This essay will focus on the article “Man kills his new wife of their wedding day in front of horrified crowd of guests”, written by Stewart and Lynch (2022) and published in the Mirror online, and will provide a critical analysis of the way in which the Mirror has represented this case of gender-based violence by using literature and theory to support the analysis. The chosen article regards the murder of Oksana Poludentseva by her husband, Stephan Dolgikh, on their wedding day in Russia.
Before critically analysing the way that the Mirror has reported on this case, it is key to note the contextual background of the article, as it adds to the way in which the analysis will be interpreted. Firstly, the Mirror is a British tabloid, which according to Nadkarni, are “aimed at working class people” and tend to cover “sports, scandals and humor” as well as “scrappy entertainment” (2011), meaning that it doesn’t tend to be a platform to provide only factual accounts of events, in comparison to broadsheet newspapers. Instead, they tend to sensationalise and overemphasise events, which will therefore be considered when critically analysing this article.
To begin with, the title of the article itself is questionable in terms of the way it refers to the event that took place. Initially, when looking at the title of the article – ‘man kills his new wife’, no names are provided. Arguably, there could be a question as to whether the victim’s family wishes to keep the victim’s identity hidden or out of the public eye. However, the victim’s name, Oksana Poludentseva, is used later on in the article which suggests that this is not necessarily a matter of anonymity, but rather obscuring the victim’s identity to bring attention to the perpetrator instead. By using the terms “man” and “his wife”, it could be suggestive that the Mirror is removing power from the victim and placing it onto the perpetrator instead. The term “his wife” suggests that, outside of this, Poludentseva had no
Gender, violence and abuse identity other than being a wife. This is emphasised throughout the article, as it consistently refers to them being “newlywed” and him murdering her “on their wedding day”, suggesting that this may be the ‘main’ part of Poludentseva’s identity. While Poludentseva is Russian, this could align with movements such as #SayHerName, which emphasise the need for humanising victims as people, not just as someone who suffered gender-based violence. This is noted by Hooks (1992) and Moorti (2002, cited in Patrick and Rajiva, 2022), who state many women are “left off the screen” or are “pushed into narrow, stereotypical roles”. The emphasis within many media pieces continues to be placed on the perpetrator and his identity outside of the incident, rather than the victim.
This is further emphasised using language in terms of motive for the killing of Poludentseva; the perpetrator is reported as the “drunk husband” acting out in a “jealous rage” over his wife’s interactions with one of the guests at the wedding. According to a study conducted by Sutherland et al (2019, p.5), 15% of media reports “minimise perpetrator blame” by depicting the incident as one that is “motivated by love, jealousy, passion or revenge”. This links to the idea of ‘myths and misconceptions’, continued by Sutherland et al, which is that while news stories do not directly include misinformation regarding violence against women, it reinforces misconceptions as it often places emphasis on perpetrator’s actions being a direct result of intoxication, suggesting the incident may not have occurred, or may have occurred to a lesser extent, had the perpetrator not been intoxicated.
While the use of intoxication as a motive is not directly victim blaming, it correlates to the perpetrator being motivated by jealousy because of an alleged affair he believed his wife was having. Victim blaming in terms of affairs is a frequent theme in media pieces.
Research conducted by both Lee and Wong (2019) and Lloyd and Ramon (2016) suggest that the inclusion of information leading up to the event, such as an affair, diminishes agency of the perpetrator and places accountability onto the victim of the violence for their actions.
However, it must be considered that the newspapers used within Lloyd and Ramon’s study was from Canada, and therefore location and its context is considered when discussing its applicability to this media piece – regardless of this, the results from the study are still comparable to this article due to the similarities in both language and themes. Furthermore, the article highlights both within the subtitle and at the end the prevalence of domestic abuse within Russia. This could be interpreted in different ways, as on the surface, highlighting the prevalence of domestic violence seems to be beneficial for readers so they are aware of the issue; as mentioned in the article, “domestic violence in Russia is a serious problem” as “one in five women in Russia” are domestically abused each year. Including this appears to draw attention to the frequency of domestic violence, which many activists argue needs to happen so that it is recognised as a common problem that needs a solution.
Nevertheless, after analysing this, an alternative explanation for including these statistics could be that the author is attempting to frame the issue of domestic abuse as one that is a problem in other locations, but not in the UK where the newspaper was released. The article includes statistics such as “5,000 women in Russia were killed at the hands of their abuser” in 2018, as well as stating that, in Russia, domestic violence is a “serious problem”. While this could be helpful in raising awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence in Russia, it is also key to note most of the readers of the Mirror are predominantly British. As noted by Snow (2004), the way discourses arise is a two-way process; they are presented in a certain way, but also interpreted in a certain way, too.
Here, it could be argued that the writer is attempting to frame this incident as part of a bigger problem in another country, potentially taking away from the prevalence of domestic violence in the UK – according to the Office for National Statistics (2022), 2 women a week
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violence and abuse are killed by a partner or ex-partner in the UK, therefore proving that domestic violence is not only a “serious” issue in Russia despite the article framing it as one. As identified by both Crenshaw (2006) and Volpp (2000), cultural identity is a key factor in the way that incidents of gender-based violence is reported on in the media. While they draw on the ways in which women from ethnic minorities are affected by gender-based violence and framed in the media, it is still relevant as they suggest that there is a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ regarding the way violence is responded to. This article frames domestic violence as an issue more common and ‘serious’ in Russia through its wording and use of statistics, however the problem of gender-based violence is worldwide and should not be viewed as a locationspecific issue.
However, it must be considered that when discussing data collected from the Office for National Statistics, the data is not a completely accurate representation of the frequency of domestic violence. As noted by the Femicide Census (n.d.), the Office for National Statistics has rounded up the statistic from 1.53 women killed per week in the UK to 2, which creates problems as it averages out at 104 women killed per year, making it a false reflection of the real average number of 80 women a year. While this is still a large proportion of women killed by their current or former partner, it shows that the Office for National Statistics is not an entirely reliable source of information for statistical information and therefore must be kept in mind when discussing the prevalence of gender-based violence.
To continue, the article also continuously uses emotive language in order to depict the incident as abnormal and extreme. The writer uses language such as “dumping her body”, “grabbed her by the hair, hit her, pushed her out into the street” and “continued to strike her body and head”, as well as describing the guests as “horrified” and the incident as “shocking”. As mentioned above, the use of emotive language tends to be a feature of tabloid articles, due to its nature of ‘sensationalising’ events to create a more newsworthy story. Hart
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and Gilbertson (2018, p.9) draw on this use of emotive language in their work, whereby they analyse the use of strong, emotive language in the media and how it is used to “construct and perpetuate” the idea that gender-based violence is an individual case and not a societal issue. Describing the incident to be extremely violent and uncommon continues to reinforce the myth that the frequency of gender-based violence is low, making incidents such as the one in the article seem abnormal and drastic, while also ‘othering’ the perpetrators, making them seem as though they are abnormal or have potential problems, rather than acting out of control, agency and sound mind. This is also drawn on by Easteal et al (2015), who state that, by making the perpetrator appear as a “social outsider”, it perpetuates the idea that violence against women is rare and committed by a deviant individual, not a common problem that requires a societal change.
Reinforcing this point, the article also includes that the perpetrator had already been convicted of a crime prior to killing the victim, and that they had met while he was in prison.
It is stated that he was previously convicted of murder, but that Poludentseva felt as though she could “help to reform” him after his release. Not only does this reinforce the idea that perpetrators are ‘othered’ in media and are inherently violent, but it also links to the above point of victim blaming. The use of the phrase “help to reform” suggests that it was on the victim to ‘fix’ the perpetrator of his violent tendencies, and when she ‘failed’ to do so, she fell victim herself and was murdered. The concept of reforming a violent person places responsibility on others, especially women, in order to take it upon themselves to deal with violence, which is presented as help, rather than the perpetrator themselves.
Bullock and Cubert (2002, cited in Bullock, 2007) cover two subthemes, which that the victim is to blame, and/or the perpetrator can be exonerated. An interesting quote by them states that “surely we would never make the mistakes the victim made”, which suggests that there is framing in the media that the victim is inherently different to most women as she
‘made mistakes’ that others would view as an obvious indicator of violence, leading to them avoiding the perpetrator. By including in this article that the perpetrator had previously been convicted of murder and the victim was trying to ‘reform’ him further suggests that there is victim blaming, but also that there is ‘othering’ of the victim; the victim should have been ‘more aware’ of the violent tendencies of the perpetrator and therefore is ultimately blamed for her death.
On the contrary, to partially criticise Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ is this case. Christie (1986) discusses how the ideal victim is often young, white, female, middle-class and unrelated to the perpetrator, but this case regards a slightly older Russian female, who is married to the perpetrator. While she does not present as the ‘ideal victim’ in terms of Christie’s criteria, this could also show a way that the article is ‘othering’ the victim. If she is presented as different to the general public’s preconceptions of the ideal victim, it could be to further alienate the victim as one of an uncommon case. If the readers are perceived as unable to relate to the victim, the case is further seen as an anomaly. It is also key to note that while Christie’s work is mainly regarding black females, it can be partially applicable as the contrast of the ‘ideal victim’ is still relevant.
To conclude, this article has indicated how the media, particularly tabloid articles within the UK, frame violence against women. It has shown how victims tend to be covertly blamed for their victimisation through both the way that the incident is framed by the writer, but also how it is perceived by readers. One of the most prevalent pieces of information included regarding the incident is that it did not take place within the UK and therefore there is a consistent sense of ‘othering’ used throughout the article to suggest that the problem of gender-based violence is seen as far-fetched within the UK – the perpetrator is viewed as unusual and an anomaly, as well as the victim being presented as naïve for believing that she
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could ‘reform’ the perpetrator. Furthermore, it has also shown how victims are presented solely as that, with their identity being only related to that of the perpetrator (i.e., as a wife). This again shows how female victims are presented in the media; they are not the focus of the article, but rather they are seen as blameworthy for their death.
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Appendices
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Appendix A – ‘Man kills his new wife on their wedding day in front of horrified crowd of guests’ article
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