Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders by Louise Wattis

Author:Louise Wattis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030013851
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Reflecting on Feminism’s Narratives and Counter-Narratives

This chapter has explored the relationship between the Sutcliffe case and feminism in the 1970s. The figure of the Yorkshire Ripper was invoked by feminists as emblematic and constitutive of the threat and actuality of male violence against women within patriarchy . Moreover, police and media discourses of victim-blaming and indifference towards victims predicated on assumptions about feminine respectability and sexual propriety were a further focus for feminist outrage in the face of blatant misogyny , which was especially marked in the framing of women linked to prostitution. Alongside the development of feminist theory, feminist history during this period presents a powerful account of consciousness-raising, local activism (in particular the RTN marches) and a collective experience of women’s fear in response to the localised threat of the male serial killer (Hanmer and Saunders 1984; Spare Rib 1980; Ceresa 1981; Ward Jouve 1988; Stead 1980; Mackay 2014, 2015). Below Mackay (2015) presents an effective summation of how the murders and public reaction propelled 1970s feminism at the local level and beyond:For many women active in the WLM at the time, the national focus and paternalistic, sexist and societal response to these murders gave a very real resonance to the political theory being produced on VAW in that period. (Mackay 2015: 84)

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