We do not have a language to represent female killing - Essay Example

?We do not have a language to represent female killing”. Discuss common tropes deployed to explain away female violence, with reference to at least one representation (filmic, media-based and so on). Discuss how a woman’s criminality is often defined in terms of their deviance from norms of white, heterosexual, middle-class femininity Aggression and violence has always been experienced since the ancient times. Usually, men were and still involved in many aggression and violence cases. However, the trend is slowly changing and women are involved in violence and even killing. There are several cases in which women have been involved in extreme aggression and violence leading to death of their victims. Women aggression and violence is not tolerated in many societies as it deviates from the womanhood. Much stereotyping arises with the women violence and killing cases and media has taken advantage of the cases to report what is not. Involvement of women in violence is associated with lesbianism which is said to be change towards masculinity making women more like men and can do anything men can. Women violence and criminality is unique and unnatural under the natural womanhood and is associated with change towards masculinity and attracts much media attention, which may have an impact in the judicial process which seems biased against women. The Changing Trends Women involvement in criminal activities, violence and even killing has always remained an imagination but it seems it has turned to be a fact. In the twentieth century, several cases involving women aggression and violence were reported and included the Papin Sisters in 1933, Aileen Wurworns in 1989-1990, Stacey Wigginton in 1989 and Sanna Sillanpaa in 1999 were reported. In all these cases, women were involved in violence which led to death of some people. It is interesting that men were the majority victims in all these cases. The society takes the case of women killing differently compared to the cases involving men. Berrington and Honkatukia (2002) confirm that women involvement in crime is exceptional and unnatural. In an interview, Dr Lizzie Seal, the author of the book Women, Murder and Femininity confirms that women who kill are not natural women and they can be called failed women in the society. She goes on to explain that women are nurturing and gentle in nature. In that case, a woman killing is in total contrast to their natural characteristics (Taylor, Seal and Westmarland, 2011). The deviance to get to that level is surprising according to the expectations of women. In any society whether it is in the developed country or under developed, women are expected to be just women with well defined roles. Roles of women include looking after the house, taking care of children and most importantly complimenting the man especially in the white middle class. In this case, women are care givers and nurturers by nature as stated above. The traditional social role of women put them in a situation in which they could not engage in criminal activities. However, the society has been opening up and the roles of women are changing from the traditional social and home roles. These changes are the reasons women are now involved in criminal activities as Rosenblatt and Greenland (1974) explain. According to them, the new changes can easily create opportunities for women to be involved in criminal activities, violence and killing. However, the idea of women killing has not been accepted by many. Most people in the society keep wondering what can inspire women to kill other people. Several theories have been drawn to explain this idea. One theory which is stated in many books states that women can only kill when they have changed in their bodies. In this case, their bodies change to be like those of men. Men bodies are masculine and their traditional roles allow them in some way to kill, though it is not allowed by law. Therefore, a woman would have to be masculine to be able to kill. Barak, Leighton, and Flavin (2007 p.114) point out a women can kill when another version of the woman that is not woman is created within them. Lesbianism and Women Violence The character involved with changes in women is lesbianism. The society has changed a lot in the twentieth century leading to changes in sexuality. Gender reassignment in which some men feel they are more feminine than masculine and some women feel they are more masculine than feminine is the new normal nowadays. In this case, women are attracted to other women and men attracted to other men. Barak, Leighton, and Flavin (2007) find is challenging to understand just how a woman can be attracted to another woman. According to them, Women attracted to other women are mostly the masculine feeling women, who are likely to do anything a man including violence against others and even murder. In fact, in most of the cases in which women have been involved in violence, they are claimed to be lesbian and inclined to masculinity (Barak, Leighton, and Flavin 2007). Rowe (2012) confirms the sexual inversion; lesbianism in this case is the root behind many women committing crimes leading to an increase in imprisonment rates among women. Women being imprisoned for anything worse violence and killing was just a mare imagination until the first half of the twentieth century, after the Papin sisters’ murder case. The data on sexuality among women was studied from the 1920s to make those conclusions. It is interesting that Rowe notes that women have the same dyadic sexual relationships even when they are in prison. As much as lesbianism has become common in the fourth quarter of the twentieth century, there are claims that masculinity among women started long before. Eugenia Falleni from the first quarter of the twentieth century is a classic example. She lived like a man all her life and it was noted for a long time. Falleni even went to the extent of marrying another woman, a window known as Annie Birkett who threatened to walk out of the marriage after knowing the real sexuality of Falleni. Eugenia Falleni killed Annie Birkett soon after leading to one of the most surprising stories in Australia at the time. Reports suggested that a man-woman was involved in murder. Those times, the ideology of lesbianism was not well know and created a lot of astonishment among Australians. However, the case of Eugenia Falleni and Annie Birkett was twisted. According to Jennings (2009), the first husband of Annie Birkett was realized to be a woman later and created much confusion among the police. There were claims of man-woman tendencies among some Australians but when this case emerged, a lot of questions were asked. Childhood and women violence Another school of thought that can explain violence in women is fear from aggression and violence. Aldama (2003) points out that violence towards women may create traumatizing impact on the physic body in which the women may respond to violence through violence. Minh and colleagues (2013) supports this school of thought. According to them, people who have experience violence, aggression and neglect in the young age are likely to be violent later in life. A sample of women pointed out that they were involved in criminal activities in their adult life because they had violent and neglect episodes in their childhood. In that case, it would not be logical to state that such women lack the woman touch or care and nurture. After all it is a response to traumatizing events in which, every person who had a bad past be it violence or neglect or attack can respond in the same way. Women Violence and Media According to Grabe and Colleagues (2009), Violence and killing by women attracts media more than men killing and the reporting is speculative and unprofessional. As stated above, the first thing media is likely to report in cases where women are involved in violence is that a mad woman or bad woman involved in violence. Aileen Wurworns and Sanna Sillanpaa were termed as dangerous and bad women by the media without even taking considerations as to why these women reacted the way they did. Looking at Aileen Wurworns, it is claimed that she had an abusive background from her grandfather. She had to live with her grandparents after her mother died and her father was jailed (Silvio, McCloskey and Ramos-Grenier, 2006). In that case, it would be expected that her response towards aggression would be violence. However, the Aileen Wurworns case remains a mystery to some extent. She is claimed to have been a prostitute when she started the killing sprees. Her defense team in the court claimed the men Aileen Wurworns killed had tried raping her, making her to respond violently. But the number of men she killed and the theory of being raped did not add up. At the same time, most people wondered how a prostitute would claim she had been raped. It could be true but for someone like Aileen Wurworns, that could not add up. Silvio, McCloskey and Ramos-Grenier (2006) point out that Aileen was involved in sexual activities at a young age which would likely advance to her adult life. In trying to explain the course of action, researchers and psychologists believe that Aileen was a lesbian who hated men with passion with no heterosexual woman character. Pearson (2007) feels the case of Aileen was just another cultural politics which arise when women are involved in violence. Some women violent criminal activities cases have left the society wondering. Tracey Wigginton case surprised many people in the world. It is claimed that she killed a man and drank his blood. Like the others, Wigginton was lesbian as it emerged during trial. She and her girlfriend and two other women are said to have killed a man to allow them to take his blood. The four had vampirism tendencies and lured a many to a lonely park where Wigginton stabbed the many more than 15 times to kill him. The media reported many versions of the story but it was obvious that this was in a whole new level in women violence. The case of Sanna Sillanpaa coincides with the speculations of the media. She was named an evil, mad woman who killed three men and injured the fourth. After psychiatric examination, it was realized that Sillanpaa was mentally ill with paranoid schizophrenic and had to be charged differently (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002). The violent cases of women have been represented in many forms of media and they follow the cultural stereotypes. Aileen Wurworns is probably the most covered woman in the media with television series, documentaries and even movies. In one of the movies, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, it shows Aileen mental state deteriorating after which she starts the killing sprees. The movie questions why Aileen would be executed yet she was said to be mentally ill. Eugenia Falleni was also covered in media and as it is expected, the media misrepresented the information. According to Jennings (2009), the truth magazine of the time reported that Falleni as charged with murder probably because of cross-dressing. Media coverage of Aileen was a way of shocking the viewers and sensationalizing them in to believing that Aileen was killed for her atrocities. According to Randal (2002), the media survives by making sensational stories which attract many people to that particular media provider. Women Violence and Judicial System According to Berrington and Honkatukia (2002) and Gilbert (2002), the justice system is said to be biased to some extent when women are involved in killing. Usually, policemen use some of the information they get from the society and the media for investigations. In that case, they already have an idea on the magnitude of the case by the start of the investigations. As stated above, women get harsher words describing their acts of violence besides being on the spotlight by the media. These terms maybe used by the police and passed down to the judicial proceedings where the women may be labeled using the same words the police obtained from the press. In that case, the case against women may be biased and may not get to the real root of the reasons the woman committed a violent act. When women are involved in violent acts, the first thing ordered by the police investigating the case or the persecutor is mental examination. As it is stated above, it is believed by the society that normal women cannot commit crimes and any woman committing a violent crime has to be mentally ill (Gilbert 2002). Conclusion Women involvement in criminal activities and especially violence and killing is very surprising to the society. Women have always been known as caregivers and nurtures and it would not be expected for them to be in total contrast. A woman killing is associated with transgression and change in womanhood for example lesbianism in which, women are claimed to change to masculinity which allows them to deviate from the natural nurturing woman. A woman killing is not well received by the society and most people claim that whoever did the act is another version of the woman that is not the woman. All the cases involving women in violent criminal activities have been associated with lesbianism and in fact tried to show the changes that occur to the women involved; they change to be more masculine. The media has been on the frontline to report cases in which women are involved in violent criminal activities. The reporting is usually very harsh towards the women compared to men, whose criminal activities do not even attract the media. Police and investigators have used the perceptions of the media and society to prosecute women involved in criminal activities which may be biased. The cases of women killing have been represented in many documentaries, movies and other forms of art. References Aldama, A., 2003. Violence and the Body: Race, Gender, and the State. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Barak, G., Leighton, P, and Flavin, J., 2007. Class, Race, Gender, and Crime: The Social Realities of Justice in America. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Berrington, E and Honkatukia, P., 2002. An Evil Monster and a Poor Thing: Female Violence in the Media. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 3(1), pp.50-72. Gilbert, P., 2002. Discourses of Female Violence and Societal Gender Stereotypes. Violence Against Women, 8 (11), pp.1271-1300. Grabe, M. et al., 2009. Gender in Crime News: A Case Study Test of the Chivalry Hypothesis. Mass Communication and Society, 9(2), pp.137-163. Jennings, R., 2009. Lesbians in Sydney. Sydney Journal, 2 (1), pp 29–38. Minh, A. et al., 2013. Linking Childhood and Adult Criminality: Using a Life Course Framework to Examine Childhood Abuse and Neglect, Substance Use and Adult Partner Violence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10(11), pp.5470-5489. Pearson, K., 2007. The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos, Feminism's “First Serial Killer”. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 4(3), pp.256-275. Randall, K., 2002. Florida execution of Aileen Wuornos: another morbid media spectacle. [online] Available at: [accessed 17 December 2013]. Rosenblatt, E and Greenland, C., 1974. Female Crimes of Violence. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Corrections, 16, p.173. Rowe, A., 2012. Sexuality, criminality and the women's prison: Pat Arrowsmith’s ‘Somewhere Like This’. Prison Service Journal, 199 pp. 32–34. Silvio, H., McCloskey, K., & Ramos-Grenier, J., 2006. Theoretical consideration of female sexual predator serial killers in the United States. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34(3), pp.251-259. Taylor, L., Seal, L, and Westmarland, L., 2011. A crime against their gender: How the world sees women who kill. [online] The Open University. Available at: [accessed 17 December 2013]. Read More