The Notorious Woman: Tracing the Production of Alleged Female Killers through Discourse, Image, and Speculation

Abstract

This dissertation examines the visual and discursive production of female notoriety through the multi-mediated circulation of five images of Amanda Knox and Jodi Arias, who were both convicted of murder; Knox was eventually acquitted. This project employs visual discourse analysis to trace the movement and cultural use of widely shared and debated photographic images by consulting a broad visual corpus of mainstream American media content produced from 2007 to 2016. I argue notoriety is produced out of a necessary general relation of speculation that is (re)produced in processes of mass mediation. I illustrate the visual formation of notoriety by following the cultural use and spread of the selected digital images. Here I claim contemporary notoriety is fueled by repeated calls to speculate and judge images that seemingly resist full understanding while they are also used as evidence of perceived legal and sexual transgressions. This continual play to investigate, interpret, and define ambiguous imagery are key cultural practices that generate notoriety, for these relations compel further judgment and scrutiny. The dissertation draws critical attention to the cultural and visual practices tied to the creation of notoriety in contexts of digital mass media circulation, and questions the types of knowledge and spectatorship that are encouraged as images circulate over time and medium.Through the visual discourse analysis, I conclude these five images are continually used to define and assess Knox and Arias relative to shifting norms of acceptable white femininity.Treating the images as performative sites, I outline their compositional and thematic patterns within the visual corpus (e.g. within news broadcasts, newsmagazine episodes, made-for-TV true crime dramas and documentaries, and literary exposés) that constitute discourses of sexual deviancy, inappropriateness, obsession, vanity, and image management. Through these discursive lenses, Knox and Arias are positioned as sexually transgressive, desirable, and excessive -yet remain debatable and highly scrutinized women because they seemingly iii transgress middle-class white heteronormativity. Taking an intersectional approach, I explore how this constellation of visual discourses works to uphold sexist, classist, and racist logics while also encouraging viewers to see, judge, and consult the familiarly ambiguous images for meaning.iv Acknowledgements I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of the Carleton Communication community, and there are a number of people I wish to thank for their support, guidance, and encouragement. Thank you to my supervisor, Dr. Miranda Brady, for your assistance, patience, and reassurance every step of the way through this project. No question was ever too big or too small, and words cannot express how thankful I am for your mentorship throughout this process. I am grateful to my committee members, Dr. Sheryl Hamilton and Dr.Ummni Khan for their continued guidance. You offered new and exciting perspectives o...

Male victims of domestic violence among professional families: Shackled in masculinity

“…Women being abusive and violent towards men are affected by inter-parental aggression (their experience of seeing the father hurt the mother), love, self-esteem, and influence of alcohol (Caetano et al 2000, Lewis 2002, Chase et al 2003, Stuart et al 2006, Goldenson 2009, Hines 2009, Sarmiento 2019. Some studies explain that women commit violence as vengeance for being victims, and as an effort to maintain personal freedom (Kernsmith 2005, True 2020), to defend themselves (Babcock et al 2005, Dutton et al 2013, Whitaker 2013, Carlyle et al 2014, Hiltz 2018, Lasky 2019, Boxall et al 2020, Walker et al 2022, and also to protect their children (Yourstone et al 2008, Stewart et al 2014, Caman et al 2016. Female perpetrators of domestic violence have anti-social personalities and psychological and physical aggression, where they report to experience anxiety (Weizmann-Henelius 2006, Zacarias et al 2012, McKeown 2014.…”