The Construction of Amanda Knox as an Other

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Recommended: Media representation of gender stereotypes

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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...from
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/

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