Growing up I didn’t realize that
through the American movies, Disney cartoons and media I watched, I was slowly
being introduced to the picture of what The
Girl should look like. The heroine in movies, the petite, pretty one
everyone sympathized with, the popular one, etc. She was always white. It is,
what I think, fueled the power dynamic in my school between the popular white students
and students of color. But this just shows how the early stages of socialization
can influence how we see the world around us. All my life people of color were
actively being marginalized in the media and I never questioned it. I didn’t
realize that could have some extremely dire consequences.
I was so used to seeing white
people get attention, it didn’t even hit me that parallel stories occurring for
people of color were going unacknowledged. This is something that needs
attention, especially when it comes to news coverage of important stories the
public should be aware of. Social norms perpetuate the idea of “attractive,
young, middle/upper class, white women” being the population the public would
most sympathize this. The media exploits this, and thus the “Missing White Girl
Syndrome” was developed.
According
to the article the death of Joseph
Smedley and how Indiana University went wrong, 42% of all missing children
in America are black. However, very rarely do these cases get importance. This
is appalling for many reasons, one of the obvious ones being that not giving these
cases importance in the media reduces the possibility of the public helping in
getting these children back. As seen in Joseph Smedley’s case, the media
perpetuates racism by actively valuing the life of a white girl over the life
of a person of color, when they should be given equal importance. When the case
of Joseph Smedley, a man of color, was brought up in a media source used by
university students, it was mostly ignored. However, the university members had
the opposite reaction when the victim was a white woman.
I find it slightly disturbing that the media’s ideal “victim”
is a woman. How would the media react if the victim was a male (of any race)? I
think I am unsettled by the fact that the sympathy is probably rooted in
stereotype of women being vulnerable and weak, and that is being viewed as “attractive”
for this gender. After all, while the media is there to spread information, it
is still a business with the goal being to attract as many viewers as possible.
By only seeing injustice happening to women, specifically white women, their
value in society is being heightened, and barely any thoughts are being spared
for what is happening to the people of color.
While this raises issues of oppression of people of color,
oppression of people of lower class and people who don’t fit the description mentioned
above, I’m curious to see what other viewpoints the class comes up with related
to the “Missing white girl syndrome”.
Resources:
This made me think of this example I saw buzzing around tumblr, which full disclosure I haven't investigated to see if it is true or not. It was talking about Whoopi Goldberg watching star trek actress Nichelle Nichols and seeing her as a major inspiration for her. Representation is important because it opens up cultural space for possibility and conversation. This trend of attention given to white women needs to be interrupted on all levels, and critiqued in media representation just like it is in academia.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts on this Sarika!
Sarika,
ReplyDeleteI thought your blog post was super insightful and raised questions that I hadn't even thought of - in particular, I thought it was interesting how you addressed the fact that women are "the ideal 'victim'" for the media - I wonder what kinds of statistics can back or refute this idea. Additionally, I really liked how you cited that 42% of missing children are black. That made me think a lot about how not all of those 42% of children are PoC, but rather black, specifically. This makes me wonder about the reality of the ratio of danger to which black children face as opposed to white children and even children of other races. Reading through the comments on the article about the death of Joseph Smedley have really been interesting to me in terms of how other people choose whether or not to buy into being "racially blind"
Can't wait to discuss this in class!
- Saharsh
Hi Sarika,
ReplyDeleteSorry I was unable to get this post in before class. I love the way you all found a topic that is so relevant and heart wrenching to three different identities; gender, class, and race. Your description of this syndrome helped me to reflect on who society values the most and the ways in which their value is heightened in society. Race is the social identity that stood out to me the most since I am a person of color. I am familiar with the underground ways in which my community seeks help and assistance when members of our community are missing. We use quick and fast social media sites like Instagram and twitter to seek help finding our loved ones. I feel like this trend may be rooted in our distrust of the police and similar authoritative figures. We might feel like we could do a better job and find our children ourselves since the police have proven that they do not have our best interest at heart.
Great discussion today!
Elkena