Where’s the panic, where’s the fire? Why claims of moral panic and witch hunts miss the mark when it comes to campus rape and MeToo

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze ways that oppositional rhetoric—specifically cries of “moral panic” and “witch hunt”—resonates in conversations around campus sexual assault and MeToo. We trace the discursive arc around sexual aggression in popular media and reveal a pattern of ideological inversion. Initially, narratives privileged victim-centered perspectives by affirming notions of rape culture. Yet, this quickly gave way to cries of “moral panic” and “witch hunt.” In the following analysis, we argue the oppositional rhetoric performs an ideological inversion posing hegemonic relations as sites of threatened liberty and counter-hegemonic movements as dominating and oppressive. We show how claims of moral panic and witch hunt operate to obfuscate the cultural dynamics that pervade discourse in a neoliberal social context and constrict our ability to address the underlying structural mechanisms that reinforce rape culture.