Amanda Knox: What I learned from meeting other women villainized by the media

[pnwmom]

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/paxn8z/amanda-knox-scarlet-letter-trailer?utm_campaign=sharebutton

In filming "The Scarlet Letter Reports," I met with women who, like me, have faced vitriolic harassment by the media and the public—and learned so much from their strength and resilience in the face of these attacks.

"The Scarlet Letter Reports" is a new series hosted by Amanda Knox that explores the gendered nature of public shaming. The series premieres this Wednesday on Facebook Watch.

I walked onto the set to shoot the first episode of The Scarlet Letter Reports ten years ago to the day I was arrested and redefined around the world as “Foxy Knoxy.” You’ve probably heard of her: the two-faced slut who murdered her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in a fit of drug- and/or jealousy-fueled rage during a sex game gone wrong. That invented monster was convicted, but it was me—the real me—who spent four years in prison and eight years on trial in Italian court making the case for my innocence. Even in freedom, Foxy Knoxy precedes me into the world—everyone I’ve met in the last decade has already met and judged her.

As a white woman, I am rare among wrongfully convicted people, the vast majority of whom are black men. And most exonerees tend to have a very different relationship with the media. I was hounded and harassed before, during, and after my release, whereas most exonerees face being forgotten or ignored by society. These individuals have all borne the burden of our criminal justice system’s failures, and by extension, our society’s shortcomings: our racism, classism, and impulse to scapegoat, vilify, and punish. Foxy Knoxy was the product of some of these shortcomings, but filtered through society’s long history of villainizing women and particularly our sexuality.

In The Scarlet Letter Reports, a new series launching this week on Broadly, I explore the gendered nature of public shaming through interviews with women who have been objectified and villainized by the media, including: Anita Sarkeesian, Amber Rose, Daisy Coleman, Brett Rossi, and Mischa Barton. Though our backgrounds and stories are different, we were all attacked as women. And, in trying to live our lives or come forward with the truth, we faced vicious campaigns against our characters—our identities distorted and crammed into prepackaged tropes, ready-made to be discounted, condemned, and rejected: the slut, the psycho, the trainwreck, the liar, the man-eater.

SNIP

The women you see on SLR—whether survivors of sexual assault, online abuse, or slut-shaming—all have one common denominator: we had our truth taken from us, our identities distorted and vilified. Even though some of our cases may seem extreme, most women have experienced some level of shame, mockery, or abuse due solely to their gender. It’s my hope that sharing stories like these enable us to reclaim the narratives of our own lives, and find comfort in other women’s strength and resilience. I don’t ever want anyone to feel isolated the way I did, and I also know that when we listen to each other’s stories with compassion and context, we also come much closer to actually understanding the truth.

[wonkwest]

1. What happened to her was criminal

I've read quite a few true crime books based in Italy, and their justice system is seven levels of fucked up. "The Monster of Florence" also documents how malevolent the Italian police forces could be when they were more interested in advancing their careers and crushing their political enemies rather than rooting out the truth.

It's nice to see she's channeling the energy of her ordeal into something productive and useful to society. Good for her.

[pnwmom]

3. Welcome to DU, wonkwest!

[wonkwest]

4. Thanks )

I appreciate it

[Hekate]

2. Kick

[BigmanPigman]

5. The Italian police really did have a witch hunt for her.

They used religion, witches, bizarre cults with odd practices to railroad her. There was a personal agenda with the Italian prosecutor. He is extremely biased and made her life Hell for years.

[Raine]

6. I'm glad that she has a cause

that she can fight for and a way to use the ordeal she went thru to help herself and others.

[lindysalsagal]

7. In much smaller, every-day annoyance events, most women have been on the receiving end of

men's accusations and misrepresentations. Of course, it doesn't usually amount to this much destruction, but they are obstacles that make our careers that much more difficult.

The media feeds off extreme stories like these. Good news doesn't sell soap.