This paper looks at different images of female fatales in film as criminal justice types. We begin with the film noire genre in the 1940s and its evolution into the retro genre of the 1970s and 1980s; and compare each genre to the subversive proactive violent females of the 1980s and 1990s. Each are portrayed by the film industry as either manipulating or out of control. They lack legitimization for their violent acts because they are not supported by any form of institution. The film industry perpetuates images of female criminal types as out of control and destructive in their portrayal of them as violent. In contrast, the violent male is portrayed as proactive and endorsed by an institution. Male violence is largely accepted as the viewer sees the man taking control and acting when authorities cannot or will not. Female violence is portrayed as self serving and for the benefit of only the fatale or the subversive female.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerFreda.1975. Sisters and Crime. New York: McGraw Hill.
2.
AdlerFreda.1977. “The Interaction Between Women's Emancipation and Female Criminality: A Cross Cultural Perspective.”International Journal of Criminology and Penology. 5: 101–112.
3.
AronsonElliot.1992. The Social Animal. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
4.
AronsonElliotTimothyD. WilsonRobinAkert.1994. Social Psychology: The Heart and the Mind. New York: Harper-Collins.
5.
BlackDonald.1983. “Crime as Social Control.”American Sociological Review48: 34–35.
6.
BlumerHerbert.1933. Movies and Conduct. New York: MacMillan
BourgoisP.1990. “In Search of Horatio Alger.”Contemporary Drug Problems16: 619–649.
9.
CloughPatricia.1988. “The Movies and Social Observation: Reading Blumer's Movies and Conduct.”Symbolic Interaction. 11: 85–97.
10.
CurranDaniel J.ClaireM. Renzetti.1990. Social Problems. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
11.
DeckerScottRichardWrightAllisonRedfernDietrichSmith.1993. “A Woman's Place is in the Home: Females and Residential Burglary.”Justice Quarterly10: 143–162.
12.
DenzinNorman.1984. “Toward a Phenomenology of Domestic Family Violence.”American Journal of Sociology91: 483–513.
13.
DenzinNorman.1987. “Under the Influence of Time: Reading the Interactional Text.”The Sociological Quarterly28:327–341.
14.
DenzinNorman.1995a. “Information Technologies, Communicative Acts, and the Audience: Couch's Legacy to Communication Research.”Symbolic Interaction. In Press.
15.
DenzinNorman.1995b. The Cinematic Society: The Voyeur's Gaze. London: Sage.
16.
DorenkampAngelaJohnF. McClymerMaryM. MoynihamArleneC. Vadum (Editors). 1985. Images of Women in American Popular Culture. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.
17.
DouglasMary.1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Penguin.
18.
DurkheimEmile.1951. Suicide. New York: The Free Press
19.
EaglyA. H.SteffenV. J.1986. “Gender and Aggressive Behavior: A Meta-analytic View of the Social Psychological Literature.”Psychological Bulletin100: 309–330.
20.
FoucaultMichel.1979. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.
21.
FortuneE. P.VegaM.SilvermanI. J.1980. “A Study of Female Robbers in a Southern Correctional Institution.”Journal of Criminal Justice8: 317–326.
22.
FrenchPhilip.1968. Violence and the Mass Media. New York: Harper & Row.
23.
GarfinkelHarold.1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. New York: Prentice-Hall.
24.
GlaserBarneyAnselmStrauss.1964. “Awareness Contexts and Social Interaction.”American Sociological Review29: 669–679.
25.
GoffmanErving.1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.
26.
GoffmanErving.1963. Behavior in Public Places. Free Press.
27.
GoffmanErving.1971. Relations in Public. Harper & Row.
28.
GoffmanErving.1974. Frame Analysis. Harvard University Press.
29.
GoffmanErving.1979. “Footing.”Semiotica25: 1–29.
30.
GoffmanErving.1983. “The Interaction Order.”American Sociological Review48: 1–17.
31.
GrossEdwardGregoryP. Stone.1964. “Embarrassment and the Analysis of Role Requirements.”American Journal of Sociology70: 1–15.
32.
HaskellMolly.1987. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
HenslinJames.1995. Social Problems (Third Edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
34.
JamesonFrederick.1984. “Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.”New Left Review. 146: 53–92.
35.
KatovichMichael A.1986. “Temporal Stages of Situated Activity and Identity Activation.” Pp. 329–52 in Studies in Symbolic Interaction: The Iowa School, Supplement B, edited by CouchCarl J. et. al. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
36.
KatovichMichael A.PatrickT. Kinkade.1993. “The Stories Told in Science Fiction and Social Science: Reading The Thing and Other remakes From Two Eras.”The Sociological Quarterly34: 619–637.
37.
KinkadePatrick T.KatovichMichael A.1992. “Toward a Sociology of Cult Films: Reading Rocky Horror.”The Sociological Quarterly33: 191–209.
38.
LymanStanfordMarvinScott.1970. A Sociology of the Absurd. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts.
39.
MacAndrewC.EdgertonR. B.1969. Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation. Chicago: Aldine.
40.
MaccobyE. E.JacksonC. N.1974. The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford, CA.Stanford University Press.
41.
MaherLisaRichardCurtiss.1995. “In Search of the Female Urban ‘Gangsta’: Change, Culture, and Crack Cocaine.” Pp. 147–166 in The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Victims, and Workers, edited by Barbara RaffelPriceNatalieSokoloff (Second Edition). New York: McGraw Hill.
42.
MeadGeorge H.1924–25. “The Genesis of Self and Social Control.”Journal of Ethics35: 251–177.
43.
MeadGeorge H.1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
44.
MeyrowitzJoshua.1985. No Sense of Place. New York: Oxford Press.
45.
PearyDanny.Cult Movies3. New York: Fireside.
46.
RakowLana.1990. Questioning the Media. California Sage Publications.
47.
RappingElaine.1991. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Mass Media and Society. Connecticut: The Dushkin Publishing Group.
48.
SteffensmeierDarrellEmileAllanCathyStreifel1989. “Modernization and female crime: A Cross National Test of Alternative Explanations.”Social Forces68: 262–283.
49.
StoneGregory.1962. “Appearance and the Self.” Pp. 86–118 in Human Behavior and Social Processes, edited by ArnoldM. Rose.Houghton Mifflin.
50.
ThompsonCarolRobertYoung.1995. “Women's Emancipation and Ownership of Firearms.”Women and Criminal Justice. In Press.
51.
WalsterElaineWilliam WalsterG.JanePilavinLynnSchmidt.1973. “Playing ‘Hard to Get’: Understanding an Elusive Phenomenon.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 26: 17–29.
52.
WeinsteinEugenePaulDeutschberger.1963. “Some Dimensions of Altercasting.”Sociometry. 26: 454–466.
