Constructing the victim in the bullying narrative: How bullying discourses affirm rather than challenge discriminatory notions of gender and sexuality

Abstract

This project focuses on how bullying victims are constructed as victims through a content analysis of news articles on Phoebe Prince and Tyler Clementi, two teens who committed suicide after being bullied. While the discourse that emerges from these cases appears to do similar symbolic work as hate crime laws that condemn harassment based on sexual orientation, on closer examination the discourses can also be read as upholding discriminatory systems of patriarchy and heteronormativity in their attempts to explain the suicides as an expected or predictable response to homophobia and sexism. Framing Prince and Clementi as victims of bullying, rather than victims of poor mental health or family discord, creates a narrative that reifies rather than challenges repressive and discriminatory notions of sexuality and gender.