Comments and feedback welcomed for this documentary idea i've had....
people.tribe.net/le4life/b...b#comments
America's disproportionate reporting on white, attractive, female victims of crime has been a topic I've wanted to cover in a film for a few years now. Below is the mess of thoughts and observations I hope to someday put together into a cohesive documentary. Brutally honest feedback would be appreciated.
IF I WAS A GIRL
...I never would've even been born, literally. My parents really wanted a boy and tried three times unsuccessfully. After my three sisters, I was on the way, but due to China's anti-overpopulation policies, my parents weren't even supposed to be having any more children. My mom told me that the nurses let her slide because I turned out to be a boy. So Chinese attitudes (not now but back then) around boys versus girls make up the main reason I was conceived and delivered, and thus gender issues are sort of personal to me.
PROSTITUTION, THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION
In high school I developed an interest in the criminology and psychology of serial killers. A statistic that always stood out for me was the high percentage of victims being prostitutes. One reason street hookers make easy targets is because the illegality and stigma of their work prevents them from approaching police, reporters, and doctors like other victims. Furthermore, do law enforcers and the media treat serial murder cases with less urgency if they involve victims with unconventional lifestyles or jobs? And how is being a woman different in a country such as Amsterdam where sex work is regulated like any other business and where rates of rape, assault, and STD infections on prostitutes are much lower?
DRUGS
Decades ago, opium, cocaine, and marijuana became illegal because, according to the media, Chinese, black, and Mexican men - respectively - were using the substances to seduce or sexually assault white women. Protecting white females as a catalyst for drug prohibition persists to this day, in far more subtle ways. Before Bill Clinton left office, he signed an anti-GHB bill in honor of teenager Hillory Farias who had fell into a fatal coma after having drank something spiked with the depressant chemical. Had Farias not been white, could her overdose have sparked so much attention in the media and led to the criminalization of GHB?
Come to think of it, what is the rate of teenagers of color experiencing such tragedies around drug misuse or abuse? I certainly don't know because reporters don't bring it up. Following the news for my work with DanceSafe.org, every story I saw about anyone who became addicted to or overdosed on ecstasy had the same profile: a middle-class white kid whose life in school and home was perfect before drugs ruined everything. How these reports highlighted the kids goes to show that the definition of an all-American teenager is still a very narrow and false one. According to the media, you should be happy if you're white and on the football team and getting crowned at your prom.
YOUNG, PRETTY, AND ALL-AMERICAN
My sisters were discussing the discovery of Laci Peterson's body one evening and I asked who they were talking about. Sarah asked if I had been asleep the past year to not know about this girl. The reason was that I never watch television or follow the news except for work. I don't see the point in obsessing with such cases - as tragic as they are - because every story is the same. And this brings me to a few more questions:
1) What populations of American women are being ignored by the media?
2) Why does this happen from a news industry perspective?
3) Does more coverage equal better investigations of cases?
Is the focus on the all-American damsel in distress promoting a certain idea of what girls are or should be? Firstly, reporters eulogize each victim as a successful student, loving housewife, or some other socially acceptable role model. Secondly, attractive images of the victim are circulated throughout headlines. What sickened me most about the coverage of Laci Peterson was that the shot of her cute dimple-faced smile was published repeatedly even though her head wasn't even attached to her body anymore. I'm sorry, but this is exploitation, not sympathy. If the media only values sexually appealing, well-behaved females, then is their reporting trend executed out of respect and sorrow, or out of a desire to objectify women and keep them in their place?
COMPARED TO MEN...
The focus on pretty white girls doesn't just exclude the majority of real female victims, but also the majority of male victims. Violent crime reporting in general reflects the urge to promote traditional gender roles - females as complacent, passive victims and males as aggressive perpetrators. The only major coverage on the assault or murder of a man occurs when the assailant is a woman. Because the context of women supposedly being well-behaved has already been established, a case like this will seem especially sensational and unique.
This ideology is shared by our justice system. Women are now being imprisoned at a much faster rate than men, and their crimes - like the ones of their male counterparts - are often drug-related. The sentences they serve are often longer and harsher for the exact same offenses. Why is this? Take any judge or prosecutor or juror who believes women are supposed to be nurturing, gentle mothers and caregivers, and present them with a woman charged of drugs or violence, and how do you think they'll react? In essence, when men commit assault or abuse their children, it is natural and acceptable compared to when women do it, and American courts are acting accordingly.
people.tribe.net/le4life/b...b#comments
America's disproportionate reporting on white, attractive, female victims of crime has been a topic I've wanted to cover in a film for a few years now. Below is the mess of thoughts and observations I hope to someday put together into a cohesive documentary. Brutally honest feedback would be appreciated.
IF I WAS A GIRL
...I never would've even been born, literally. My parents really wanted a boy and tried three times unsuccessfully. After my three sisters, I was on the way, but due to China's anti-overpopulation policies, my parents weren't even supposed to be having any more children. My mom told me that the nurses let her slide because I turned out to be a boy. So Chinese attitudes (not now but back then) around boys versus girls make up the main reason I was conceived and delivered, and thus gender issues are sort of personal to me.
PROSTITUTION, THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION
In high school I developed an interest in the criminology and psychology of serial killers. A statistic that always stood out for me was the high percentage of victims being prostitutes. One reason street hookers make easy targets is because the illegality and stigma of their work prevents them from approaching police, reporters, and doctors like other victims. Furthermore, do law enforcers and the media treat serial murder cases with less urgency if they involve victims with unconventional lifestyles or jobs? And how is being a woman different in a country such as Amsterdam where sex work is regulated like any other business and where rates of rape, assault, and STD infections on prostitutes are much lower?
DRUGS
Decades ago, opium, cocaine, and marijuana became illegal because, according to the media, Chinese, black, and Mexican men - respectively - were using the substances to seduce or sexually assault white women. Protecting white females as a catalyst for drug prohibition persists to this day, in far more subtle ways. Before Bill Clinton left office, he signed an anti-GHB bill in honor of teenager Hillory Farias who had fell into a fatal coma after having drank something spiked with the depressant chemical. Had Farias not been white, could her overdose have sparked so much attention in the media and led to the criminalization of GHB?
Come to think of it, what is the rate of teenagers of color experiencing such tragedies around drug misuse or abuse? I certainly don't know because reporters don't bring it up. Following the news for my work with DanceSafe.org, every story I saw about anyone who became addicted to or overdosed on ecstasy had the same profile: a middle-class white kid whose life in school and home was perfect before drugs ruined everything. How these reports highlighted the kids goes to show that the definition of an all-American teenager is still a very narrow and false one. According to the media, you should be happy if you're white and on the football team and getting crowned at your prom.
YOUNG, PRETTY, AND ALL-AMERICAN
My sisters were discussing the discovery of Laci Peterson's body one evening and I asked who they were talking about. Sarah asked if I had been asleep the past year to not know about this girl. The reason was that I never watch television or follow the news except for work. I don't see the point in obsessing with such cases - as tragic as they are - because every story is the same. And this brings me to a few more questions:
1) What populations of American women are being ignored by the media?
2) Why does this happen from a news industry perspective?
3) Does more coverage equal better investigations of cases?
Is the focus on the all-American damsel in distress promoting a certain idea of what girls are or should be? Firstly, reporters eulogize each victim as a successful student, loving housewife, or some other socially acceptable role model. Secondly, attractive images of the victim are circulated throughout headlines. What sickened me most about the coverage of Laci Peterson was that the shot of her cute dimple-faced smile was published repeatedly even though her head wasn't even attached to her body anymore. I'm sorry, but this is exploitation, not sympathy. If the media only values sexually appealing, well-behaved females, then is their reporting trend executed out of respect and sorrow, or out of a desire to objectify women and keep them in their place?
COMPARED TO MEN...
The focus on pretty white girls doesn't just exclude the majority of real female victims, but also the majority of male victims. Violent crime reporting in general reflects the urge to promote traditional gender roles - females as complacent, passive victims and males as aggressive perpetrators. The only major coverage on the assault or murder of a man occurs when the assailant is a woman. Because the context of women supposedly being well-behaved has already been established, a case like this will seem especially sensational and unique.
This ideology is shared by our justice system. Women are now being imprisoned at a much faster rate than men, and their crimes - like the ones of their male counterparts - are often drug-related. The sentences they serve are often longer and harsher for the exact same offenses. Why is this? Take any judge or prosecutor or juror who believes women are supposed to be nurturing, gentle mothers and caregivers, and present them with a woman charged of drugs or violence, and how do you think they'll react? In essence, when men commit assault or abuse their children, it is natural and acceptable compared to when women do it, and American courts are acting accordingly.
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Los Angeles
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