Cops and the Performance of White Masculine Decline

Examining the interconnection of gender, race, and social class in the representation of white female domestic violence complainants on the popular television series Cops, this analysis illustrates how roles in the performance of the criminal justice system can be used to address the crisis in white...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRace, gender & class (Towson, Md.) Vol. 21; no. 3/4; pp. 174 - 188
Main Author Whitehead, Stephanie Nichol
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Orleans Race, Gender & Class 01.07.2014
Race, Gender and Class
Subjects
Actors
Anxiety
Broadcasting
Civil rights
Civil rights movements
Criminal justice
Cultural identity
Domestic violence
Ethnic identity
Females
Gender roles
Identity
Lower class
Males
Marginality
Masculinity
Mass media
Mass media violence
Men
Police
Political power
Politics
Popularity
Race
Rights
Sexes
Social classes
Social exclusion
Society
Television
Victimization
Victims
Violence against women
White people
Women
United States > US
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Summary:Examining the interconnection of gender, race, and social class in the representation of white female domestic violence complainants on the popular television series Cops, this analysis illustrates how roles in the performance of the criminal justice system can be used to address the crisis in white masculinity. Central to this examination is the crisis in white masculinity and the felt social, cultural and political margmalization of white men brought about by radical social and cultural changes since the civil rights movement. In this article, I examine Cops as the manifestation of this crisis—as a place where individuals manage and exorcise their anxieties and fears in relation to this crisis in identity. Utilizing thirty-five domestic violence vignettes from the series, I argue that the series portrays white male police officers as 'victims' of marginalized others, in this case lower class white women, in order to mark and exorcise the transition of white masculinity in the modern US.
ISSN:1082-8354