SOC421H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Femininity
Document Summary
Introduction: popular constructions of bad, violent, and mean girls, demonization of marginalized women, aggressive girls and criminalized lesbians. Mean girls and the new female parity on aggression: mean girls, manipulative, sneaky, mean girls was a popularized concept that people incorporated in tv and films, theories of aggression. Trends in criminal justice response to girls: a self fulfilling prophecy: rise in juvenile crime rates. Increase in girls arrest rates: but women were arrested for petty crimes like running away from homes, policing initiatives, eg. Zero tolerance policy: causes racial minorities to be especially targeted. The lesbian criminal: masculine traits, marking women as deviant, women in prisons. Masculine lesbians, 21st century style: stereotypes of masculinity, sexual preference, crime and punishment -> fishbein, 2000, masculine= aggressive= lesbian stereotype could not be supported. Criminal justice consequences of labelling lesbians masculine: harsher punishment, death penalty cases against women, prosecutors emphasize masculinity, to make the case for the death penalty.
