Where’s Jodi Arias? She’s an evil woman, who brutally murdered her boyfriend nearly five years ago. It has gained national attention with its lurid details, but we “shouldn’t care,” according to Slate’s Josh Voorhees. It’s a high-profile case, it has juicy details, it bled, and the media led. Yet, it’s a woman,and women aren’t capable of vicious acts of violence. It’s not possible. It’s the men, who are the problem. I guess we’ll have to wait until this Washington Post affiliated site writes a review of the Lifetime movie for additional commentary. Yes, I know men contribute to the vast majority of violent acts, but that doesn’t mean women are exempt from scrutiny when they commit acts of savagery.
When Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, it was all over Slate. Josh Voorhees wrote extensively on Pistorius, but had just one post for Arias – and that was after the verdict was reached. Amanda Marcotte thought it offered insight into gun control. Simon Doonan included him in a post about how holding a grudge can be healthy. Daniel Politi reported that the case against him was “rock solid.” William Saletan described him as “a reckless, dangerous killer.”
Pistorius’ father says his son is getting a bum rap. “When you are a sportsman, you act even more on instinct,” Henke Pistorius told the Telegraph. “When you wake up in the middle of the night—and crime is so endemic in South Africa—what do you do if somebody is in the house? Do you think it’s one of your family? Of course you don’t.” Oscar grew up with guns, his dad explained. The Pistorius family is a hunting family.
Congratulations, Mr. Pistorius. You’ve raised, in Oscar, a fine hunter. An animal, in fact. When care and thought were required, he moved with ruthless haste to defend his territory, even at the risk—and the expense—of a young woman’s life. That’s not the prosecution’s portrait of what he did. It’s his own.
Besides Saletan’s idiotic, urban-based liberal commentary, that doesn’t factor in the cultural differences –wasn’t Arias a reckless kill, “an animal?” I mean premeditated murder is ruthless, and it involves planning. Some could argue that it’s a depraved form of hunting. No, it is a form of hunting. The only difference was that a woman did the killing, stabbing her boyfriend, Travis Alexander, 27 times, sitting his throat, and putting a bullet in his head, with a gun stolen from her grandfather. Yet, this is only worthy of one post because Arias isn’t as important as the Ariel Castro kidnappings, the tense relationship between the FBI and Russia’s FSB, and Benghazi. I don’t know how to react to the last one, especially since some are trashing CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson for doing her job.
Yet, it doesn’t stop there. Feministing and Jezebel, two leading feminist blogs, have virtually nothing on Arias. Yet, it’s a different story when you search for Pistorius at Jezebel and Feministing. Granted, Feministing doesn’t have that much on Oscar, but it’s better than not writing about it. Ironically, one post chastised the media for reporting on the shooting wrong.
What matters is that she’s [Reeva Steenkamp] dead, because he – it appears – killed her. If you’re talking about it any other way – I’m looking at you, New York Times, Washington Post, AP, and The Guardian – you’re doing it wrong. And by “wrong,” I mean, you’re doing it a way that suggests that Steenkamp was somehow to blame, or that sympathises with the alleged murderer rather than with the woman he allegedly murdered. That kind of wrong. And you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
I would be more embarrassed not covering a national story, even the writers at Feministing can – and should – agree. What’s the deal, ladies? Yes, domestic violence disputes are one of many issues that galvanize the feminist left, but did they really think that some women aren’t capable of evil as well. Talk about The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – on crack. On the other hand, at least the Washington Post had more than a few articles about Arias. Although, you would expect there to be equal amounts of coverage with any media affiliated group. What Arias did was awful, and I’m waiting on Saletan to give commentary on her animalistic instincts.
- One Post!?
