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Vi li i C t f Visualizing a Century of fictional film representations fictional film representations

of women and drugs: The Performance of Gender and

AddictionAddiction

Susan Boyd PhD University of Victoria Susan Boyd, PhD, University of Victoria. Funded by SSHRC

Introduction

Drug film: Full length fictional films where illegal drug use or trafficking is g g gthe focus

Films from 1912-2006

120 films prod ced in Britain Canada 120 films produced in Britain, Canada, & the United States

Cultural and Feminist CriminologygyA mode of analysis that embodies ysensitivities to gender, race, class, image, meaning, and representation in the study of g, p ycrime and control.

Questions the expansion of criminal justice Sand militarism, especially in the US

Illegal Drug films: Involve the production of meaning and truth claimsmeaning and truth claims.

The Power of Pictures

News photos have ideological significance becauseNews photos have ideological significance because they can “enhance, locate, or specify the ideological theme” (Hall, 1981)( , )Applying Hall’s exploration of news photos to film, we can see how representations of women illegal p gdrug users, drugs, addiction, and drug paraphernalia are fetishized in film “refracting the ideological theme at another level,” one that we come to recognize and understand.Pharmacological determinism.

Women and illegal drug filmsg g

M t ill l d fil d i t l b ddi fMost illegal drug films depict male buddies or groups of traffickers.

Women are mostly marginal to the film story.

Women’s dr g se is se ali ed raciali ed and class biasedWomen’s drug use is sexualized, racialized, and class-biased.

Pharmacological determinism.g

Women’s addiction and downfall are used to measure moral decline and the breakdown of the family and societydecline and the breakdown of the family and society.

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916 –y y p g (USA)

Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916 – USA)y y p g ( )

Fi t f ll l th d fil i E li hFirst full-length drug film in English

Sherlock Holmes character users cocaine and laudanum: Coke Ennyday.

His drug use is depicted as positive and helping with his detectiveHis drug use is depicted as positive and helping with his detective work.

Th l h i i B iThe moral heroine is Bessie.

In contrast: Opium trafficking by Asian men is depicted as evil.p g y p

Fishy Joe a trafficker tells Bessie: “Girl you are in my power!”

The Dividend (1916 - USA)( )

Broken Blossoms (1919 – USA)( )

Human Wreckage (1923 - USA)g ( )

The Pace that Kill (1928 – USA)( )

The Cocaine Fiends (1935 – USA)( )

Narcotic (1934 – USA)Narcotic (1934 USA)

Assassin of Youth (1935 – USA)( )

Marihuana, The Weed with Roots in Hell (1936 –USA)

Reefer Madness (1936 - USA)( )

Reefer Madness partyp y

The Trip (1967 - USA)p ( )

Valley of the Dolls (1967 –USA)y ( )

The Panic in Needle Park (1971 -(USA)

The Panic in Needle Park (1971 –(USA)

Drugstore Cowboy (1989 –USA)g y ( )

Postcards from the Edge (1990 –g (USA)

Losing Isaiah (1995 – USA)g ( )

Trainspotting (1996 – Britain)p g ( )

Trainspottingp g

Traffic (2000 – USA)( )

Traffic (2000 – USA)( )

Add photo

Blow (2001 – USA)( )

Clean (2004 – Canada, France, Britain)

Trailer Park Boys (2006 – Canada)y ( )

Gendered dichotomy between ydrug users

C i i li d S li d Criminalized, violent

Sexualized female

male usersusers

Women are punished for transgressing gender roles and law

s icide- suicide- overdose

sexual assault- sexual assault- sex trade work - violence/murderviolence/murder- overdose-child apprehensionpp- death of children- infants who exhibit NAS symptoms- infertility- death

Exceptions:pWomen: Saving Grace (2000 -UK)Drugstore Cowboy (1989)The Barbarian Invasions (2003 – Canada)Trailer Park Boys (2006 -Canada)Cl (2004 UK/C d /F )Clean (2004 –UK/Canada/France)

H R d ti S iHarm Reduction Services:

Wh ?Where are you?

Harm Reduction and Women?

I f h ill l d idImages of women who use illegal drugs provide a bounded set of meanings about drug use and offer by implication a narrow set ofand offer by implication, a narrow set of appropriate social responses to drug use.

The sense of crisis serves to legitimate punitive social and legal interventions rather thansocial and legal interventions rather than harm reduction initiatives.

Few positive representations of women and/or harm reduction.

.

Visualizing a Century of fictional Visualizing a Century of fictional film representations of women

d d h f f and drugs: The Performance of Gender and AddictionGender and Addiction

Susan Boyd, PhD, University of Victoria. Funded by SSHRCFunded by SSHRC