Introduction

Outrage arose when Representative Todd Akin of Missouri argued against making exceptions to the abortion restriction for rape victims on the grounds that due to a woman's physiology ‘legitimate rape’ was unlikely to result in pregnancy. Although thoroughly denounced, the claim that there is some feature of biology that prevents rapes from resulting in pregnancy has taken root in the political and popular imagination. This falsehood has proven so irrepressible that one reporter at Slate.com has written repeatedly about the ultimate source of this idea: a confabulated Nazi experiment. Discourse with these features– a ‘strange’ genealogy; bad reasoning; persistence despite, at best, specious proof; and exploitation for what are, to some minds, malicious purposes – has become increasingly common in political discourse, the press and even the arguments made by ordinary folk.

Such discourse is oft en criticized for its falsehood or its hurtfulness; these critiques – aimed at singular features of this discourse – tend to miss its pernicious potential.