TY - JOUR

T1 - Bad, mad or sad?

T2 - legal language, narratives, and identity constructions of women who kill their children in England and Wales

AU - Weare, Siobhan Francesca

N1 - The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11196-016-9480-y c The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

PY - 2017/6/1

Y1 - 2017/6/1

N2 - In this article I explore the ways in which legal language, discourses, and narratives construct new dominant identities for women who kill their children. These identities are those of the ‘bad’, ‘mad’, or ‘sad’ woman. Drawing upon and critiquing statutes, case law, and sentencing remarks from England and Wales, I explore how singular narrative identities emerge for the female defendants concerned. Using examples from selected cases, I highlight how the judiciary interpret legislation, use evidence, and draw upon gender stereotypes in carefully constructing macro-narratives which produce gendered identities for filicidal women, thus nullifying the challenge these women pose to appropriate femininity and the motherhood mandate. Each of the narrative identities discussed deny the agency of the female defendants that they are attached to, albeit in subtly different ways, by denying their ability to make any degree of choice in relation to their filicidal actions. Although such identity construction and agency denial may not always be damaging to these filicidal women per se, its pervasiveness within legal discourse reinforces and reproduces damaging gender stereotypes surrounding women and femininity.

AB - In this article I explore the ways in which legal language, discourses, and narratives construct new dominant identities for women who kill their children. These identities are those of the ‘bad’, ‘mad’, or ‘sad’ woman. Drawing upon and critiquing statutes, case law, and sentencing remarks from England and Wales, I explore how singular narrative identities emerge for the female defendants concerned. Using examples from selected cases, I highlight how the judiciary interpret legislation, use evidence, and draw upon gender stereotypes in carefully constructing macro-narratives which produce gendered identities for filicidal women, thus nullifying the challenge these women pose to appropriate femininity and the motherhood mandate. Each of the narrative identities discussed deny the agency of the female defendants that they are attached to, albeit in subtly different ways, by denying their ability to make any degree of choice in relation to their filicidal actions. Although such identity construction and agency denial may not always be damaging to these filicidal women per se, its pervasiveness within legal discourse reinforces and reproduces damaging gender stereotypes surrounding women and femininity.

KW - women who kill

KW - agency

KW - identities

KW - femininity

KW - motherhood

KW - narratives

KW - legal discourse

KW - legal language

U2 - 10.1007/s11196-016-9480-y

DO - 10.1007/s11196-016-9480-y

M3 - Journal article

VL - 30

SP - 201

EP - 222

JO - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law

JF - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law

SN - 0952-8059

IS - 2

ER -