Clifford, J: Expressions of Blame

The Daily Express reporting of battered women who kill uses framing borrowed from popular crime entertainment, which has included melodramatic theatre and silent film, clue-puzzle novels, film noir and reality-crime television. Its representations of the guilt or innocence of the women are shaped by these stories, which accord with the newspaper s political views and express its gender politics. It has preserved conservative, traditional ideologies of womanhood to the extent that the ‘‘virgin-victim‘‘ is held as a virtuous figure at both ends of the century. It has supported anti-feminist discourse during both first- and second-wave feminist movements, circulating anti-feminist and traditionally gendered images that are viewed from the male gaze. The permanence of this male gaze and the close relationship between news and entertainment forms suggests that attempts to blame feminisation as a cause of tabloidisation are misapplied and the culprit is instead the drive to entertain for monetary gain.