Hintermayr, Michaela

I am a historian trained in the fields of Gender and Psychiatry History. In my PhD thesis on suicide in Austria from 1870 to 1970 I found that suicidal acts of females and males were differently framed and narrated.

These observations motivated me to do further research and ask how suicidal acts are represented these days on photography platforms. I chose to have a closer look at the pixabay.com platform, which is open to both, amateur und professional photographers. Besides, it does not charge a fee if an interested customer wishes to use a photo for his/her private or commercial purpose. Thus, this platform is widely popular with a huge audience.

I searched the platform for pictures that were tagged with suicide and/or a gender reference. What I found clearly startled me. The most common depiction of a suicidal female was a passive woman lying on the floor with pills spread next to her. For males I found a different depiction to be pop-ular: an active man expressing anger and fury. Another very common depiction of female suicide: a beautifully draped dead body of a young and attractive woman. For suicidal men another story was offered: the lonesome cowboy, defeated, but still clinging on to his tenacity. Those frames and narratives clearly tell gender stereotypes and thus reinforce a hierarchy of the sexes and sexualities. Thus, the passive, but beautiful female is complemented by a strong, but lonesome warrior. These attributions do not only create a hierarchy of bodies and lives, but also make it for the individual hard to seek help in a suicidal crisis.

Michaela Maria Hintermayr, Engineer degree in Media and Design Studies at the Graphische Vienna (2002). Master degree in History with honours at the University of Vienna (2010). PhD degree in History (2018) with honours at the University of Vienna.

Theodor Körner Prize (2013). Excellence in Teaching Award (Award of the Vienna University of Economics and Business 2012).

Junior Fellow at IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies|University of Art and Design Linz in Vienna from 2013 to 2015. Visiting scholar at LMU Munich (Sociology and Gender Department) and University of California, Berkeley (History Department) in 2014 and 2015.

Editor at fernetzt blog hosted by the Young Research Network Women’s and Gender Studies (2015-current).

Forthcoming monography: Suicide and Gender in the Modern Age. Science, the Media and the Individual (Austria 1870-1970, De Gruyter Berlin 2020).

Return to:

• Panels
• Overview