What's natural about killing? Gender, copycat violence and Natural Born Killers

Citation

Boyle K (2001) What's natural about killing? Gender, copycat violence and Natural Born Killers. Journal of Gender Studies, 10 (3), pp. 311-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589230120086511

Abstract
With a lawsuit implicating Natural Born Killers in real-world violence still pending [at the time of publication in 2001], the representation of violence in Oliver Stone's 1994 film remains a controversial issue. This article examines the gendering of violence - both in the film itself and in three of the most infamous 'copycat' cases - and demonstrates that the apparently gender-neutral term 'natural born killers' is used to disguise the normalisation of male violence on- and off-screen. While male violence is normalised, it is argued that representations of female violence emphasise transformation and undercut women's violent subjectivity through a re-positioning of women as erotic objects.

Keywords
gender; copycat violence; Natural Born Killers; effects.

Journal
Journal of Gender Studies: Volume 10, Issue 3