Of Monsters, Mothers and Murders: Fear, Loathing and “Aussie True Crime” in Tabloid Women’s Magazines

Susan Hopkins

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Of Monsters, Mothers and Murders: Fear, Loathing and “Aussie True Crime” in Tabloid Women’s Magazines

Journal article

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Of Monsters, Mothers and Murders: Fear, Loathing and “Aussie True Crime” in Tabloid Women’s Magazines

Susan Hopkins

Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, Vol.22(2), pp.64-76

2022

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Abstract

true crime

women’s magazines

media frames

monstrous-feminine

This article combines Entman’s approach to media frames and Creed’s concept of the monstrous-feminine in a critical, close, textual analysis of the ways in which Australian women’s magazines frame murder crimes and female criminality. Using recent case studies of crime features and special issues within Australian tabloid women’s magazines, this study examines the selection and arrangement of textual features, especially sensationalistic attention-arresting headlines and visual elements, which overemphasise and misrepresent feminized and maternal aspects of violent “true” crimes. I argue that female offenders are constructed here in tabloid narratives, intended for female audiences, as one- dimensional hate objects, or dehumanised, monstrous “Others.”

Details

Title: Of Monsters, Mothers and Murders: Fear, Loathing and “Aussie True Crime” in Tabloid Women’s Magazines
Authors: Susan Hopkins - University of Southern Queensland
Publication details: Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, Vol.22(2), pp.64-76
Publisher: State University of New York at Albany, School of Criminal Justice
Date published: 2022
ISSN: 1070-8286
Organisation Unit: School of Education and Tertiary Access
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991136802902621
Output Type: Journal article

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