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Reproducing gendered and orientalist narratives - The representation of Western IS-women in Swedish media

Bergström, Natasja LU (2020) STVK12 20201
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Development and international relations discourses have for a long-time
represented women through dichotomous portrayals, either as liberated Western women or as oppressed Eastern women. The former being the heroic saviour of the latter. The subject of Western women joining the Islamic State, has not only received extensive media attention but proved the dichotomous portrayals of women to be insufficient. To make sense of women’s political violence, gendered and orientalist narratives have been applied both by scholars and media. This research explores the dominant narratives in the representations of Western ISwomen in Swedish media, through the lens of postcolonial feminism. The data is a collection of news articles and radio programs,... (More)
Development and international relations discourses have for a long-time
represented women through dichotomous portrayals, either as liberated Western women or as oppressed Eastern women. The former being the heroic saviour of the latter. The subject of Western women joining the Islamic State, has not only received extensive media attention but proved the dichotomous portrayals of women to be insufficient. To make sense of women’s political violence, gendered and orientalist narratives have been applied both by scholars and media. This research explores the dominant narratives in the representations of Western ISwomen in Swedish media, through the lens of postcolonial feminism. The data is a collection of news articles and radio programs, which are analysed through qualitative content analysis. The findings show that Swedish media have to a large extent represented IS-women as brainwashed teenagers, oppressed Muslim wives,
and traumatised victims. These sexualised and racialised representations raise questions about the inability to recognise women’s agency, as well as the implications media representation has on the knowledge received and potentially reproduced by the public. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Bergström, Natasja LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20201
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
media representation, women, gender, political violence, ISIS, Islamic state, postcolonial feminism, narrative, orientalism, neo-orientalism
language
English
id
9011403
date added to LUP
2020-08-05 11:19:25
date last changed
2020-08-05 11:19:25
@misc{9011403,
  abstract     = {{Development and international relations discourses have for a long-time
represented women through dichotomous portrayals, either as liberated Western women or as oppressed Eastern women. The former being the heroic saviour of the latter. The subject of Western women joining the Islamic State, has not only received extensive media attention but proved the dichotomous portrayals of women to be insufficient. To make sense of women’s political violence, gendered and orientalist narratives have been applied both by scholars and media. This research explores the dominant narratives in the representations of Western ISwomen in Swedish media, through the lens of postcolonial feminism. The data is a collection of news articles and radio programs, which are analysed through qualitative content analysis. The findings show that Swedish media have to a large extent represented IS-women as brainwashed teenagers, oppressed Muslim wives,
and traumatised victims. These sexualised and racialised representations raise questions about the inability to recognise women’s agency, as well as the implications media representation has on the knowledge received and potentially reproduced by the public.}},
  author       = {{Bergström, Natasja}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Reproducing gendered and orientalist narratives - The representation of Western IS-women in Swedish media}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}