. Fredman analyzes the historical context of rape, showing how rape is socially constructed in ways that reinforce patriarchal and racist norms. Besides the cogent thesis driving Fredman’s work, the author also relies on a tight methodology, focusing on media accounts in nineteenth century American newspapers geared to primarily white male readers. Fredman claims that the media proliferated the two central archetypes that defined American social and political hierarchies for the coming generations: the black male sexual predator and the innocent, vulnerable child victim.
Fredman begins the article with a brief introduction to the historiography of rape. The rise of the popular media during the late nineteenth century was especially critical for disseminating rape narratives that appealed to a predominantly white male readership, according to Fredman. The white male political and social privilege was extended into the realm of sexual politics. Especially given the increasingly vocal support for the enfranchisement of African Americans and for universal suffrage, white males experienced significant threats to the prevailing patriarchal social order. Rape narratives became instrumental in preserving white male supremacy, by labeling black males as sexual predators and women as vulnerable children. Moreover, Fredman discusses how black males began to be prominently depicted—both in text and in illustrations—as “primitive” and lecherous, with white males being considered more sexually “civilized,” (467).
These media portrayals were meaningful not just from a discursive standpoint but a practical one as well, with real repercussions for civil society. The rendition of black males as being sexual predators, especially of vulnerable white females, precipitated lynching, as evident in the ubiquitous mentioning of the potential for lynching used as vigilante justice for alleged rapes perpetrated by black males on white females.
The greatest contribution of Fredman’s article to historical discourse is the author’s perceptive connection between rape hysteria in accounts like those of Jack the Ripper and the subordination of women. Stories of Jack the Ripper created gendered public spaces, suggesting that women did not have equal access to city streets: that those streets and thus the public domain in general were off limits to her. The portrayal of women as in need of protection disempowered women and undermined their efforts for autonomy and suffrage. Fredman’s article substantiates Foner’s discussion of African Americans in the public sphere in the decades following abolition, the origins of feminism, and the political connection between feminism and abolitionism.
In conclusion, Fredman contributes significantly to historical and sociological accounts of rape, primarily by differentiating between the ways black and white males are depicted in the media. White males were socially sanctioned for rape too, albeit far less often and mainly in connection with child victims. Thus, white males were vilified mainly as child rapists, and Fredman shows how these depictions chronologically corresponded with changes in statutory rape laws. Fredman also challenges the underlying assumption about the victims in rape crimes. Just as the media perpetuated stereotypes about race and sexual violence, the media also entrenched gender norms related to female complicity in rape, and the inherent powerlessness of women and their need for protection. Fredman’s article could only be made stronger by addressing in greater depth the late nineteenth century media portrayals of African American female victims.





Works Cited

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty. W.W. Horton, 2012.
Fredman, Estelle B. “’Crimes which startle and horrify’: Gender, Age, and the Racialization of Sexual Violence in White American Newspapers, 1870-1900.” Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 20, No. 3, Sept. 2011, pp. 465-497.