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- Title
WHITE WOMEN BEWARE!: WHITENESS, FEAR OF CRIME, AND SELF-DEFENSE.
- Authors
Welde, Kristine De
- Abstract
This article examines the interrelationships between whiteness (white femininity here) and fear of crime. Through ethnographic research on a women's self-defense course, I show how fear of crime functions as disciplinary power for many women before the course and how after the course these fears are challenged with a reinstatement of (race and class) privilege. The self-defense discourses and practices presented in the course subvert dominant understandings of women's vulnerability. However, this culture of fear and susceptibility to crime is able to be challenged by these women's reinstatement of "white safety zones" that reaffirm entitlement and privilege. I suggest that what is most silent, these women's privilege, lends insight into what is most salient about white femininity and fear of crime. Keywords: white femininity; whiteness; fear of crime; white privilege; selfdefense.
- Subjects
WHITE women; PRIVILEGE (Social sciences); FEAR of crime; SELF-defense; FEMININITY; ETHNOLOGY
- Publication
Race, Gender & Class, 2003, Vol 10, Issue 4, p75
- ISSN
1082-8354
- Publication type
Article