Look at her, it’s the same old story

Abstract

ABSTRACT The silencing of women’s voices and the objectification of women’s bodies have long been identified as ways in which society can facilitate men’s use of violence against them. The purpose of this article is to further this argument using salient examples and analyses from two different media forms exploring ways they might reinforce rape culture and thus violence against women in New Zealand. Drawing from two separate studies, this article looks at newspaper representations of rape and women on magazine covers; critically examining the depiction of women in these two distinct media forms across the same 40-year period (1975–2015). Both studies show silencing and objectification within the media forms in both obvious and abstract ways. Taken together, the findings provide insights into the pervasive nature of silencing and objectification of women in New Zealand media.