The Rhetorical Infrastructure of Sexual Misconduct in Michigan State University’s Abuse Scandal

Abstract

According to a December 21, 2018, Michigan Attorney General report, at least 105 Michigan State University employees, between 1997 and 2015, had received complaints from women about Dr. Larry Nassar’s inappropriate touching during medical treatment. In 2014, one of these complaints was finally reported to MSU’s Title IX office, triggering an investigation that led to a report that concluded Dr. Larry Nassar’s methods of treatment were “medically appropriate” and cleared him of any wrongdoing. Rhetorical analysis of this report exposes how Nassar benefitted from a rhetorical infrastructure that was designed to offer him institutional protection as an expert in medical techniques that require extensive touching of patients. Such analysis also exposes the specific discursive practices that sustain the rhetorical infrastructures that enable this institutional protection.