Peddling the Margins of Gender-Based Violence: Canadian Media Coverage of Honour Killings

Jennifer Kilty, ed, Within the Confines: Women and the Law in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc, 2014)

Posted: 7 Oct 2014 Last revised: 30 Dec 2014

See all articles by Mythili Rajiva

Mythili Rajiva

University of Ottawa - Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies

Amar Khoday

University of Manitoba - Faculty of Law

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors argue that the mainstream Canadian media’s portrayal of honour killing draws upon racist and colonial imagery to demonize South Asian and/or Muslim cultures and masculinities. The construction of honour killing as endemic to certain cultures draws on a familiar binary of the uncivilized East/civilized West. The current obsession with honour killing displayed by media, government and the general population also deliberately obfuscates the grim reality of gender-based violence perpetrated across all sections of Canadian society. Violence against women is, thus, constructed as a problem found only in racialized communities rather than one that is also located in white Canadian culture.

Keywords: honour killings, honor killings, media, Canada, victims, racialized communities

Suggested Citation

Rajiva, Mythili and Khoday, Amar, Peddling the Margins of Gender-Based Violence: Canadian Media Coverage of Honour Killings (2012). Jennifer Kilty, ed, Within the Confines: Women and the Law in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc, 2014), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2505808

Mythili Rajiva (Contact Author)

University of Ottawa - Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies ( email )

Faculty of Social Sciences, 120 University
Social Sciences Building, Room 11002
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
Canada

Amar Khoday

University of Manitoba - Faculty of Law ( email )

224 Dysart Road
Faculty of Law
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
Canada

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