Missing White Woman Syndrome Essay

Missing smock adult female syndrome, similarly known as wanting(p) lovely lady friend syndrome, is a tongue-in-cheek term coined by some media critics to reference a form of media hype in which excessive news coverage is devoted to a specific wanting or murdered gabardine wo custody and misfires, while virtu entirelyy ignoring lacking men, non- color women, or cleave news stories.According to these critics, reporting of these stories often lasts for several(prenominal) days or weeks, sometimes all the same months, and displaces reporting on otherwise current events that some tribe consider more newsworthy, such(prenominal) as economics and politics. This syndrome appears to be most prevalent in U. S. media, except famous examples can also be found elsewhere in the world, e. g. the United Kingdom. The essential features of a missing person say to give rise to Missing uninfected cleaning lady Syndrome ar sex, her race, (relative) prettiness, and age.These features ar say to provoke positive discrimination in the reporting as news of the disappearance of a young clean char fair sex, and so to increase public interest in her disappearance. Missing batch claims that cases which arrest greatest publicity argon those where missing persons are white, middle-class, female and from stable two-parent families, and where is no indication that such a missing person ran away from home.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 they reduce their coverage accordingly.The true visibility that must be fit blonde, get inive, if possible blue- plazad, young, petite, vivacious and of a middle class or higher(prenomin al) economic background creates the cases of MPWW which involve ein truth local or national news to provide timed daily coverage of any and all developments, accompanied by lengthy discussions about the meaning of such developments.Speculations about evidence, suspects, motives that caused the disappearance rise and family members are called in order to offer more information and to order pictures of the victim. As the story gains momentum and begins to pick up steam like a runaway locomotive engine more talk shows and news media search details and turn the event into a national issue. The typical case lasts for days, weeks, months, forever and ever resulting in some families creating a website about the case, or a recognize is posted, flyers and leaflets are posted all over and cover all neighborhoods.However, if we take a look at the Doe Network, which is adept of the resources that handles missing adult cases, we find out that a) in that respect are more missing unappeasab le women in the US than women of all other races combined, b) there are more missing men than women, and c) there are far, far more missing long-term missing persons than most people even dream about. Moreover, from the news you would never know that most missing Americans are men, non women, that nearly a third of the missing are lightlessness, and that even ugliness will non save a woman from becoming missing and turning up dead. pic Missing People Chart.pichttp//abagond. wordpress. com/2007/12/27/the-missing-white-woman-syndrome/ The Missing White Woman Syndrome should be taken into account and treated as a huge problem, solely at times some cases are emphasize more than others and thus discrimination appears. What is more, Missing White Woman Syndrome seems to be interjecting racism into a situation that is much more complex than simple racism, as very often the disappearance of black women is neglected or if at the same time a white woman and a black one are reported missing it is yet the white one that catches the media attention and soon becomes national news.Some critics say that pretty, white damsels in distress draw viewers, whereas missing women who are black, Latino, Asian, old, fat or ugly do not. For example, in May 2004, a young black woman was missing. It was not until 14 months later that they found her body. Her aunt worked in public relations exactly the press was not all that interested. Yet during all those months, when she went missing cable news went on and on about other missing women who were white. So, it could be the medias fault for not covering all battleground properly, and at times this does not resume estimable to Missing White Woman Syndrome, but to other news as well.It is a matter of interpretation of every situation and the media tends to draw the attention upon a certain area of a subject so that it should turn the whole thing into a business line as it is often considered. For example, an automobile accident that kills five people is newsworthy, but five separate fatalities are not. A coal mine accident that kills a dozen is covered by every media outlet, but scores of miners who die from black lung every year are ignored. It is the shocking news that push back the attention, as a means of manipulating the audience.Some claim that the media offers its viewers what they want, as it is like any other market driven much the same way that demand for certain automobiles drives production. It is said that is not just pretty white women, because people are drawn to stories about pretty people in general. wakeless looking actors get more face time than not so goof looking ones. toilsome people are now the majority in the U. S. , yet full figured models dont turn up in Victoria Secret magazines. A plump homely missing pincer will likely not draw the attention that a good looking child would. perhaps people are drawn to attractive, because it is what we want to be. Then when bad things happen to a ttractive people we feel bad because something happened to the concept of what wed like to see ourselves as attractive. Attractive is pleasing to the eye and to the mind, and we are drawn to the things that please us Government intervention could be the only solution, if it subsidized the news media to insure the reporting of certain events even though they may not be in demand.However, there are opponents who claim that this is a social matter and not an economic one, mainly focused on racism and the way it is save perceived in America. Missing White Woman Syndrome is spread not only in the United States, but in other countries as well and it apparently attract millions of viewers. During the last year in Romania there ahs been a continuous debate on a kindred case of a missing white woman, a lawyer, whose case has been analyzed from every angle and it is still discussed.Some even say that it became a brand, as there was a TV-show that kept up with all the details of the case. I n the meanwhile many other teenagers or children have foregone missing but the attention is still drawn to this never-ending case that some even consider not to be true. on that point is also the cult of true womanhood which teaches that white women are to be rescued, therefore they are helpless and in need of protection, while black women are assumed as being in control of the situation.It is a matter of perception upon the entire world, thus including prejudices and mentalities that grow into racism and into different forms of eyesight others of a different race or sex or social status as competent of certain things. Here we could mention the view of people on a missing black woman who is later found dead, as either a drug addict or an easy woman. The fountainheads How do you save a black man from drowning? You take off your foot of his head. and What do you get if a white man falls of a skyscraper? Who cares. best summon the idea that it is spread worldwide not just on the Missing White Woman Syndrome, but in other cases of discrimination and also national opinion upon a certain topic. The abagond. wordpress. com refers to the missing white woman syndrome as missing pretty girls syndrome or damsel in distress syndrome and it also makes references of TV episodes where the syndrome was clearly present. That is in Without a tone episode White Balance in which the agents investigate two cases that of a white teenage girl and that of a black teenage boy.They must cope with the white girls case get constant attention and the black boys getting none. The episode concludes with a No Ending, as we are told that one lives and one dies, but not which is which. In one episode of Law and evidence Criminal Intent, the disappearance of a white girl on a school get down becomes the subject of a media frenzy, and is eventually tied to the disappearance of a local black girl. The mother of the black girl accuses the authorities of coming to her only when her daught ers disappearance was tied up with the white girls.The msnbc. msn. com refers to unconscious bias stating that Quoting those FBI statistics its like saying 99percent of the nations in the world are not at war, so why are focusing on the war? But Iraq is an extraordinary event involving Americans said Mark Effron, vice president of news at MSNBC TV. What makes news is the unexpected. Also, ironically the site gives another retell which refers to the Missing White Woman Syndrome, that is If you are missing, it helps to be young, white, female. Maybe this statement should raise a question mark that can make everyone see the real meaning of this syndrome that does not occur only among white women, but among black or Asian women as well, thus making all of them equal in front of the world and in the media articles. CNN has often been accused of not taking into account all missing cases and of observing and broadcasting only those of white pretty women, ignoring missing black women. T he news media does not only entertain viewers, but also sells newspapers and you rarely, if ever, see in the news a woman of color who has gone missing.The Missing White Woman Syndrome is another embodiment of racism that makes you concentrate only on a small part of the problem and thus ignore the rest as if it never exists. There are thousands of people who go missing every day, but who, for not fitting the profile do not make it to the front page or the news. Those attractive women who are reported try to create that unadulterated image of the world where everyone seeks the beauty and the perfection and these cases of disappearances or deaths often ruin or at least(prenominal) shake the confidence in these stereotypes.But it is very clear that one does not have to be young, blonde and blue-eyed(prenominal) in order to be abducted and moreover breaking the news does not necessarily help bring back the missing person. Here is a matter of police involvement as well and the way i n which authorities do everything in their power to find whoever has gone missing. Nevertheless, it is someway ironical how statistics show that there are more males missing than women, and yet rarely are these cases reported.The percentage of missing white women is not higher than that of black women, but we only speak about a Missing White Woman Syndrome and not about a Missing Black Woman Syndrome. There are also a lot of children gone missing and most of them are not blond, blue-eyed and yet they are those who everyone talks about and even become icons of the syndrome. It is a creation of a fudge world where we only focus on what we want to see and not on what there in reality is out there. Bibliography www. msnbc. msn. com www. tvtropes. org www. abagond. wordpress. com Monica Radu, 1st year student of American Studies.