ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Christie's conceptualization by examining the effects of these oppressions on the cultural fascination with this case and with Homolka specifically. It suggests borne from intersection of considerations of whiteness, hegemonic femininity, space and class, and similarity between the mainstream public, the victims and the offenders. The chapter examines these particular attributes as sources of socio-cultural and political privilege that intersected and supported the construction of the young girls in this case as ideal victims. Together, these constructions of Homolka and her victims help to better contextualize the media frenzy that surrounded this case and the subsequent cultural fixation on Homolka as an "inconsistent offender" and enigmatic subject. By situating the victim and offender as more alike than different, journalists were able to capitalize on the attention wrought by crafting a moral panic around women's violence. Homolka's whiteness stands her apart from the disproportionate numbers of the Black, Latina and Aboriginal women who fill North American prisons.
