Black Femininity and Stand Your Ground: Controlling Images and the Elusive Defense of Self-Defense

Benz, Terressa A.

doi:10.1177/0896920520932980

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Beyond Benz’s detailed investigation of the “controlling images” that “cast Black women as domineering, aggressive, irresponsible mothers, who are incapable of the fear necessary to invoke SYG,” most studies lack a robustly intersectional analysis that considers how gender, race, class, and other categories of identity intersect to exclude most women, particularly women of color, from the purported benefits of SYG laws. 17 Given that Black women and other women of color are disproportionately at risk in the U.S. for violence and criminalization, we urge that ongoing studies of SYG laws take pains to place them at the center of their analyses. 18 Otherwise, we risk obfuscating the complex socio-legal, historic, and epistemic effects of SYG laws, particularly their distorting impact on the nation’s criminal legal system.…”

Section: Stand Your Ground Laws and The Evolution Of “Self-defense”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender and Stand Your Ground Laws: A Critical Appraisal of Existing Research

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Thomas²,

Yakubovich

2023

J. Law. Med. Ethics

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Section: Stand Your Ground Laws and The Evolution Of “Self-defense”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender and Stand Your Ground Laws: A Critical Appraisal of Existing Research

Light

Thomas²,

Yakubovich

2023

J. Law. Med. Ethics

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“…The punishment that controlling images make possible carries particular implications for formerly incarcerated Black women’s mothering practices as they are imagined as pathological mothers who create broken homes (Gurusami 2019). Presumptions of Black women as aggressive, in need of discipline, and as fearless are also wielded to punish Black women’s attempts at self-defense when their physical safety is threatened (Benz 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We’re Not All Anti-Choices”: How Controlling Images Shape Latina/x Feminist Abortion Advocacy

García

2022

Sociological Perspectives

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Reproductive politics and Latinxs’ politics demonstrate a preoccupation with representations and discourses across time and space. Intersectional feminists theorize how controlling images function as mechanisms of social control by distorting holistic perceptions of marginalized people. While social movement research documents the importance of culture in collective action, little research applies a controlling images interpretive framework to social movement contexts. An important case for examining Latina/x representations is the ideological terrain created by pro-abortion Latina/x feminist advocates. Utilizing a three-year ethnography with California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ), written materials produced by the organization, and in-depth interviews with staff, I argue that CLRJ highlights the limitations of existing research, uses feminist approaches to dialogue, and creates structural analyses of inequalities to challenge la santa (the saint), a controlling image centering cisgender mestiza and white Latinas used to assume that all Latinas make poor advocates for reproductive autonomy.

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Polarized Support for Intimate Partner Violence Gun-Related Interventions

Groggel

2023

Social Problems

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Social movements pushed to reconceptualize intimate partner violence (IPV) as a social problem deserving of intervention rather than a private family matter. However, little work has examined which interventions the public is likely to support. How and where do personal politics affect perceptions of and responses to a social problem? To address these questions, 739 participants read a victim’s narrative from a court case and indicated their concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order, prohibiting the abuser from owning a gun, or the victim owning a gun to protect herself. Concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order was widespread, regardless of political leaning, with minor variations driven by role-taking and attitudes towards IPV. Similarly, support for the victim receiving a protection order was high, with political ideology and political affiliation having no direct effects. While concern increased support for each intervention, it held less explanatory power for gun-related interventions. Instead, political ideology and affiliation shaped support for disarming the abuser or arming the victim. Support for these interventions seemed to filter through a political lens. Thus, one’s personal politics drive divergent intervention attitudes, even when concern for a social problem is shared.

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Black Femininity and Stand Your Ground: Controlling Images and the Elusive Defense of Self-Defense

Cited by 4 publications

References 41 publications

Gender and Stand Your Ground Laws: A Critical Appraisal of Existing Research

Gender and Stand Your Ground Laws: A Critical Appraisal of Existing Research

“We’re Not All Anti-Choices”: How Controlling Images Shape Latina/x Feminist Abortion Advocacy

Polarized Support for Intimate Partner Violence Gun-Related Interventions

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