Moral Panics and Gender

Moral panic refers to those situations in which a person, a group, or an episode are considered a threat to the values and interests of a society, which shows a disproportionate reaction, and mass media represent the threat in stereotypical terms. This entry discusses how theoretical and empirical contributions intertwine the concept of moral panics and gender. The concept of moral panic is introduced with its theoretical development, key elements, criticisms, and linkage with media and new media like digital social networks. Many studies on moral panics use gender as one of the keywords able to explain empirically the creation of a moral panic, but a lack emerges in theoretically considering the gender issue as a key dimension of moral panic in contemporary societies. This lack is discussed through a review of research studies about past and more recent moral panics and the ways in which gender is conceived and enacted: gendered and sexed panics reveal sociocultural tensions and changes around specific projects of moralization. Contemporary scholars seem to identify topic clusters that, in general, do not include gender explicitly, only implicitly.