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Media representation of gender stereotypes
Media representation of gender stereotypes
Social construction of identity
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Lupton (1999) likens community to a body with tightly controlled boundaries where behaviour is regulated to maintain order, and anomalies or ambiguities and the crossing of boundaries are perceived as “risky”. Lupton also discusses Mary Douglas’ ideas on the social function of individual perceptions of societal dangers. Douglas (1966) maintained that individuals tend to associate societal harms with conduct that transgresses societal norms, and that this tendency promotes certain social structures, both by imbuing a society’s members with aversions to subversive behaviour and by focusing resentment and blame on those who defy such institutions.
Knox’s construction as an “Other” was mainly established in relation to the femininity, or lack thereof. Media coverage on the Amanda Knox case and the prosecution’s version of events were viewed almost exclusively through the prism of Knox’s looks and sexuality, as well her propensity for masculine behaviour. It has been noted that Knox was not viewed as a college student who may or may not have been involved in the murder of her flatmate, but rather a "demonic, satanic, diabolical she-devil" who was "devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol" (Rizzo, 2011). Lexical choices such as these constructs her as a bad woman, and at the same time highlights the media’s gendered construction of criminals as evident from its differential portrayal of Knox and the other two male suspects.
As Jewkes (2004) notes, “when it comes to reporting of women who commit serious crimes, constructions of deviant sexuality are almost a given”. The sexual nature of Kercher’s murder (Fisher, 2007) allowed the media to highlight Knox’s sexual behaviour, leding legitimacy to claims of the murder being “sex orgy gone wrong”...
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Pollak, O. (1950). The criminality of women. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Rizzo, A. (2011, September 26). Amanda Knox Case: Attorney Calls Knox A 'She-Devil'. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/knox-trial-attorney_n_980777.html
Smart, C. (1976). Women, crime and criminology: A feminist critique. London: Routledge.
Timeline: Amanda Knox trial. (2011). CNN.com. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/italy-amanda-knox-timeline/index.html
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, I (2), 125-151.
Wykes, M. & Welsh, K. (2009). Violence, Gender and Justice. London: Sage Publications http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/murder-in-perugia-dangerous-games-of-the-facebook-generation-399849.html http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-timeline-of-the-amanda-knox-case/
While it is tempting to see the Shakespearean concept of rape entirely in such terms, such a view is not adequate to explain the complex interactions of dishonor, shame, and guilt found in The Rape of Lucrece. Carolyn Williams, by contrast, focuses on the tensions in early modern thought between a culture of "shame" and one of "guilt," two codes which differ not only in their account of the nature of the crime, but also in the consequences for the victim and the importance of her statements in determining her status. In the "shame culture," rape is "a crime against property," (like Harris’s definition) and "the victim’s refusal of consent…is irrelevant: her physical condition determines her status" (94). In the culture of "guilt," however, the woman is seen as a "responsible human agent." Therefore "her utterance is crucially important. Lack of consent defines the rape…Her ability to tell her story afterwards vindicates her honour" (95).
“Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing, or I am you” (Gittens). Amanda Knox stated in her new documentary. In the court case of Meredith Kercher’s murder, Amanda Knox’s profile developed from a student studying abroad to a cold-blooded killer. Amanda Knox was accused and acquitted of the murder of Kercher. Debate continues about the case, as the evidence from both sides is highly disputable.
Regina Kunzel is an historian of gender and sexuality in the 20th-century U.S . whose research focuses on the twined histories of difference and normalcy, the regulatory force of carceral institutions, and relationships between expert discourses and the self-representations of historical subjects. Kunzel’s most recent book, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2008), examines the social and sexual world made by prisoners over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and tracks its meaning for the formation of modern sexuality. Criminal Intimacy was awarded the American Historical Association’s John Boswell Prize, the Modern Language Association’s Alan Bray Memorial
In Mariah Burton Nelson article “I Won. I’m Sorry” she discusses how ingrained the concept of gender roles are within American society. She states how women are expected to be feminine while men are anticipated to be masculine. Nelson’s article highlights how these assumptions cause society to delegate standards of beauty and submission for women to fulfill while assigning standards of dominance and aggression for men to fulfill. In Aaron Devor’s, a professor of sociology, essay “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” he debates that the existence of gender assumptions are not biological but rather a cultural construct. He refers to people who follow this cultural construct of gender as actors;
In Devor’s article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the social Meanings of Gender” one can better understand how society has a big impact on how gender is perceived. Understanding
While the victim on this show was taken seriously and given a rape kit, she was still asked what she was wearing and whether or not she welcomed the man’s behavior with flirtation. These sorts of questions do touch on how many rape cases are biased against women and do not usually work in their favor. Also, motivational theories in sociology focus on social factors which drive a person to commit crimes (Wadsworth). In this case, the defense argues that the woman’s behavior, appearance, and attitude demonstrated that she wanted to have sex. As a result of these social factors and indicators, he to committed a deviant
Betsy Lucal, "What it means to be gendered me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System."
Wood, J. T. (2013). Gendered lives: communication, gender & and culture (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Based on the evidence presented above and the circumstances of the case, I’ve decided that there is not enough strong evidence linking Amanda Knox to the murder of Meredith Kercher. The police were careless with their handling of the evidence, which led me to doubt some of their finding. Since the case relied heavily on physical evidence to convict Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede, the evidence should’ve been taken care of better. Considering that a lot of the evidence found was mishandled in some way, I argue that any evidence that might have linked Knox to the crime isn’t enough for a conviction.
McDuff, Anne. She Devils: True Stories of the World's Most Notorious Female Serial Killers. London: John Blake, 2009. Print.
Rape is sensitive subject. People avoid talking about it at all costs and even try to pretend that it does not happen. But rapes are reported every six minutes in the United States. (Jaffe, Lansing & Kaplan, 1988) The Accused does not dance around rape. The movie centers around Sara Tobias, a young woman who was the victim of a rape. The rape occurred in a bar filled with men, multiple of which committed the crime. The movie then follows Sara as she is hospitalized and is assigned a lawyer, Kathryn Murphy. Kathryn Murphy does get the criminals in jail, but not for a sentence appropriate to the crime. Sara Tobias demands justice. So Kathryn and Sara go after the other men that were present in the bar for encouraging the rape under the charge of criminal solicitation. Although justice was eventually served, this movie shows just how much misogyny, patriarchy, rape culture, and gender roles impact our society.
Female seducers are depicted in a variety of manners. Women were particularly vilified if they were married to another man or had children prior to escaping with her lover. “Elopement in High Life,” is an article that demonstrates how harshly a woman could be criticized for eloping with her lover. Lady Charlotte Wellesley is described as a “miserable woman,” who “is 28 years of age, and the mother of four children, whom, with her husband, who is only 36 years old, she has thus inhumanely abandoned for ever” (“Elopement in High Life”). Lady Wellesley 's is given a dishonorable reputation because she transgressed the ideals of womanhood and motherhood, although this was not the first stain placed onto her family in the court of public opinion.
The story of Amanda Knox is one that is well known by almost everyone around the world. In 2007 this young girl from the US was studying abroad in Italy when her whole world changed in the worst way. Her british roommate, Meredith Kercher, was viciously murdered in the house where they were living. This murder case made international news and was diversely controversial. The case and prosecution of Amanda Knox was most likely due to her gender, and was very different from the way we prosecute in the United States according to our laws and regulations. In my opinion, Amanda Knox was falsely accused and prosecuted and it was very well to do with the media attention this case brought along with it.
People are often blinded by the situation in which they are in, and by their personal motives which drive them to act. Humans, by nature, have faults and vices that are potentially harmful. It is the responsibility of society to anticipate harm, whether to oneself or to others. Once dangerous patterns and habits are recognized, it is imperative to anticipate and prevent injury from reoccurring. To allow any individual to be inflicted harm forces citizens to lose trust in the government, thus unraveling the fabric of society.... ...
Peters’ crime will be examined by their similarities for the purpose of this paper rather than being examined in the order that Crime Stories reported them. The first crime, Charlene’s murder, can be classified as a sexual murder because of the fact that Charlene and Peters were in the midst of an intimate relationship, and she was found naked, insinuating that he had raped her. While Sandie was not killed, we can still put this crime under the umbrella of sexual murder because she was raped, and it was Peters’ intention to kill her. Therefore for these two crimes, Peters is classified as a sexual murderer. Beauregard and Martineau state in their descriptive study of sexual murders that “the average age of sexual murderers is 28 years” (Beauregard