Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Examining the interconnection of race, class and gender in the representation of white female domestic violence complainants on the popular television series Cops, this analysis illustrates how roles in the performance of the criminal justice system can be used to address the crisis in white masculinity. Central to this examination is the felt social, cultural and political marginalization of white men brought about by radical social and cultural changes since the civil rights movement. Drawing on Bahktin’s discussion of the carnivalesque, I examine Cops as a carnival experience where individuals manage and exorcise their anxieties and fears in relation to this crisis in identity. Utilizing twenty-two domestic violence vignettes from the series and a number of secondary texts, including the Cops website chat room and blogs, I argue that white female complainants are represented as white trash in order to sustain the sense of white male victimization as pure and real.