Exploring Self-Narratives of Sexual Violence in Cosmopolitan UK Online

Introduction

Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) has largely overlooked the affective turn in humanities and social sciences. This study explores how Cosmopolitan UK online addresses trauma in self-narratives of sexual violence, considering the magazine's branded approach to issues like work, sex, and health, framing them as models of self-empowerment as noted by Machin and van Leeuwen (2003). The representation of trauma often follows a formulaic pattern of victim versus perpetrator with a happy ending, as Rothe (2011) points out, but this can depoliticize suffering. This study examines emotions in self-narratives within Cosmopolitan's discourse of individual empowerment, acknowledging the magazine's editorial license. "Sexual violence" includes sexual assault, abuse, incest, and rape, recognizing that even without overt violence, violation is always implied. While CDS focuses on expressed discourse, trauma studies address the unspoken and unrepresented affect. Psychoanalytical studies suggest trauma bypasses linguistic reference, manifesting as traumatic effects (Caruth, 1996), making narrative a site for bearing witness. Trauma discourse involves testimony and ethical address (Caruth, 1996; Felman and Laub, 1992), but women's magazines' representations are influenced by editorial guidelines and economic interests (Berns, 2004). The study aims to highlight the role of emotions and politics in trauma narratives. It questions how Cosmopolitan presents these issues and how emotional bonds are created with readers, examining the politicization or depoliticization of trauma discourse.

Women’s Magazine Narratives, Trauma, and Politics

Cosmopolitan uses problem-solution discourse schemas (Machin and van Leeuwen, 2003). Social life is presented as a struggle where women depend on their resources. "Risky encounters" and "institutional obstacles" are framed as personal problems (2003: 502). Solutions are presented as practical, not ideological. Höglund (2016) notes Cosmopolitan UK's selective use of discourses like sexual violence to neutralize competing ideas. Research shows gendered violence is often framed as a private problem, making women responsible for solutions (Berns, 1999, 2004; Nettleton, 2011). Focusing on empowerment can reduce complex issues to "emotion, drama, and heroic tales," obscuring socio-cultural factors (Berns, 2004: 102). Magazines, as “service magazines,” offer advice, encouraging women through personal, positive stories (Berns, 2004: 84). Abusers are minimized, and advertisers' interests are maintained (Berns, 2004: 91). Sex and sexual violence are branded like other topics. Sex is presented as empowerment within a fantasy world, divorced from social context (Machin and Thornborrow, 2006), potentially risking real-world sexual violence (Machin and Thornborrow, 2006: 180-181). This aligns with a broader discourse of evil versus innocence, diverting from social realities. Sexual violence became linked to trauma discourse in the late 20th century. Voicing women’s lives was crucial in the women’s movement, but identity politics shifted to personal self-discovery (Luckhurst, 2008: 71). Therapeutic culture de-politicized interpersonal violence (Rothe, 2011: 117). Trauma discourse transformed witness as victim to witness as survivor, telling tales as self-therapy (Douglass and Vogler, 2003: 41). Trauma representations can form social attachments and craft understandings with social meaning (Hutchinson, 2016: 2, 3). Sharing injury is politically significant, facilitated by consumers' trust in affect (Rothe, 2011: 137). Making trauma 'collective' requires communication (Hutchinson, 2016: 54). Cosmopolitan readers share communication modalities, but speech is controlled institutionally (Machin and van Leeuwen, 2003: 509, 510), creating synthetic sharing.

Material

The study uses 35 self-narratives from Cosmopolitan UK's website (2013-2017), found using search terms like "rape," "sexual abuse," and "trauma." Narratives had to testify to a traumatic sexual experience. The magazine's role as mediator was often noted as "As told to (name of reporter/editor)." Narratives were based on various sources, including interviews and social media. Images were not analyzed. Articles excluded news reports or self-help advice. Cosmopolitan was chosen for its history of publishing on sexual violence, with the online version selected due to increased visibility. Technical capabilities allow Cosmopolitan to create online networks and use social media, strengthening their online presence. Digital reporter profiles include social media links, asserting the magazine's brand through campaigns against sexual violence.

Theoretical Framework

This study combines CDA with trauma studies, viewing emotion as a link. CDA investigates power through language, deconstructing discourses like those in women’s magazines (Blommaert, 2005: 21). Discourse, influenced by Foucault (1972: 49, 2004: 94), is linked to ideology and power, struggling for dominance (Fairclough, 2001: 45; Mills, 2004: 38). CDA is interdisciplinary and problem-oriented (Wodak, 2001a, 2001b: 69). It allows flexible combination of research methods. Fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional model analyzes discourse as text, discursive practice, and social practice (Fairclough 2001: 20–21). The study identifies linguistic strategies, interprets contextual considerations, and explains discursive practices in social contexts. Discursive practices are strategies used by the magazine to represent trauma and construct plots to promote its dominant discourse of empowerment. The analysis focuses on the connection between discursive practices and function, grounded in empowerment. Fairclough (2001: 201) links empowerment to "emancipatory discourse,” helping individuals infringe conventions and demonstrating the changeability of discourse (Fairclough, 2001: 202). Butler (2006: xviii) states that dominant representations must be disrupted for life's precariousness to be apprehended, which happens through powerful emotions. Hutchinson (2016, 4) argues that trauma discourses are "intimately emotional,” signifying shock and vulnerability. Representations frame traumatic events, resonating with a wider society through shared emotionality (2016: 271). Subject positioning helps understand synthetic emotional bonds. Butler (2006: 27) argues that violence exploits our interdependence. Discourse addresses us, compelling a response (Butler, 2006: 139). In this material, an address is created synthetically with imagined readers. Those who have experienced violence cannot control media representations of discourse, which can be shaped to serve political interests (Hutchinson, 2016: 134). Human interrelatedness requires an ethical response, yet media use trauma narratives for commercial purposes. Cosmopolitan UK online strategically constructs subject positions to create social relationships and accept or reject dominant trauma discourses to enhance their brand.

Findings and Discussion

Synthetically Bound: Trauma, the Discursive Practices of Emotions, and Imagined Readers

Cosmopolitan UK online uses self-narratives to promote its brand through discursive practices. Designed to create affinity with imagined readers, these narratives follow distinctive patterns. Emotions appeal to the audience and give rhetorical force to the trauma discourse, furthering Hearst’s mission to empower women (Hearst, 2017). The self-narratives emphasize sisterhood and offer a forum for sharing experiences, stating they "empathises with what young women are going through” (Cosmopolitan Media Pack, 2016). Talbot (1995: 144) connects this synthetic sisterhood to consumption, allowing Cosmopolitan to promote its contents and advice, constructing itself as a personal friend and strengthening its brand. To create emotional bonds, experiences of sexual violence are often structured around the traumatic event, unfolding in three stages. The first stage involves the event and immediate reaction, described in terms of pain, humiliation, shame, and guilt, with intertextual references to therapeutic terminology and PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013: 271). This stage is personal and unshared, preventing women from being heard. Excerpt 1 demonstrates this:

Women indicate self-guilt and shame for their silence, suggesting awareness of victim-blaming discourses. Following this is the discourse of fear of judgment, where negative emotions are suppressed, and voices are silent due to expected condemnation. This is expressed in denial, self-blame, and fear of public judgment. Hesitation links to insecurity about guilt and responsibility, coupled with shame and fear. Excerpt 2 illustrates this:

However, shame can also be protective, signifying defiance (Healicon, 2016: 31–33), pushing towards the third stage, the discourse of empowerment. This involves speaking out and reclaiming agency through sisterhood, often by reporting the violence and waiving anonymity. Excerpt 3 demonstrates this:

Verbs construct the transition from passive 'victim' to active 'survivor,' emphasized by adverbs like "courageously.” Telling trauma becomes a speech act, reconstructing shattered bonds and shaping shared meanings. Journalists can "'steer' an audience's emotions” (Hutchinson, 2016: 271), making particular aspects of trauma visible. Mass media has popularized victim empowerment, differing from social justice goals (Berns, 2004: 154). Problems are framed as entertainment (Berns, 2004: 155), depoliticizing power through divorcing it from socioeconomic and cultural contexts (Berns, 2004: 158). The excerpts portray women alone, aligning with Machin and van Leeuwen (2003: 496). The magazine offers advice, helping her cope (Rothe, 2011: 89). Self-narratives corroborate gendered violence as the woman's problem (Berns, 1999, 2004; Nettleton, 2011). The discourses appeal to imagined readers through emotions, orienting them to empathize with the women's transformation. The narratives emphasize conscious decisions to transfer narratives from personal to public spheres, challenging the dominant discourse of sexual violence and creating a synthetic emotional bond.

Representing Trauma and Emotion: Plots and Stock Characters of Good and Evil

Examining linguistic strategies allows exploration of plot and character construction based on editorial policy, strengthening emotional ties. Institutional discourse contexts, such as media, report conflict (Wodak, 2001a: 1–2). Editorial practices are influenced by emotions, upholding the Cosmo girl. The Cosmo girl prevails when challenged and reclaims agency. Editors prefer stories where individuals overcome problems (Berns, 2004: 159). The linguistic choices resonate with mass media, using the trauma concept for basic narrative structure of victims and perpetrators (Rothe, 2011: 4). Perpetrators are depicted as "bad guys,” while realities are more complex (Berns, 2004: 163, 164). Excerpt 4 exemplifies demonizing the perpetrator:

The nouns and adjectives used are emotionally charged. While Excerpt 4 follows the dominant paradigm, the ending is not happy; the woman struggles with anxiety and depression (Harvey-Jenner, 2016). Polarizing perpetrator and victim may be "emotionally appealing" (Berns, 2004: 157), but does not allow for change. Reducing sexual violence to evil separates violence from causes, validating the social order. Covering only exceptional cases shifts responsibility away from social systems (cf. Nettleton, 2011: 144). If the cause is distressed men, rape is framed as a law enforcement and medical problem (Berns, 2004: 8). Self-narratives sometimes contradict this, including acquaintance sexual violence. Excerpt 5 presents a woman raped by her boyfriend, internalizing stranger rape from the media:

Excerpt 6 tells of a woman facing her ex-boyfriend through restorative justice:

Power shifts from "he raped me” to “I am in control now