Missing white woman syndrome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Missing white woman syndrome (MWWS), also known as missing pretty girl syndrome, is a term used to describe disproportionate media coverage of white female victims.[1][2][3] The essential element of the syndrome is that the victim's gender,[4] race, relative attractiveness and age matching the "damsel in distress" stereotype is alleged to result in positive discrimination in terms of media coverage and public interest in her case.

Contents

[edit] National Missing Persons Helpline report

Britain's National Missing Persons Helpline has drawn attention to its own view of the degree to which the news media devote attention to vulnerable missing persons, claiming that despite its efforts to generate news coverage for all missing persons cases, the news media themselves will only cover those cases that fit their publications. The NMPH also notes that those cases that generate the greatest publicity are those where the missing person is white, middle-class, female, and from a stable two-parent family, and where there is no indication that the missing person ran away from home. Two cases are given as contrasting examples: the murder of Hannah Williams and the murder of Danielle Jones. Although in each case the victim was a female teenager, there was far more coverage of Jones than of Williams. It is suggested that this is because Jones fulfils the criterion of being a model middle-class schoolgirl, whilst Williams, a girl with a working-class background whose parents were estranged and who had a stud in her nose, did not.[5]

Jewkes[6] agrees, asserting that the likelihood of the UK national news media lending their weight to the search for a missing person, whether foul play is suspected or not, depends on a collection of interrelated factors: whether the person is young, female, white, middle-class, and conventionally attractive. A working-class boy or an older woman is less likely to receive news coverage. Even in cases where foul play is suspected, if the victim is male, is of Afro-Caribbean or Asian descent, is a prostitute, has drug problems, is a persistent runaway, or has been in foster care, reporters are said to decide that their readership is less likely to relate to or empathize with the victim, and reduce their coverage accordingly.

In addition to the cases chosen as examples of their theory by the NMPH, Jewkes cites the murder of Amanda Dowler, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders as examples of "eminently newsworthy stories" about attractive girls from "respectable" middle-class families and backgrounds whose parents used the news media effectively. She notes that, in contrast, even the high-profile murder of Damilola Taylor initially received little news coverage, with reports initially concentrating upon street crime levels and community policing, and the victim largely being ignored. Even when the victim's father flew into the UK from Nigeria to make press statements and television appearances, the level of public outcry did not, Jewkes asserts reach (in her words) "the near hysterical outpourings of anger and sadness that accompanied the deaths of Sarah, Milly, Holly, and Jessica".[6]

The National Center for Missing Adults have also commented on the phenomenon saying "Unless it's a pretty girl aged 20 to 35, the media exposure is just not there."[7]

[edit] Possible instances of MWWS

The following missing person cases have been used as examples of Missing White Woman Syndrome:

[edit] Examples of possible bias in missing person cases

Critics contend the following examples of missing people received disproportionately little coverage compared to MWWS cases:

  • April Gregory (May 24, 1996) - 19 year old black college student at Syrcause University. She disappeared one day before Kristin Smart, a white female student at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. She was included in an episode of NBC's Unsolved Mysteries with Smart due to the closeness of their disappearances. Otherwise, she received no additional coverage nationally. Her remains were discovered in November, 1997 and her boyfriend, Terrance Evans, confessed to her murder.[citation needed]
  • Shelton Sanders (June 19, 2001) - 25-year-old male, black college student. According to MSNBC, "Sanders’ case received scant notice outside his small hometown of Rembert, S.C., even though he was a high-achieving student at the University of South Carolina who worked as a technician in the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, and despite his father's prominence as a county magistrate. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a white, female USC student with a similar academic record, Dail Dinwiddie, has continued to receive national attention more than a dozen years after she vanished in 1992." Although no body has yet been found, police have gathered more evidence and have charged a suspect in his murder.[8][15][16]
  • Romona Moore (April 25, 2003) - a 21-year-old black female college student from New York City who was reported missing and was later found raped, tortured and murdered. Troy Hendrix and Kayson Pearson were sentenced to life in prison without parole for Moore's death. Moore's family had trouble persuading the New York City Police Department to actively pursue the case, while two months earlier the NYPD aggressively investigated the diappearance of Svetlana Aronov, who was white. The family is currently bringing a lawsuit against the NYPD, claiming a "practice of not making a prompt investigation of missing-persons claims of African-Americans, while making a prompt investigation for white individuals." [17]
  • Tamika Huston (May 27, 2004) - a 24-year-old black woman who went missing from her Spartanburg, South Carolina home. Described as "bright and beautiful,"[18] Huston's remains were found more than a year later in a nearby town, and her ex-boyfriend was convicted of her murder in 2006. Following her disappearance, Huston's relatives tried in vain to interest the national news media in her case; what little national coverage it received often focused on the relative lack of coverage Huston's story was receiving.[10]
  • Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida.[7]
  • Latoyia Figueroa (July 18, 2005) - a 25-year-old woman of African-American and Hispanic descent who was reported as missing and later found strangled to death. Figueroa, who was five months pregnant at the time, was reported missing after she failed to show up to work. Police arrested Stephen Poaches, the father of her unborn child more than a month after she was reported missing. On October 17, 2006, Poaches was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Figueroa and her unborn child. Figueroa's case is especially relevant because it unfolded at the same time as Natalee Holloway's, and cable news channels, such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, neglected to cover Figueroa's with the same intensity.[citation needed]
  • 100+ missing women in Vancouver, Edmonton, and environs. Critics charge that the authorities have been slow in investigating because many of the missing are Native American Indian women, drug users, or sex-trade workers. Media attention has grown recently due to the investigation and trial of Robert Pickton, charged with the murders of 27 women and believed to be responsible for more.[19][20][21][22]

[edit] MWWS in Iraq War

Critics[who?] have also pointed to media bias in the example of Jessica Lynch versus the coverage of Shoshana Johnson and Lori Piestewa. All three were ambushed in the same attack during the Iraq War on March 23, 2003, and Piestewa was killed, but Johnson received very little media attention in comparison to Lynch, and Piestewa was virtually ignored. Media critics suggest that Lynch's story was promoted because Lynch was a more palatable and identifiable figure to promote: a young, blonde white woman. Johnson, on the other hand, was a large black woman and a single mother.[23] Piestewa, also a single mother, was a Native American from an impoverished background.[24] Jessica Lynch herself would go onto criticize this disproportionate coverage focusing only on her, stating in a congressional testimony before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;

“ "I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary ... [T]he bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.[25] ”

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Diagnosing 'Missing White Woman Syndrome' Tom Foreman, CNN Correspondent, March 14, 2006, 'phrase invoked by Sheri Parks, a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park'
  2. ^ Eugene Robinson. "(White) Women We Love", Washington Post, June 10, 2005. "'choosing only young, white, middle-class women for the full damsel treatment'" 
  3. ^ Kristal Brent Zook. "Have you seen her? While the families of the missing struggle to bring national attention to their lost loved ones, they sift through the clues and pray for a miracle", Essence, July, 2005. "'"But missing Black women aren't featured as much", says Howard.'" 
  4. ^ Brian Cathcart. "The naming of Faye Turney", New Statesman, April 9, 2007. ""They recognised immediately that a woman in uniform is a much more powerful propaganda weapon than a man", wrote Parkin" 
  5. ^ Fiona Brookman (2005). Understanding Homicide. Sage Publications, 257. ISBN 0761947558. 
  6. ^ a b Yvonne Jewkes (2004). Media and Crime. Sage Publications Inc, 52–53. ISBN 0761947655. 
  7. ^ a b c Part 1: Missing People Face Disparity in Media Coverage
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "If you’re missing, it helps to be young, white and female", MSNBC, July 23, 2004
  9. ^ "Death of a Hostess"
  10. ^ a b c d e "Spotlight skips cases of missing minorities", USA Today, 2005
  11. ^ "House panel passes 'Dru's Law' in sex offender bill", USA Today, 2005
  12. ^ ,[1]
  13. ^ "Race Bias in Media Coverage of Missing Women?; Cheryl Hines Dishes on New Show", CNN, transcript, aired March 17, 2006
  14. ^ mediabistro.com: TVNewser
  15. ^ "Arrest made in S.C. man's disappearance: 25-year-old student missing since June 2001", MSNBC, October 7, 2005
  16. ^ "Man Charged with Murder in Cold Case", WLTX, October 6, 2005
  17. ^ " NYPD Inaction Over a Missing Black Woman Found Dead Sparks a Historic Racial-Bias Lawsuit, Village Voice, May 6, 2008
  18. ^ Mankiewicz, Josh. "Why do we care about Natalee, Laci, Jennifer?" Dateline NBC, August 5, 2005
  19. ^ "The missing women of Vancouver", CBC, January 19, 2007
  20. ^ "Edmonton's murdered women", CBC, January 4, 2007
  21. ^ "Aboriginal Women Many Missing - Many Murdered", Turtle Island Native Network
  22. ^ "Missing people"
  23. ^ "A case of race? One POW acclaimed, another ignored", Seattle Times, November 09, 2003. 
  24. ^ OSHA GRAY DAVIDSON (May 27, 2004). The Forgotten Soldier (HTML). Rolling Stone Magazine ALT mirror article. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
  25. ^ "UPDATE: Army Ranger at Hearing Says He Was Told To Cover Up Pat Tillman's Killing", Editor and Publisher, Tuesday April 24, 2007. Retrieved on April 24. 

[edit] External links

Languages