April, thank you for this thought provoking post. I am thinking about the discussion here of how one might see this incident, but also how the media is used differently. I have not studied the cases. So, the videos and pictures were captured by the attackers and those standing by, shared on what I am assuming these boys though were closed social medias (texts, closed instagram accounts) and then leaked out of those spaces by individuals on the fringe? Also, as we discuss this example to discuss rape culture in America, that discussion seems to primarily revolve around whether there is a rape culture in America, which can be seen discussed on the YouTube link you posted. I wonder if we can meaningful conversation beyond the identification of rape culture in social media spaces? Or if the fragmented forum of social media is a place to discuss instead of 'circulate' content?

Thanks for this post April. This was the first time I watched this footage and I was instantly struck by its similarity to the Delta Chi rape case in Florida in 1999 (which later became the subject of a documentary Raw Deal: A Question of Consent), which I discuss in my book Public Rape. You see the same kind of aggressive male camaraderie and bonding over the body of a raped woman and what is immediately striking to me is just how many times the men use the word rape. While the Delta Chi incident was also captured on tape it was pre- social media; the Steubenville case clearly escalates questions regarding the ‘question of our complicity and participation in scenes of violence’. It is really troubling/fascinating to think through the implications of what it means to have the public sharing of such images on the Internet. How does the circulation of such images impact on how rape gets talked about in public spaces? How does it redraw the lines between private/public? I would also like to hear more regarding the extent to which the circulation of such images opens up the possibility for resistant voices. In her article on the case in The New Yorker, Ariel Levy has talked about how ‘The Internet is uniquely qualified as a venue for public shaming; it is a town square big enough to put all the world’s sinners in the stocks’.

Thank you April for the very thoughtful post. Tanya’s point about the “circulation of such images” evokes for me the challenges of not only creating the possibilities for resistant voices, but whether they can even have a meaningful impact and visibilty. I think they can, but one of the problems seems to be the conditions of the “media torrent” (to borrow Gitlin’s notion), over-choice, disposability, etc. Would you add pornography (a torrent in itself) to the notion of wider “rape culture” (especially some of the extreme subgenres)? I would. For me, this relates to the question of complicity in a “rape culture,” such that, given the way consumers and marketers categorize and compartmentalize content, complicity is not known or felt. I also think the “boys will be boys” point is very important here, in contrast to those in India being somehow, less familiar, other. Surely cultural differences abound, but any popular masculine ideologies which naturalize aggression (sexual or otherwise) need to be a part of the dialogue.

That's a really brilliant reading of the clip Peter, which I agree is quite unwatchable. You are right that the repetition of word dead is striking as are the kind of bizarre and extreme analogies he comes up with (she's deader than Caylee Anthony etc.) I think your focus on the notion of the reenactment of violence is very important. It made me think of research I am currently doing on reenactment, crime and affective engagement. Bill Nichols, for instance, in 'Documentary and the Fantasmatic Subject' (Critical Inquiry) has written of how the attempt to conjure lost objects and 'come to terms with death, catastrophe and trauma' are at the heart of the 'fantastmatic project' of reenactment. Your point that the reenactment of the violence against the other in this clip is revealing of the subject's own inability to register his vulnerability and humanity is fascinating. Thank you.