Book Review: Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women Who Kill: Murder, Medicine and Motherhood

Abstract

Feminist legal scholars have recognized for quite some time that women who kill provide an important space for the deconstruction of representations of gender. Moreover, the ensuing socio-legal response often provides valuable insight into wider social and cultural tensions. Both Lizzie Seal and Emma Cunliffe contribute significantly to the existing literature in this area, providing valuable insight as to the hegemonic power of law in perpetuating and maintaining representations of gender.Lizzie Seal's Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representation of Women Who Kill deconstructs typologies that are commonly found in discourse surrounding women who kill. Seal focuses on women who have committed 'unusual' murders, murders that occur outside of the context of heterosexual relationships or motherhood, as she suggests that these are both more disruptive and unsympathetic, and therefore wanting in feminist engagement. Following a very comprehensive overview of the literature surrounding women who kill, this concise text is then divided into two parts. Throughout Part I five typologies are developed, namely: the masculine woman; the damaged personality; the respectable woman; the witch; and the muse or mastermind dichotomy. Firmly grounded in sociology, Seal appears mindful to not only discuss each typology in terms of its implication for the construction of appropriate femininity, but also considers the impact of heterosexual norms, familial ideology, socioeconomic status and age. Furthermore these tropes are not left as abstract theories but are fully developed and illustrated by applying them to high-profile cases from England and other jurisdictions. It is suggested that transgressive women such as Myra Hindley and Rose West pose a 434Social & Legal Studies 21 (3)