Palestinian female suicide bombers and Western broadcast news: gender, race and representations of agency.

On the whole, whether known as "¡stish-hadiyat", "suicide terrorists", "martyrs", "black tigresses" or "black widows", females who detonate an explosive device on their person within a densely populated area, at a military checkpoint or outside of a government building, continue to fascinate and frighten the media, academics and the general public.

Mia Bloom, a leading academic who examines female suicide bombers and terrorists, explains that female terrorists receive eight-times more media attention than their male counterparts, with much focus being on asking the question: 'What could make such a pretty girl do that? There must be something wrong' (Bloom 2011, p. 128).<br><br>With respect to this thesis, Bloom's statement highlights what myself and others would consider to be a fixation, particularly by West populations, on how women could become involved in acts of suicide bombings or terrorism in general (Cunningham 2007; Gardner 2007; Speckhard 2008).