Provocation and Panic from Fraser to Bouchard: Ordinary Person or Hegemonic Male?

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Chittick, Kyler

• This paper was produced throughout the summer of 2015 with funding from the University of Alberta's Undergraduate Research Initiative. Providing a brief contextual history of "gay panic" as a psychological "condition" and legal strategy, the paper considers two Canadian cases where a "gay panic defense" was advanced by the accused. Through analyses of both cases, the paper explores the contemporary relationship between masculinity, homosexuality and the courts. It concludes by demonstrating how in the most recent case, a "gay panic defense" failed (likely due to changes in the Canadian view of same-sex desire). By way of conclusion, the paper questions why such defenses are even heard in our current judicial moment.

• Date created

  2015-09-03

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Masculinities
  • Legal Theory
  • Feminist Studies
  • Gay Panic Defense
  • Queer Theory

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3445HG4S

• License

  © Kyler Chittick 2016. All rights reserved. This copy may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use, including commercial or non-commercial redistribution, requires the written permission of the rightsholder.