ABSTRACT
News media coverage of torture scandals, such as Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, demonstrate the ways in which women torturers are subjected to higher scrutiny and standards than are men torturers, who are rendered nearly invisible in media discourses. As the “war on terrorism” began to consume media attention after September 11, 2001, fi ctional entertainment media, unsurprisingly, joined the fray. Terrorism was frequently used as a plot device in popular fi ctional television shows, and along with it came torture. After 9/11, argues cultural critic Tony Nadler, “Whether as the conscious strategy of producers or the coincidence of circumstance, fi ctional TV shows involving Middle East relations, terrorism, counterterrorism and war took on a more obviously political salience.”2 The New Yorker adds: “Since September 11th, depictions of torture have become much more common on American television.”3
