Deviant divas: Lindy Chamberlain and Schapelle Corby and the case for a new category of celebrity for criminally implicated women

Abstract

In the field of celebrity studies much has been written about the superficiality of contemporary celebrity culture in which ordinary individuals are recognised as exceptional or worthy of public attention in the absence of any particular talent, contribution or achievement (

Evidence in the museum: Curating a miscarriage of justice

“…com for a large volume of material, including a timeline). Her experiences have also been the subject of considerable multi-disciplinary scholarly attention, studied for their importance to understandings of law, forensic science, religion, media, landscape and particularly the treatment of women in each of these spheres (including Anderson, 2016;Edmond, 1998;Howe, 1996Howe, , 2005Middleweek, 2017;Sawyer, 1996;Staines et al, 2009).…”

Women, Drugs and the Death Penalty: Framing Sandiford

“…In the Australian news media, she became a ‘visual symbol of Australian identity and values’ and a ‘symbolic mobilization of the vulnerable western self’ abroad (Lambert , p.244). Her case was a ‘national obsession’ and her guilty verdict was met with outrage in Australia (Middleweek , p.14). As a young white woman, Corby's body signified Australian democracy and racist interpretations of whiteness under siege (Lambert ; Middleweek ).…”

“…Her case was a ‘national obsession’ and her guilty verdict was met with outrage in Australia (Middleweek , p.14). As a young white woman, Corby's body signified Australian democracy and racist interpretations of whiteness under siege (Lambert ; Middleweek ). The case of Lindsay Sandiford, a British woman on death row in Indonesia, is very different, both in terms of her sentencing and her gendered portrayal.…”

“…Significantly, the portrayal of Sandiford as a motherly/grandmotherly protector, and the space given to her own explanations, accorded her some agency, transcending the simplistic binaries of female drug mules as victims or villains. Sandiford's age was important: as a woman in her late fifties, discourses of innocence and naïvety were not readily applicable, and nor were portrayals of imperilled young white womanhood in need of rescue from non‐white ‘others’ (see Lambert ; Middleweek ). The representation of Sandiford's case contrasts with that of young, white, Western women, such as Schappelle Corby.…”

Dingo media? The persistence of the “trial by media” frame in popular, media, and academic evaluations of the Azaria Chamberlain case

“…Of course, there is ample evidence of sensationalist reporting, unethical media practices and tactics (Brien 1984), and a gender inflected news discourse in media representations of Lindy Chamberlain (Adrian Howe 1989Catherine Munro 1996;Philippa Sawyer 1997;Briar Wood 1993) and, to a lesser extent, her husband Michael (Belinda Middleweek 2007) that has, for over three decades, provided scholars and cultural commentators alike with sufficient reason to support the demonised media argument. Elsewhere I have argued that a thinness of attention to female criminals in the field of celebrity studies overlooks the constellation of gender-inflected media messages and the meanings with which they are imbued by sections of news workers (Middleweek 2016). I argued that such research should not ignore compelling evidence within feminist criminological scholarship that crime is a gendered concept in news discourse (Carol Smart 1977;Yvonne Jewkes 2011).…”