Intersectional Feminism and Media Portrayals of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in U.S. Cities

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

Ellensburg

Event Website

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source

Start Date

18-5-2020

Abstract

Living free from violence is a fundamental human right that all persons should be granted, but this is not the case for many Indigenous women in the United State (U.S.). Data from the Department of Justice (DOJ) (2008) demonstrate that Indigenous women are two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women, and Amnesty International (2007) reports that 86% of reported crimes against Indigenous women in the U.S. are committed by non-Native men. According to The National Crime Information Center, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, of which, only 116 were logged in the DOJ database. In this work-in-progress, I present the statistics on media representation of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in 71 U.S. specified in the Urban Indian Health Institute’s 2018 report and situate them in a historical and ongoing context of settler colonialism and structural inequality. I do this by using an intersectional feminist lens and controlling images, outsider within, and politics of disposability as conceptual tools. College of the Sciences Presentation Award Winner.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Griff Tester

Department/Program

Sociology

Additional Mentoring Department

https://cwu.studentopportunitycenter.com/2020/04/intersectional-feminism-and-media-portrayals-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-in-u-s-cities/

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May 18th, 12:00 PM

Intersectional Feminism and Media Portrayals of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in U.S. Cities

Ellensburg

Living free from violence is a fundamental human right that all persons should be granted, but this is not the case for many Indigenous women in the United State (U.S.). Data from the Department of Justice (DOJ) (2008) demonstrate that Indigenous women are two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women, and Amnesty International (2007) reports that 86% of reported crimes against Indigenous women in the U.S. are committed by non-Native men. According to The National Crime Information Center, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, of which, only 116 were logged in the DOJ database. In this work-in-progress, I present the statistics on media representation of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in 71 U.S. specified in the Urban Indian Health Institute’s 2018 report and situate them in a historical and ongoing context of settler colonialism and structural inequality. I do this by using an intersectional feminist lens and controlling images, outsider within, and politics of disposability as conceptual tools. College of the Sciences Presentation Award Winner.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2020/COTS/122