Society's Sensationalizing of Female Killers Reflects an Unhelpful Discomfort with Women's Capacity for Violence
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rebecca-rideal. "From Lizzie Borden to Myra Hindley, why are we still so fascinated with female killers? | Rebecca Rideal | The Guardian." September 20, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that society has an unhealthy obsession with female killers precisely because they're so rare, and this fascination leads us to force these women into simplistic stereotypes (monster, victim, seductress) instead of honestly grappling with the fact that women, like men, are capable of real violence. She uses historical examples like Lizzie Borden, Myra Hindley, and others to show this pattern repeating for over a century, culminating in a new Netflix show she sees as continuing this troubling trend.
Conclusion
Our culture's persistent fascination with female killers (as seen in dramatizations like Netflix's Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story) is an unhelpful obsession that distorts the reality of these crimes by forcing them into simplistic tropes rather than acknowledging women's full agency in violence.
Premises
- Homicide is statistically a predominantly male crime, making female perpetrators rare (only 7% of convicted homicide suspects in England and Wales, 2019-2022).
- This rarity causes female-perpetrated homicides to be disproportionately sensationalized and mythologized compared to male-perpetrated ones.
- Historical and cultural narratives repeatedly force female killers into a narrow set of tropes: the femme fatale, the wrongfully accused, the passive victim, or the monster.
- Historical evidence shows a pattern of society being reluctant to accept women's full agency in violent crime, e.g., women were twice as likely as men to be acquitted on insanity grounds for similar crimes (1832-1901).
- Media coverage of female killers often exceeds that of male co-perpetrators in similar crimes (e.g., Myra Hindley's coverage exceeding Ian Brady's).
- These cases often become vehicles for broader societal debates (capital punishment, insanity defense, domestic abuse, whistleblowing) rather than being treated on their own terms.
- The new Netflix adaptation exemplifies this pattern by sexualizing the story and linking Borden to a 'legacy of female rage' framework, despite uncertainty about her guilt.
Assumptions
- Sensationalizing or mythologizing female killers is inherently harmful or distorting, rather than a neutral cultural phenomenon.
- The tropes used to frame female killers substitute for acknowledging women's genuine capacity for violence and agency.
- Public/media fascination with rare phenomena is not simply natural human curiosity but indicates a deeper societal 'unwillingness' to accept female agency.
- Dramatized retellings (like the Netflix series) meaningfully shape or reflect broader cultural attitudes about women and violence.
- There is a coherent, singular cultural narrative about 'female rage' being critiqued, rather than many disparate individual responses to specific cases.