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This article offers a narrative analysis of the two CBC Fifth Estate investigative documentaries about Ashley Smith (“Behind the Wall,” 2010; “Out of Control,” 2010) and juxtaposes the documentary narratives against claims made by feminist criminologists with respect to women’s corrections. Examining the coherent ‘through narrative’ that is constructed in each documentary, we claim that The Fifth Estate uses dominant medicalized conceptualizations of mental illness and mental health treatment to frame the Smith case, leaving questions about the gendered nature of her criminalization, imprisonment and mistreatment unasked. Considering the socio-political context of neoliberal and post-feminist individualism, we argue that The Fifth Estate presents the case in a way that maintains the status quo and may resonate with their national audience, but which also reinforces the pathologization of women prisoners and upholds gendered stereotypes.

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Mainstream Media and the F-Word: Documentary Coherence and the Exclusion of a Feminist Narrative in The Fifth Estate Coverage of the Ashley Smith Case

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Mainstream Media and the F-Word: Documentary Coherence and the Exclusion of a Feminist Narrative in The Fifth Estate Coverage of the Ashley Smith Case