Call for Papers : Volume 11, Issue 03, March 2024, Open Access; Impact Factor; Peer Reviewed Journal; Fast Publication

Rethinking the unthinkable: mass media rhetoric of women and girls joining isis/isil

In this preliminary analysis I consider the rhetoric used in online U.S. news media about the ever-increasing numbers of girls and women in the U.S. leaving to join the so called Islamic State. I argue that, through this rhetoric, online U.S. news media reports about girls and women joining IS divert readers' attention away from discussions about what leads girls and women to radicalization and mobilization, and draw readers' attention toward what is constructed as the U.S. government's necessary intervention to save, serve, and protect these U.S. girls and women who are presented as having little or no agency and as being incapable of saving or making decisions for and by themselves. The efficacy and pervasiveness of such rhetoric leads to collective failures to sufficiently examine possible factors, causes, and experiences of the U.S. girls and women that influence this group's radicalization and recruitment.

Author: 
Zoe DuPree Fine
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