“Of Moguls, Monsters and Men”: Annual Communication and Media Lecture by Professor Karen Boyle

Feminist theory on the inter-relationship of gender and violence is built on an understanding that violence and sexual domination are inherent in dominant and culturally-valued ways of doing masculinity. At the same time, feminists have argued that the discursive creation of a category of monstrous men – paedophiles, serial killers, serial rapists – is an attempt to insist on a distinction between “aberrant” and “normal ” men, and so protect male dominance and the social ,cultural and political structures which support it. This paper will think through these issues in relation to media representations of Harvey Weinstein and other accused men, building on my book #MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism (Palgrave, 2019) but bringing it up-to-date through a consideration of media coverage of Weinstein in the lead up to his January 2020 criminal trial , as well as in coverage of the trial itself , This paper considers the enduring popular appeal of distinction and individual ism in understanding male violence and the challenges this poses for feminists who are committed both to holding individual men like Weinstein accountable whilst keeping in view the broader structures which enabled them to abuse.

Karen Boyle (@ProfKarenBoyle) is Professor of Feminist Media Studies and Director of Applied Gender Studies at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and a co- founder of Gender Equal Media Scotland @EqualMediaScot). She is the author of #MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism (Palgrave, 2019) and has written extensively on gender, violence and representation.