Missing White Women Syndrome: A phrase coined by Gwen Ifill referring to the mainstream media’s seeming fascination with covering missing or endangered white women and its seeming disinterest in cases involving missing people of color (Demby).
Recently, a major systematic injustice has been emphasized due to the media, including social media and television, bringing mass amounts of attention to the Gabby Petito and Brian Laundry case. This brings injustices to light for those who have been reported missing who are non-white and in the LGBTQ community. The recent event that occurred was really a slap in the face for those families who have had no attention brought to their loved one’s location by the authorities or media. An article from the Washington Post states this very well that “Her (Gaby’s) case deserves attention and justice. But all the missing deserve this. And so, the wall-to-wall coverage of the Petito case has been an added slap in the face to the loved ones of non-White and LGBTQ people who haven’t gotten it.” (Attiah). By no means is this intended to be an attack or slander on the female who was missing, only to be found as murdered days later, but rather this seems to be a case of white woman syndrome. white woman syndrome is a term that is often used to refer to media coverage on missing person cases. The tendency is that there is more coverage by media, especially television if the case involves a young, white, upper-middle-class woman.
So, what does this mean on the coverage for non-white or LGBTQ females and males? Natalie Wilson, the co-founder of black and missing foundation incorporation, states in an ABC News report that “minority adults who go missing are often stereotyped as being involved in crime or violence, poverty, and addiction, which takes attention away from their cases” (Kindelan). This is most certainly a powerful injustice. As stated, this claim is not to be made against Gabby Petito and hate on how the media was able to find justice and locate her body, but rather is intended to bring awareness of how powerful media can be and that is something that should be used often when people are reported missing. With all that being said, “Non-White and LGBTQ people too frequently have to fight against assumptions that members of their community have done something to cause their own disappearances” (Attiah). All people deserve the same urgency and attention.
References:
Attiah, K. (2021). Gabby petito deserves justice, but ‘missing white girl syndrome’ hurts us all. The Washington Post. Retrieved at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/28/gabby-petito-deserves-justice-missing-white-girl-syndrome-hurts-us-all/
Demby, G. (2017) What we know (and don’t know) about ‘missing white women syndrome’. NPR. Retrieved at: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/13/523769303/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-missing-white-women-syndrome
Geno, S (2021). How the news coverage for gabby petito exposes inequality for indigenous women and POC. Criminal. Retrieved at: https://vocal.media/criminal/how-the-news-coverage-for-gabby-petito-exposes-inequality-for-indigenous-women-and-poc
Gibson, E. (2019). Data on missing or murder Tohono o’odham females could help guide prevention efforts. Arizona Public Media. Retrieved at: https://news.azpm.org/p/news-splash/2019/5/28/152301-woman-collects-data-the-state-now-seeks-on-missing-or-murdered-tohono-oodham-females/
Kondelan, K. (2021) Gabby petito case example of ‘missing white women syndrome,’ experts say. ABC News. Retrieved at: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/gabby-petito-case-missing-white-woman-syndrome-experts/story?id=80144611
Missing White Women syndrome is a phrase that I had not previously heard, but now that I know what it is, I can look back and see how prominent it is in society. There is definitely a very heavy bias in terms of coverage and attention when a white woman goes missing compared to those of minority groups.