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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShe was fatally strangled. The media is making it about her sex life.
This is not just a story about Grace ... but a story about a larger pattern of media treatment of women
The coverage of Millanes death is reminiscent of the treatment of many female crime victims before her. Survivors of sexual assault, for instance, are often blamed and smeared by defense teams and the media. At Bill Cosbys sexual assault trial last year, defense attorneys said that Andrea Constand, who said that the comedian drugged and assaulted her, was a so-called victim who wanted his money. Later in 2018, when Christine Blasey Ford came forward to say that Brett Kavanaugh, then a nominee to the Supreme Court, had sexually assaulted her, right-wing media outlets dug (or attempted to dig) into her past.
One, Real Clear Investigations, reported that according to an anonymous source, yearbooks from Fords high school feature a photo of an underage Ford attending at least one party, alongside a caption boasting of girls passing out from binge drinking. The yearbooks also openly reference sexually promiscuous behavior by the girls, the site reported.
Meanwhile, the right-wing site Gateway Pundit published a story titled Kavanaugh Accuser Is Unhinged Liberal Professor who Former Students Describe as Dark, Mad, Scary and Troubled. The story was based on online reviews left by students of a different Christine Ford.
Nor are female murder victims safe from this kind of digging. The effect is even more pronounced when the victims unlike Millane, who was white are trans women of color. After 18-year-old Jaquarrius Holland was fatally shot in 2017, Chagmion Antoine wrote at the Womens Media Center that to many Americans, women like Holland are seen not as innocent victims but as predators. She quotes a commenter on the blog New Now Next, who says, it sounds like these trannies were prostitutes who deceived straight male clients into thinking they were women. And, Antoine notes, comedian Dave Chappelle has also echoed damaging narratives about trans women tricking men.
Since Millane was white, her story was bound to get more attention than the stories of many missing or murdered girls and women of color. But her family is still confronted with media coverage that treats her private sexual history as though it somehow justifies her death. Its a reminder that when girls and women are victims of crimes, theyre often victimized yet again by the justice system thats meant to protect them, and by the people tasked with telling their stories.
More at https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/11/21/20976064/grace-millane-death-new-zealand
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)I'll never forgive some of the mainstream media for what they did to this 18 year old victim of a heinous crime.
The Murder of Emily Sander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Emily_Sander
Witness tells of night out before Internet porn model's death
https://tucson.com/news/witness-tells-of-night-out-before-internet-porn-model-s/article_accf68cb-9eb6-5407-95e9-278e94af696a.html
Student Emily Sander, AKA Porn Model Zoey Zane, Gets Justice; Killer Israel Mireles Convicted
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-emily-sander-aka-porn-model-zoey-zane-gets-justice-killer-israel-mireles-convicted/
Zoey Zane Update: Man Gets Life in Porn Star Student's Murder
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zoey-zane-update-man-gets-life-in-porn-star-students-murder/
MISSING GIRL A PORN STAR
https://nypost.com/2007/11/29/missing-girl-a-porn-star/
Emily Sander wasn't a "porn star." She was an eighteen year old college student who made a website almost nobody knew about where she posted semi-nude pictures of herself (probably to make a little money). They were the kinds of photos you might find in an old Playboy magazine. There was pushback from Sander's friends and family but it had little impact.
UpInArms
(51,284 posts)And Brock Turners father wrote this to the judge:
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/06/08/the-full-letter-read-by-brock-turners-father-at-his-sentencing-hearing/
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)The value of human life in general is being devalued, but the devaluing of women in our society is sickening.
FakeNoose
(32,726 posts)That would include the publishers, most of the news editors and many of the beat reporters are male. The Betty Friedans and Gloria Steinems have been pointing this out to us for the last 50 years. The more things change, the more they stay the same.