The Fascist Triumphalism of The Purge Film Series - CANCELLED

• In Event: Media Frames, Cultural Criminology, and Narratives of Crime

Abstract

Cultural criminologist understand media, particularly film, as a site where meaning and values can be formed, contested, and reproduced. This research approaches The Purge film series – a series in which crime becomes legal for 12 hours once a year – as one which captures American demographic anxiety about its waning White majority. The beginning of the decade long series focused on the vulnerability of poor during Purge night and extant scholarship focuses on the significance of this theme for criminological theorizing, but more recent sequels force viewers to confront American myths about its cultural identity, alleged exceptionalism, and future trajectory. The series becomes more dystopian as its ruling class discovers it cannot maintain the myth about America compared to reality, and it becomes more authoritarian as a result. While The Purge does appear to be about the ruling class reducing society’s lower class population, the series exemplifies more, albeit subtle, indicators of the racial tension felt amidst a diversifying population – a closer, more nuanced read of the series shows how the series parallels contemporary reality more than it appears because it shows the inseparability of race from class when considering ongoing social inequalities in American society.

Authors

• Matthew H. McLeskey, State University of New York at Oswego

• Celinet Duran, State University of New York at Oswego