Retoryka gwałtu, język wandalizmu
The Rhetoric of Rape, the Language of Vandalism

Summary/Abstract: A presentation of structural similarity between the rhetoric of rape and the rhetoric applied by the press and museums while attacking a work of art on show. The domination of the image becomes apparent in this situation both in the readiness to conceal a scandal and ascribing to the image the label of a provocateur, i.e. the one who is guilty. Having reconstructed the fundamental rhetorical scheme, in which the assailant appears in the role of male rapist and the image corresponds to the raped woman, McKim-Smith indicated instances of unambiguity and “transgender quality” when the attacker is a woman: take the example of the famous suffragette Mary Richardson, who at the beginning of the twentieth century damaged The Rokeby Venus by Velazquez.

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