Television and/as testimony in the Jimmy Savile case

In October 2012, TV presenter Jimmy Savile was identified as a sexual predator in an ITV documentary, Exposure. Focusing on documentaries dealing with the case, this article explores the interrogation and recalibration of the television archive. Paying attention both to the use of archival footage of Savile, and televisual testimony of victim/survivors, I argue that the Savile documentaries present an unusual space where victim/survivor testimony is accumulated and ultimately privileged. In light of the 2017 sexual abuse allegations in the film industry, the Savile case offers useful lessons in representing the aftermath of abuse in and on screen

Surviving street prostitution: two new films on harrowing realities for women in America

First paragraph: Fresh from its success at Sundance, where the British filmmaker Kim Longinotto picked up the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award, Dreamcatcher has had its UK premiere at theGlasgow Film Festival.  Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/surviving-street-prostitution-two-new-films-on-harrowing-realities-for-women-in-america-3832

Broadchurch was a fightback against many rape cliches in TV drama

First paragraph: I held my breath from the moment Julie Hesmondhalgh began her searing portrayal of Trish Winterman in the opening episode of Broadchurch’s third series. The drama saw the harrowing aftermath of rape depicted on primetime British television. I really hoped the production would not mess up the opportunity

Gender, comedy and reviewing culture on the Internet Movie Database

Despite its self-proclaimed position as “#1 movie website in the world” IMDb has been the focus of surprisingly little academic attention. The academic work which does exist has typically focused on its user-generated content and has, in various ways, used this as a means of investigating a sub-section of the film audience whilst nevertheless acknowledging that IMDb users are likely to differ from film audiences. This article explores whether gender identity is one of the ways in which IMDb users and film audiences may differ. Based on an analysis of IMDb’s own rater demographics, combined with a content analysis of IMDb reviews for three contemporary gender comedies – (500) Days of Summer, The Hangover and Bridesmaids - I argue that IMDb is discursively constructed as a male space where male voices and systems of value dominate

Rape and death threats are all too common in feminist circles, just ask Laura Bates

First paragraph: From jokes to rape, there have been nearly 60,000 posts by women recounting their experiences of sexism and sexist violence since journalist and feminist Laura Bates launched her Everyday Sexism project in April 2012. Now the material has been collected for the first time in a bookof the same name. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/rape-and-death-threats-are-all-too-common-in-feminist-circles-just-ask-laura-bates-2541

The sex of sexual violence

This chapter explains how feminists have sought to understand the sex of sexual violence, particularly rape

Fifty Shades of Grey is just an old-fashioned romance – that's the problem

First paragraph: Fifty Shades of Grey film opens this Valentine’s weekend to much fanfare but, perhaps tellingly, with few press previews in the UK. With one UK cinema chain reporting advance ticket sales worth £1.3m, it’s pretty clear the adaptation of E L James’s best-selling book is going to be critic-proof.  Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-is-just-an-old-fashioned-romance-thats-the-problem-3744

Louis Theroux’s new Jimmy Savile documentary is a horrible misstep

First paragraph: The original BBC documentary by Louis Theroux in 2000 about Jimmy Savile, the former British TV star thought to have sexually abused at least 500 women and children, was uncomfortable viewing even before his crimes were common knowledge. Watching with the benefit of hindsight, one moment that really sticks out in When Louis Met Jimmy is when Theroux finds a notepad with his ex-directory phone number on it. “There’s nothing I cannot get,” Savile tells him. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/louis-therouxs-new-jimmy-savile-documentary-is-a-horrible-misstep-6642

Tout(e) Varda: the DVD collection as authorworld

In 2012, Ciné-Tamaris released Tout(e) Varda, a DVD boxset spanning filmmaker Agnès Varda’s sixty-year career to that date. Although relatively unusual in the degree of control Varda seems to have had in curating the collection, this box set is a logical development of Varda’s work of the 2000s in which she has increasingly interrogated her oeuvre and career. This article argues for the significance of the collection – and the paratextual material it includes – for an analysis of Varda and her work. But it also seeks to position the analysis within the wider context of DVD scholarship, where – despite a recurring concern with both the commercial and didactic functions of auteurism - the authorial collection has attracted little attention. An analysis of Tout(e) Varda points to the importance of considering the formal qualities of paratextual material as well as their thematic concerns. Tout(e) Varda offers not a definitive commentary on Varda’s work, but rather extends its formal and thematic preoccupations, albeit in ways which are at times contradictory, constructing Varda as both an unreliable curator and unreliable narrator

What's in a name? Theorising the Inter-relationships of gender and violence

This paper explores the representational practices of feminist theorising around gender and violence. Adapting Liz Kelly’s notion of the continuum of women’s experiences of sexual violence, I argue that 'continuum thinking' can offer important interventions which unsettle binaries, recognise grey areas in women's experiences and avoid 'othering' specific communities. Continuum thinking allows us to understand connections whilst nevertheless maintaining distinctions that are important conceptually, politically, legally. However, this is dependent upon recognising the multiplicity of continuums in feminist theorising – as well as in policy contexts – and the different ways in which they operate. A discussion of contemporary theory and policy suggests that this multiplicity is not always recognised, resulting in a flattening of distinctions which can make it difficult to recognise the specifically gendered patterns of violence and experience. I conclude by considering how focusing on men's behaviour might offer one way of unsettling the contemporary orthodoxy which equates gender-based violence and violence against women