From Doctor to Monster: Disputes over The Categories of Sexual Violence in Abdelmassih’s Case

This article explores the case involving Roger Abdelmassih and its media coverage, in order to understand the symbolic constructions at stake in the period between 2009, when the complaints against the doctor were disclosed by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, and 2016. The public exposition of the complaints and its legal-police deployments in the commercial media promoted a social reading of the case, producing a moral narrative about the type of violence, the aggressor and his victims.

Sexual Violence; Media; Gender; Sexuality