What is missing white woman syndrome? Why are we doing this again?

[Vic]

Who celebrated? Whatever trash presented that as truth, had to be biased. Or do you not recognize that a focus on someone doing something egregious is not representative of the larger population?

Trying to suggest that's my "identity politics" is just more trash talk. There have been more white people shot to death by police in the US in the past 5 years than any other race.

Cool... that's probably because there are still more white people in the US than any other race. Meanwhile, see my post about how being okay with cops murdering citizens in general is even worse than just being okay with racism.

And yes, George Floyd did prove that millions of Americans can watch a 9 minute snuff video and celebrate it because of THEIR identity politics. Not black peoples' identity politics. THEIR identity politics. We all watched it happen. And why else besides their own identity politics would the same people who think that wearing a mask is tyranny be okay with the govt murdering a citizen? Or would you come in here feigning victimhood over your identity?

Edit: can't stop at laughing at the "who celebrated?" bit when "who celebrated" was Fox news, literally every single right-wing media outlet, and seemingly every single conservative on the internet... for months. To justify an obvious murder clearly documented on video, available for all to view. Until the inevitable guilty verdict came down and then they claimed that the verdict was politically motivated to prevent a race riot. All of which was white conservative identity politics. All of it.

 

[shortylickens]

And yes, George Floyd did prove that millions of Americans can watch a 9 minute snuff video and celebrate it because of THEIR identity politics. Not black peoples' identity politics. THEIR identity politics. We all watched it happen. And why else besides their own identity politics would the same people who think that wearing a mask is tyranny be okay with the govt murdering a citizen? Or would you come in here feigning victimhood over your identity?

Drop everything you are doing, go find a psychology website, and look up the difference between Sensation and Perception.
YOU, good sir, are severely biased.

 

[Paratus]

Apparently you don't watch TV (or get out) much as it is not I, but rather many other vocal sources looking to make the white male the victim through less than subtle suggestions of discrimination and white privilege, from people who aren't being discriminated against, rather those living above the curve.

https://imgur.com/EZvj3qm

The lack of agency straight white Christian men have according to straight white Christian men is truly a marvel.

 

[woolfe9998]

Well I guess the Petito case had one unexpected consequence. On local KGO radio today, the host did about 2 hours of call in discussing this very topic. Why do we focus so much on cases like Petito. He mentioned several statistics, like the number of native American women who have disappeared in Wyoming. It seems to have started a conversation on the topic, which I think is useful.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Only a racist is going to complain when someone goes missing due to the victims race.

So the husband is missing because of white privilege?

 

[Vic]

Drop everything you are doing, go find a psychology website, and look up the difference between Sensation and Perception.
YOU, good sir, are severely biased.

It's true, I am severely biased against hypocrites and hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, the thread topic is bias, particularly in the media. The problem there, however, is that it's not the media's fault for catering to the biases of its viewers. It's just not, regardless of how much people who are embarrassed of their own biases may wish to blame that on the media.
My own personal perspective of this BTW is that it's all about intraspecies reproductive competition and evolution. The pretty white girl is considered to be part of the tribe and a valuable evolutionary asset, whereas the black man is considered to be outside the tribe and a evolutionary threat. Neither assumption is necessarily true in our modern world, but we're genetically programmed to react that way.
Now the only real way to overcome this is to stop seeing race and recognize that we are all part of the same tribe, something I'm sure all the conservatives here would agree with, but the problem there is that they only agree with that because their ideology is inherently tribalistic, and they expect such a union will only occur when everyone assimilates to their tribe.

That said, this is a terrible circumstance about the girl. I've been following and hoping against the worst, but sadly that appears to be so. My condolences to her family. I have a daughter myself, and do not wish to think about what they must be going through.

 

[chowderhead]

the missing pretty white girl may have started the coverage but she and the boyfriend video blogged their lives so there are lots of images of them. Then the police body video was released and followed by the mysterious disappearance somewhere during their trip and the tangential link to the double homicide at the campgrounds, the lingering “gone girl” aspect, the shady things the boyfriend did returning and then the boyfriend also goes missing. The media loves a good mystery and they can fill up time by showing videos while talking heads speculate on and on. They are giving viewers what they want.

 

[shortylickens]

UPDATE:
Gabby Petito found, ruled homicide.
Boyfriend suspect number 1.

 

[Torn Mind]

Could also that be Florida Man is a meme and his last name....lol....

I heard the news on the radio, so I had no idea what she looked like. Her surname is not the usual surname you would expect for a plain white girl

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Meanwhile, the thread topic is bias, particularly in the media. The problem there, however, is that it's not the media's fault for catering to the biases of its viewers.

Yes, it is. This is where the media can take the high ground and lead instead of playing for ratings.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

The ONLY angle that I agree with this being a 'top story' is the relative immediacy of someone being in danger so far from home and the hopes for finding her alive.

The case I mentioned above had some of those aspects and it did get coverage for a few days, though no where near as widespread.

 

[HomerJS]

Just the obsession with a young, pretty woman. I'm being hyperbolic, but part of the missing pretty white girl trope is the "pretty" part — on top of other discrimination, the media has historically devoted less coverage to plainer-looking girls. Like a missing girl isn't worth saving if you don't find her attractive.

Not to be crass but Saniyya Dennis is prettier then Petito so it's more then just pretty young woman.

Black people forever have been devalued and it continues

 

[HomerJS]

..

 

[Homerboy]

before she went missing, she had less than 1000 followers.

I 100% stand corrected then.
Like I said, I knew (know) little about the whole thing, just what I had gleaned off some headlines and whatever my wife has babbled to me about it

 

[Commodus]

Not to be crass but Saniyya Dennis is prettier then Petito so it's more then just pretty young woman.

Black people forever have been devalued and it continues

Yeah, this is the textbook example of an intersectional issue where multiple factors play a role, but some do more than others.

 

[Greenman]

Not to be crass but Saniyya Dennis is prettier then Petito so it's more then just pretty young woman.

Black people forever have been devalued and it continues

That seems to be the case, though it's clearly not just blacks. Tribalism is real, any grouping of people will find a reason to resent or hate people from a different group, no validation required.

 

[Zorba]

The question is why wouldn't a missing Asian woman or 50 missing black girls generate clicks?

For the same reason companies put pretty young woman in marketing.

There have been some missing men stories have gone viral too, like that guy that was killed on the cruise ship.

But I agree, I find the endless coverage of missing white girls annoying.

 

[Zorba]

For this case the attention she (Gabby) got was because she was active on Social Media. The whole trip in the van thing was for social media.

The Gabby Petito Case: How Social Media Completely Changed the Crime-Solving Landscape | Entrepreneur

A sad resolution was reached this weekend in the case of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito when human remains found in Teton County, Wyoming were thought to be "consistent with the description" of Petito per the FBI.

www.entrepreneur.com

Petito herself was an aspiring van vlogger, beginning a new YouTube channel with Laundrie a month ago called Nomadic Statik, which was set to document the couple’s travels across the country in their new white van after a complicated prior trip..

Instagram, facebook, youtube, reddit, all being used for publicity.. She had 931k followers on instagram alone. When she came up missing, interest grew and spread quickly.

It'd be nice if the story was able to pivot to how BS the lives shown on YouTube and IG are, could probably help some people that get depressed by all these people "leading a better life."

 

[sportage]

Rant
Crap! You'd think it was Joe Biden gone missing, or Joe's wife gone missing. Does this really merit so much news coverage and airtime? Is this tabloid news by mainstream media? Joe Biden isn't generating enough airtime and what airtime Joe does generate is temporary and limited? Is that the problem? Unlike Donald Trump who filled the airwaves 24/7, Donald is gone and its back to missing blonde women, missing young blonde women... I guess. I do not know the story because I could care less, certainly not to the extent that I would consider these people members of my own family. However the news media makes me feel that they are members or should be treated as members of everyone's family.

Republicans are about to shut down the government... AGAIN... and this time it will hurt. This time paychecks will be involved, and social security checks will be involved, and millions of jobs will be involved not to mention the health of the stock market. The hurt will run deep should we default and any future recovery may be impossible considering the pandemic has made the economy so fragile, fragile unlike ever before. Most people are not paying attention because we have become immune to debit ceilings, and besides they always get raised eventually. Right? So we turn on the news and the news networks only care about a blonde girl. I can think of a lot of current events that warrant the same coverage yet get none, and don't think we are waiting for Donald Trump to return to the presidency just so CNN can increase their ratings. I voted for Joe Biden so that the news media might once again cover THE NEWS. Well shame on me....
/Rant

 

[hal2kilo]

Another thread?

 

[Brainonska511]

She's got the white stuff.

 

[Stokely]

It's ridiculous. Fortunately I don't watch tv, kicked the facecrack habit years ago and only check a couple news sites once or twice a day...and it's STILL front and center like it's the 2nd 9/11.

It's horrible that someone traveling the country with their (probably unhinged) fiance in a van was murdered. How many people a day get murdered that aren't doing something as stupid as that?

 

[Bitek]

It'd be nice if the story was able to pivot to how BS the lives shown on YouTube and IG are, could probably help some people that get depressed by all these people "leading a better life."

Can only imagine all the cringy hashtags on there...

#soulmates, #leadyourbestlife

Reality:

#ishitinabucket #clickmeineedgasmoney #hidingdomesticviolence #wellbedeadintwoweeks

 

[shortylickens]

we already have lots of threads on this but basically you could explain it as "Missing White Woman Syndrome".
I recommend you NOT read anything about it here, because this forum is biased and also relies more on feelings than logic. Go look it up on google or whatever. Its a thing. There are studies.

 

[woolfe9998]

Great post. I think in some ways it goes in both directions and there's positive feedback. Media both goes to what they think will sell, and also conditions us to respond to those things by giving them more emphasis.

In regard to the "missing white woman" phenomenon, I feel that there's an element of race here, but it probably isn't the only element, and certainly isn't as heavily weighted as it would have been even 20 years ago.

You hit the nail on the head that, if Gabby hadn't been young and attractive, she wouldn't have gotten such attention. I think class is another element, where the bias is towards victims higher up on the socio-economic ladder. In this context, of the 50 missing black girls Homer mentions, I wonder what proportion are young, attractive, and higher class? You need at least the first two to have a chance of media attention.

As a thought experiment, if you replace Gabby with someone who looks like Zendaya, do you still get the media feeding frenzy? My gut says you do. The hypothetical where I think it's less likely to get media attention, even with our Zendaya lookalike, is when you also change the race of the boyfriend to black. Not because of white vilification or anything, but because it seems like the media (and culture at large) doesn't seem to care much about black-on-black (or indigenous-on-indigenous, etc.) anything. The thought experiment where you make the boyfriend black but not the victim is the one I'm less sure on. Not very long ago that would have made the media more likely to cover the story. Today, I don't know.

Yes, I agree that the media, while not pushing a certain bias or narrative, is strengthening an existing bias or narrative by tailoring its coverage based on viewer/reader demand.

But the core issue is why is the demand that way to begin with.

Race. I'll be blunt. On the whole, we as a society value white lives more. Perhaps some people who do not think of themselves as racist, even some liberals, subconsciously think that a white person is just more likely to have made something of themselves than is a black person, and hence the greater tragedy if they die.

The fact that black victims are preferred by the media when the perpetrator is a cop is a different thing entirely. It's not that we value black lives more in that context. It's that the "white cop/black victim" story feeds a political narrative subscribed to by many people of color and white liberals. It's more about antipathy toward police than it is about valuing black lives more. Ironic, given the BLM slogan. (Note: I express no opinion here about the validity of said narrative.)

Gender. Women are viewed traditionally as weaker or even defenseless compared to men. Traditional patriarchal thinking means men should protect women, not harm them. Hence, killing a woman sparks more outrage.

Age. Younger people have longer lives ahead of them. Also, children are relatively defenseless. See above regarding gender. Had that Florida shooter's victims not included an infant and an 11 yr old, there probably would have been less coverage.

Physical attractiveness. In the field of social psychology, research says that people view attractive people as healthier, more successful, more intelligent, and as having brighter futures.