Home is where the hate is: gender, race, class and the domestic abuse plotline in fiction and on screen

ABSTRACT

The article examines the representation of domestic violence in the novel and screen versions of The Girl on the Train and series 1 and 2 of Big Little Lies. It argues that in the last five years there has been a boom in depictions of domestic abuse, ranging from radio and soap operas, such as The Archers and Eastenders, to the “glossy” screen productions examined in the article. This reflects fourth-wave feminist interest in hidden forms of gendered violence and the extension to existing laws on intimate partner abuse in the US and UK. This article argues that, while the popular female-authored domestic crime novels that The Girl on the Train and Big Little Lies are based on highlight economic disadvantage and patriarchal privilege as factors determining domestic abuse, the screen adaptations veer towards an emphasis on individual couple dynamics and victim-blaming. It focuses particularly on sexism and racism in the second series of Big Little Lies. Written by veteran Hollywood screenwriter David E. Kelley along with high-profile white female stars, the series shifts emphasis away from gendered violence and towards intergenerational female conflict by blaming domestic violence on two older female figures, one of them an African-American woman.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic abuse
• race
• fourth-wave feminism
• crime fiction
• Hollywood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Kelley has written many popular US dramas including Ally McBeal, a programme that received much criticism from feminists for its depiction of the “post-feminist” heroine.

2. The vicious treatment of non-white women in the British media is illustrated by the frequent attacks on Meghan Markle’s appearance and clothing. This was compounded by increased hostility and ridicule after Markle publicly revealed the constant negative commentary had prompted severe mental distress and even suicidal thoughts.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roberta Garrett

Roberta Garrett is a senior lecturer in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at the University of East London. She has written widely on representations of gender, class and race in popular literature and film. She is the author of Postmodern Chick-Flicks: the Return of the Woman’s Film (Palgrave, 2008), co-editor of We Need to Talk About Family: Essays on Neoliberalism, the Family and Popular Culture (Cambridge Scholars, 2016) and author of Writing the Modern Family: Contemporary Literature, Motherhood and Neoliberal Culture (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021). Recently published works include chapters on Game of Thrones, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, maternal memoirs and the figure of the ‘mumpreneur’ in popular culture. Forthcoming projects include a Bloomsbury Contemporary Critical Perspectives on Rachel Cusk. Roberta also teaches and writes prose fiction. Her last short story, entitled ‘So Lucky’ was published on The Casket of Fictional Delights website in 2020 (also read by Menna Bonsels). The story was performed by actors from the Bob Hope Theatre at the Eltham Centre in October 2018, and Roberta read this and other stories at the Greenwich Book Festival in 2019.