2025/02/07 by Michelle Arrow, Isobelle Barrett Meyering · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Australian History and Society #Canadian Identity and History #Irish and British Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/14490854.2025.2454378
openalex publication_date 2025/02/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/22
This article examines the 1977 film Do I Have to Kill My Child? to understand changing responses to child abuse and the cultural influence of second-wave feminism in 1970s Australia. The film emerged from Anne Deveson’s research into child abuse, which she conducted as part of her work as a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on Human Relationships (1974–77). While contemporary explanations of ‘baby battering’ focused on psychological rather than structural factors, the Royal Commission insisted that child abuse be understood within the larger context of family violence and rigid gender roles. Do I Have to Kill My Child? went further, suggesting that patriarchal conceptions of motherhood could drive women to harm their children. A close reading of Do I Have to Kill My Child? – and the convergence of government funding, official inquiries, activism and media-making that produced it – underscores the importance of film as a crucial aspect of feminist activism.