A tale of three betrayals: news framing of women who enable abusive men

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study identified the dominant frames in the news coverage of three lawyers – Lisa Bloom, Susan Estrich, and Tina Tchen – who have repeatedly self-identified as feminists and yet have sided with accused harassers and abusers in trying to smear the names of the women sharing their stories. In our analysis of how journalists constructed meaning around this apparent contradiction, we found four dominant news frames: Traitors, Gears in Factories of Complicity, Sellouts, and Blemished Justice Warriors. These frames showed that journalists’ meaning making mostly aligned with research about the significant role played by many women in enabling the patriarchy for personal gain, despite their actions’ consequences for other women. Our analysis also shows that what referred to as ‘the successful institutionalization of the women’s movement’ (p. 152) in news coverage has since evolved into a broader news institutionalization of women’s rights and social justice beyond any specific movement or source. Despite this evidence of progress, we argue that what is missing across the journalistic framing of the analyzed cases is an emphasis on structural and socioeconomic conditions that continue to encourage many women to seek short-term gain at the expense of other women’s suffering.