It was the beginning of the 2021 school year. Gabby Petito, a young 22-year-old influencer, who had been documenting her van trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, 23, for several months, suddenly no longer showed any signs of abandonment. life. The latter then returned from the trip alone, refusing to indicate where the young woman was, despite requests from her family and the police. After several weeks of searching, Gabby Petito’s body was finally found in Grand Teton National Park, and police concluded it was a homicide by strangulation. A month later, Brian Laundrie committed suicide in Florida, leaving a letter in which he confessed to his girlfriend’s femicide.
At the time the story had gone well beyond the borders of the United States, exciting passionate influencers true crime, whose videos of the young girl’s disappearance have had millions of views. A media frenzy including the site Mitu, a media outlet dedicated to issues affecting Latino communities in the United States, immediately offered mixed readings. Why don’t non-white victims receive a quarter of the visibility given to Gabby Petito’s disappearance? Far from arguing that less importance should be given to this story, he invites the site think about the mechanisms that lead to the cancellation of other tragediesimplicitly pointing the finger at what we call the “missing white woman syndrome”.
What is “missing white woman syndrome”?
On Sunday 9 June 2024, this topic resurfaced in public discourse, brought forward by Joe Petito, father of the victim, during an interview given to the magazine People. Joe Petito explains that he initially had difficulty hearing criticism that the media reaction to his daughter’s disappearance was rooted in “missing white woman syndrome”. This syndrome refers to the selective and exacerbated attention paid to missing persons cases young, white, upper-middle class women or girls.
He relies on People having finally seen the reality behind this term. “There is a hierarchy when it comes to issuing missing person notices. Children come first, then white women and finally black women.” he complained to the tabloid.
The invisibility of some victims
This double standard leads to the media invisibility of victims of violent crimes who do not meet the above-mentioned criteria, as demonstrated by the media Jezebel :
The term “missing white woman syndrome” is not to devalue the lives of missing white women, but rather to acknowledge the existence of a racialized double standard against those whose lives are valued and deemed worthy of attention and care. For example, in the state of Wyoming alone, where Petito was killed, 710 indigenous people – mostly women and girls – are missing. According to the National Crime Information Center, the rate of missing persons among Native Americans is higher than that of the general American public, with at least 9,575 missing cases reported in 2020.
Based on this observation, Joe Petito explains in detail People the support work implemented by the Gabby Petito Foundation in recent years: “We want to help all missing people. If the media doesn't continue to do this for all people, it's a shame, because Gabby isn't the only one who deserves it [cette visibilité]. » In 2022, the Foundation made a $100,000 donation to the Black and Missing Foundation, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives, and the National Domestic Violence Helpline, reports People.
How can we explain this double standard? “A good victim is a victim who resembles the journalist”Charlton McIlwain explained to the BBC in 2013. “Research shows that, in terms of crime victims, there are people who are seen like us – as those who cover the news or read it. Our national ideal of who is vulnerable – and who holds victim status – is white, female victims. » It is for this reason that it is essential to ask ourselves about the road of which this type of business absorbs our attentionit moves us, it mobilizes us, while other similar cases simply remain forgotten.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
