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ABSTRACT
The term ‘coercive control’, referring to patterns of control, manipulation and abuse committed against current or former intimate partners and family members, has entered both the cultural and legal lexicon within the last ten years. Law reform efforts in common law countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, have meant that coercive control is recognised as a crime in some jurisdictions. In this article I argue that the widespread recognition of coercive control as a damaging aspect of domestic violence serves as an example of how feminism, law and popular culture are in relation with one another. The concept has moved from feminist advocates to find expression in popular culture and then to new legislation. I suggest that the shift in public understanding of this concept, including importantly by legislators, is indicated by depictions of coercive control in popular culture and look at two examples from the 2010s: the Netflix television series Jessica Jones, and the Disney animated movie Tangled. Both emerge around the same time that feminist advocates begin to propose domestic violence legislation criminalising coercive control and coincide with the consolidated efforts of feminist lawyers working both nationally and internationally.
Acknowledgments
An early version of this paper was presented at the Romancing the Tomes 2.0: Feminism, Law and Popular Culture workshop in 2023. I thank the workshop participants for their generous comments, and I am additionally very grateful to the co-organisers of the workshop, Jo Commins and Roanna McClelland, as well as editors of this collection who have provided incredible support throughout. I also wish to thank the peer reviewers for their important feedback.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 While there is currently no established common definition for the term, the different national policies share similar wording and encompass some common elements. These are mainly patterns of abusive, controlling, or manipulative behaviours in the context of an intimate or familial relationship. I will be using the term ‘coercive control’ in this article to broadly reference this understanding, drawing from definitions across different statutes and timeframes.
2 As Margaret Thornton demonstrates, this included Australian feminists: Margaret Thornton and Johanna Commins, ‘On Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism: A Public Conversation’ (2024) 50(1) AFLJ (forthcoming).
3 The term ‘battered’ can be traced back to American psychologist Lenore E Walker, founder of the US-based Domestic Violence Institute, and author of the 1979 book, The Battered Woman. See: Lenore E Walker, The Battered Woman (Harper & Row 1979). The term is falling into disuse, in favour of more inclusive terms such as ‘gender-based violence’ and ‘intimate partner violence’, which are more gender neutral and inclusive of non-heteronormative relationships and families.
4 Jessica Jones (Netflix 2015-2019).
5 Tangled (Disney 2010).
6 Margaret Thornton (ed), Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism (Cavendish Publishing 2002).
7 The author was one of three organisers of the workshop Romancing the Tomes 2.0: Feminism, Law and Popular Culture, held at Melbourne Law School in 2023 and a contributing editor to this Special Issue.
8 Rhonda Copeland argued for the recognition of domestic violence as torture in an influential article in 1994, though like Evan Stark, the advocacy work was also carried forward by many more organisations and movements. Aside from Rhonda Copeland and others’ scholarship, the advocacy efforts within United Nations processes resulted in the United Nations Committee Against Torture’s General Comment 2 from 2008 and a dedicated thematic report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2019, that accept the framing of domestic violence as an aspect of torture, which the state is responsible for: Rhonda Copeland, ‘Recognizing the Egregious in the Everyday: Domestic Violence as Torture.’ (1994) 25 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 291.
9 For example: Jia Xue and others, ‘The Hidden Pandemic of Family Violence During COVID-19: Unsupervised Learning of Tweets’ (2020) 22 Journal of Medical Internet Research e24361.
10 Some of these debates are captured in Volume 20 of the Australian Feminist Law Journal from 2004: Margaret Davies and Cathy Mack observe that ‘Feminists recognise that law is blunt as an instrument of change and has unpredictable and often ambivalent results in terms of a feminist social agenda’; while in the same issue, Susan Armstrong offers a succinct summary of some of the debates around the effectiveness of feminist law reform efforts, and the range of approaches, from alternative justice to concerns about appropriation of feminist arguments to support repressive responses: Margaret Davies and Kathy Mack, ‘Legal Feminism – Now and Then?’ (2004) 20 AFLJ 1; Susan M Armstrong, ‘Is Feminist Law Reform Flawed? Abstentionists & Sceptics’ (2004) 20 AFLJ 43.
11 Kate Fitz-Gibbon et al examine these debates in the Australian context with data from an Australian national survey of victim-survivors’ views on the criminalization of coercive control: Kate Fitz-Gibbon and others, ‘The Criminalization of Coercive Control’ in Heather Douglas and others, (eds), The Criminalization of Violence Against Women (Oxford University Press 2023)
12 Jessica Jones (Netflix 2015-2019).
13 Tangled (Disney 2010).
14 Nan Seuffert. ‘Domestic Violence, Discourses of Romantic Love, and Complex Personhood in the Law’ in Margaret Thornton (ed), Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism (Cavendish Publishing 2002) 89.
15 Domestic abuse is inclusive of both violent and non-violent behaviours, while domestic violence is specific to violent behaviours.
16 ‘Battered women’ as a term had strong prevalence a few decades ago, as did ‘violence against women’. At the time of writing, the more commonly used terms taking over are ‘gender-based violence’ and ‘intimate partner violence’, which are more gender neutral and inclusive of non-heteronormative relationships and families. ‘Violence against women’ is still in use to draw attention to the disproportionate impact on women, while ‘battered’ has fallen into disuse.
17 Seuffert (n 14) 90.
18 As cited by Evan Stark, “The ‘Coercive Control Framework’: Making Law Work for Women” in Marilyn McMahon and Paul McGorrery (eds), Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law (Springer 2020).
19 Serious Crime Act 2015 (England and Wales) s 76; Domestic Abuse Act 2018 (Scotland); Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 s 1.
20 At the federal level, the ‘National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence’ were introduced in 2023. Legislative reforms recognising coercive control as a criminal offense have passed in two states: Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022 (New South Wales) and the Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Queensland).
21 An act to amend the Canadian Criminal Code and include coercive control as a type of assault had its second reading in the House of Commons in November 2023. See: ‘Act to amend the Criminal Code (coercive control of intimate partner)’ Canadian Parliament Bill C-332 (2021-2024).
22 The California State Legislature amended its Family Code to include coercive control in 2020; the Hawaii State Legislature made a similar amendment in 2021, for laws relating to domestic abuse protective orders.
23 Australian Attorney General, “Understanding Coercive Control Fact Sheets” (Attorney-General’s Department, March 5, 2024) <https://www.ag.gov.au/families-and-marriage/publications/understanding-coercive-control-fact-sheets> accessed 13 May 2024.
24 Evan Stark, Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (Oxford University Press 2009). Preceded by an earlier version, Coercive Control: the Entrapment of Women in Personal Life (Oxford University Press 2007). However, it appears the 2009 version is more widely referenced.
25 This includes expert testimony in Challen v Challen, a UK case where the claimant appealed the life sentence that she received in 2011, before the UK legislation on coercive control was adopted. According to Evan Stark’s obituary, in 2019, he ‘flew to London to give expert evidence at the court of appeal in the case of Sally Challen’, who was subsequently released that year. Challen v Challen [2020] 3 WLR 440; Cassandra Wiener, ‘Evan Stark Obituary’ The Guardian (London, 7 April 2024). Available online: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/evan-stark-obituary> accessed 13 May 2024.
26 UK Domestic Abuse Act Overarching Fact Sheet. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-overarching-factsheet. Accessed 7 May 2023.
27 Stark (n 18) 5.
28 For instance: Marsha Scott, ‘The Making of the New “Gold Standard”: The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018’ in Marilyn McMahon and Paul McGorrery (eds), Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law. Eds. (Springer 2020).
29 Some articles that use the term ‘landmark’ include the following, in chronological order: Meg Lewis & Jennifer Sadler-Venis, ‘Domestic abuse: draft UK bill provisions underscored by Sally Challen retrial’ International Bar Association (25 March 2019) www.ibanet.org/article/CCC52E12-C647-41DA-8ADF-3D6E5B814B11 UK Home Office, Ministry of Justice, The Rt Hon Robert Buckland KC MP, and The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, ‘Landmark Domestic Abuse Bill receives Royal Assent’ (29 April 2021) www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-domestic-abuse-bill-receives-royalassent Charlotte Killeen, ‘Evaluating the Domestic Abuse Act’ Green World (16 June 2021) <greenworld.org.uk/article/evaluating-domestic-abuse-act> Accessed 7 May 2023.
30 UNHCR, ‘United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem: Official Visit to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 12 - 21 February 2024: SUMMARY OF PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS’ 2.
31 Ibid 4.
32 Sayomi Ariyawansa, Anjalee de Silva & Balawyn Jones, ‘Introduction: Conceptualisations of Violence’, (2022) 48 Australian Feminist Law Journal, 1-9.
33 Jane Wangmann, ‘Law Reform Processes and Criminalising Coercive Control’ (2022) 48 Australian Feminist Law Journal, 57-86.
34 Marilyn McMahon and Paul McMahon (eds), Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law (Springer Nature 2020).
35 The ‘Beijing babies’ refer to feminists who were either children or not yet born at the time of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, where the ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ (BDPfA, or Beijing Platform) was adopted.
36 Feministing closed down in December 2019 after 15 years of production. See: ‘(B)logging off forever.’ (Feministing, 18 December 2019) <https://feministing.com/2019/12/08/blogging-off-feministing-forever/> accessed 2 May 2023.
37 Dani Blum. ‘Rookie Mag And The Shrinking Spaces To Grow Up Online’ Forbes (US, 18 December 2018) <https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniblum/2018/12/05/rookie-mag-and-the-shrinking-spaces-to-grow-up-online/?sh=3912cf3b6a66> accessed 11 August 2023
38 The independent feminist media site Bitch Magazine’s membership program was originally named B-Hive; in 2013, a venture capital funded media company, Bustle, was launched, and a few years later started its membership program with the same name, an illustration of corporate feminism taking over the space. See: Bitch HQ, ‘You’re Getting Hustled Bustle’ Bitch Media (US, 9 June 2017) <https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/youre-getting-hustled-bustle/and-weve-got-few-things-say> accessed 11 August 2023
39 FII Team, ‘About Feminism in India’ (Feminism in India, 8 May 2016) <https://feminisminindia.com/about/> accessed May 30, 2024.
40 The Third World Conference on Women was one of four world conferences on women, the last of which took place in 1995 in Beijing. The 1995 conference resulted in the adoption of the ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ (BDPfA, or Beijing Platform), a policy document that was unanimously adopted by 189 governments and is considered the ‘blueprint for advancing women’s rights’. The Beijing Platform identified 12 ‘critical areas of concern’, of which one is ‘Violence Against Women’. See: United Nations ‘Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women’ (Beijing, 2–15 September 1995) UN Doc A/CONF.177/20/Rev.1
41 There is a significant amount of scholarship and firsthand data on the spike in domestic violence due to the pandemic: this article includes several references to examples in Asia. Helen Jaqueline McLaren and others, ‘Covid-19 and Women’s Triple Burden: Vignettes from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia’ (2020) 9(5) Social Sciences 87.
42 ‘The personal is political’ was a title given to a 1970 essay by Carol Hanisch, published Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation. Hanisch believes the title originates from the editors Shulie Firestone and Anne Koedt, and wrote her piece responding to the criticism of consciousness-raising as ‘just therapy’. Her original essay and an additional introduction from 2006 are available online: Caroline Hanisch, ‘The Personal Is Political: The Women’s Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction’ (Carol Hanisch, January 2006) https://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html accessed 11 December 2023.
43 These efforts resulted in two relative successes in the context of international law. The most recent one is a dedicated thematic report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, delivered to the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, that makes six recommendations to address domestic violence (UN Doc UNGA/74/148). The thematic report followed almost a decade after a reference to domestic violence in the United Nations Committee Against Torture’s General Comment 2 from 2008. In this document, the Committee holds that a state’s ‘indifference or inaction provides a form of encouragement and/or de facto permission’, meaning states can be considered responsible for ‘failure to prevent and protect victims from gender-based violence, such as rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, and trafficking’. UNCHR ‘General comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2 by States parties’ (24 January 2008) UN Doc CAT/C/GC/2, para 18.
44 This comparison between torture and slavery (as two kinds of unacceptable practices that should be eradicated) carries forward from the Amnesty campaign to other anti-torture advocates, including in the work of Manfred Nowak, former Special Rapporteur on torture, who in the introduction to The United Nations Convention Against Torture: A Commentary, writes ‘Slavery and torture, as the two most extreme forms of dehumanizing human beings by depriving them of human dignity, have more in common than one would expect at the outset. In ancient Greek and Roman times, for example, witness testimony of slaves in civil or criminal proceedings was only admitted if confirmed under torture.’ See: Manfred Nowak and Elizabeth McArthur, The United Nations Convention Against Torture: A Commentary (2nd edn, Oxford University Press, 2019).
45 Natasa Mavronicola, Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2019) Introduction, 1.
46 Steven Greer, ‘Is the Prohibition against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment Really ‘Absolute’ in International Human Rights Law?’ (2015) 15(1) Human Rights Law Review, 101.
47 Jia Xue and others (n 9)
48 Sleeping with the Enemy (Directed by Joseph Ruben, 1991).
49 Fried Green Tomatoes (Directed by Jon Avnet, 1991).
50 No One Would Tell (Directed by Noel Nosseck, 1996).
51 Enough (Directed by Michael Apted, 2002).
52 British soap operas Coronation Street and EastEnders have both included storylines that depicted domestic violence; in 2001, EastEnders character Mo Slater, whose husband was depicted as isolating and abusing her, reached a breaking point and attacked her husband with an iron. Although more recent, the American soap opera Virgin River which debuted in 2019 also had a character, Paige Lassiter, who was fleeing a violent husband.
53 Enough (Directed by Michael Apted, 2002).
54 Practical Magic (Directed by Griffin Dunne, 1995).
55 Jessica Jones (Netflix 2015-2019).
56 Tangled (Disney 2010).
57 Jessica Jones (Netflix 2015-2019).
58 The first was Ironman, released in 2008, and more films are scheduled for release till at least 2027: Danny Salemme and Simon Gallagher, “Every Upcoming Marvel Movie: Full MCU Phase 5 & 6 List (& Beyond)” (Screen Rant, May 11, 2020) <https://screenrant.com/marvel-upcoming-movies-list-release-dates/> accessed May 27, 2024.
59 Jessica Jones. Melissa Rosenberg, (Netflix 2015).
60 Tangled (Disney 2010).
61 The Brothers Grimm, The Complete Fairy Tales (Random House 2010).
62 For more on who does and does not make the cut to the official princess pantheon, see for instance, Peter C Kunze, ‘Revise and Resubmit: Beauty and the Beast (2017), Live-Action Remakes, and the Disney Princess Franchise’ (2021) 23 Feminist Media Studies 121.
63 IMDbPro. ‘2010 World Box Office’. (Box Office Mojo, 20 May 2020) <https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2010/> accessed 11 August 2023
64 Alia R Tyner-Mullings, ‘Disney Animated Movies, Their Princesses, and Everyone Else’ (2023) 26 Information, Communication & Society 891.
65 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney 1937).
66 Cinderella (Disney 1950).
67 Sleeping Beauty (Disney 1958).
68 The Little Mermaid (Disney 1989).
69 The Princess and the Frog (Disney 2009).
70 Frozen (Disney 2010).
71 Ustinia Dolgopol. ‘Searching for justice: the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal,’ Open Democracy. (12 May 2015). <https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/netflix-viewership-jessica-jones-master-231034151.html> accessed 19 January 2024
72 Patricia Grisafi Tu. ‘“Jessica Jones” & My Experience As A Survivor’. Bustle. (2 December 2015) https://www.bustle.com/articles/126731-what-jessica-jones-got-right-about-my-experience-as-a-survivor accessed 11 August 2023
73 Danielle Tyson. “Coercive Control and Intimate Partner Homicide” in Marilyn McMahon and Paul McGorrery (eds), Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law (Springer 2020).
74 As cited by Smith, J. A., Pocratsky, B. L., Kiss, M., & Suero, C. ‘Streaming Popular Feminism: Netflix’s Jessica Jones as Feminist Hero.’ (2021) 43(2) Studies in Popular Culture 105.
75 Jack Zipes, “Media-Hyping of Fairy Tales,” in Maria Tatar (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Fairy Tales (Cambridge University Press 2014).
76 Lady Geek Girl & Friends. ‘In Brightest Day: The Emotional Abuse of Tangled’, (Lady Geek Girl, 29 October 2013) <https://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/in-brightest-day-the-emotional-abuse-of-tangled/> accessed 11 August 2023.
77 Tangled (Disney 2010).
78 Ibid.
79 Roth Cornet, ‘“Tangled” Review’ (Screenrant, 24 November, 2010). <https://screenrant.com/tangled-reviews/.> accessed 11 August 2023.
80 ‘Look what you’ve done’ or ‘See what you made me do’ or similar phrases are often used by abusers to blame victims for provoking their actions. A 2019 book, See What You Made Me Do, is a four-year investigation of domestic abuse by journalist Jess Hill. Jess Hill, See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse (Black Inc 2019).
81 Jessica Jones (Netflix 2015-2019).
82 Tangled (Disney 2010).
83 Serious Crime Act 2015 (England and Wales)
84 Cassandra Wiener, ‘From Social Construct to Legal Innovation: The Offence of Controlling or Coercive Behaviour in England and Wales’ in Marilyn McMahon and Paul McGorrery (eds), Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law (Springer 2020).
85 As cited by Margaret Davies, ‘Legal Theory and Law Reform’ (2003) 28 Alternative Law Journal 168.
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Sanam Amin
Sanam Amin is a Bangladeshi activist, writer and researcher working with feminist and human rights movements for the past decade. She has co-led campaigns such as the Women’s Global Strike and #BlockBlackRock. She is a current PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School. Her research examines state torture and international law.