Conclusion: #MeToo and Crime Fiction

Summary

This book has examined the triangulation of contemporary crime fiction, the #MeToo movement, and fourth-wave feminism. The aim with the research presented here has been to demonstrate how the #MeToo movement and fourth-wave feminism are impacting on crime fiction, its idiom, and the politics of its representation of gender, sexuality, race, class, and intersectionality. This book thus devised and employed a methodology informed by key terms and concepts from fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo movement, to show that all three parts of the triangulation are impacting on and changing one another. The individual chapters, with their distinctive focus and detailed textual analysis, have provided examinations of crime fiction's representation of key topics: #MeToo, rape culture, toxic masculinity, LGBTQ+, and transgender. However, while the individual chapters in this book explore specific themes or subjects, they have also highlighted the intrinsic interconnectedness of these themes and their representation in the crime genre. This interconnectedness, then, is reflected in the idea and practice of intersectionality which this book argues is central to crime fiction in the age of #MeToo.

Some critics have argued that we are now in a “post-#MeToo” era, suggesting that #MeToo was a moment in the past which societies have now moved beyond. However, current realities show that both fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo movement are continuing to fight vital battles both against backlashes in reproductive rights and gendered and racialized violence as well as in the area of trans rights and homophobia. The conservative political climate in the UK, America, and Europe reminds us that feminist advances are under threat and that the #MeToo movement's work is as vital as ever. The overturning of Harvey Weinstein's conviction on a procedural issue is further evidence of the difficulty for women and other socially marginalized groups of obtaining justice through the legal system and from the police. As the #MeToo movement shows no sign of abating, and persistent subjects return to make renewed demands on intersectional feminist critics’ time—such as rape culture, reproductive rights, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade—it is clear that crime fiction has a crucial role to play in exposing inequalities and participating in public debates to call out injustice and promote change.