Lack of Media Coverage of Gendered Violence
It was for 276 Chibok girls in Nigeria who were abducted by Boko Haram due to the fact that they were getting an education. For a while, the hashtag was circulating, giving readers insight into what had happened to the schoolgirls, yet the amount of recognition it got lessened by the day. In January of 2018, one of the girls was rescued, but there are still over 100 girls missing (“Chibok girls” 2018)¹.
In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Tom's final beating and death is a primary focus, but the different kinds of violence the women face can be more nuanced. Similarly, in Kindred, the more obvious kinds of violence women face are highlighted, such as the possibility of being raped, yet the struggles Sarah the Cook faced were actually demeaned. Nowadays, media coverage focuses highly on the brutality the police inflict on Black men, even though it has been statistically proven that both Black women and men suffer the same amount of violence, and more often than not, police officers face little to no consequences after manhandling a black woman (DuMontheir 126)².
The media plays a role in both highlighting the issue for the public and also diluting attention. Videos of the kinds of brutality black women face circulate, but as few are held accountable, people are increasingly desensitized to the continued incidence rates of violence. Ultimately, the world moves on, much like #BringBackOurGirls and the under-appreciated hashtag #SayHerName, that discusses the women who the media overlook.
In a world where #ICantBreathe is so prominently known in social media, other--primarily female--voices are ignored. Consider Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist and mother whose one year old child was in the car with her while police opened fire and killed her (Crenshaw 2015). The lack of media representation for Carey's case, which is crucially important for increasing awareness about discrimination People of Color face, led to the case being mishandled and dropped.
In his recent music video "This is America" (released May 5, 2018), Childish Gambino, a rapper from California, portrays the way America has become so desensitized about brutality against African Americans. Guns are used twice in the music video, and both times it’s to portray the way America idolizes their guns, as opposed to focusing on the amount of people the weapon has killed, in order to enforce gun control. Furthermore, the dance movements he does throughout distracts viewers while chaos ensues in the background, proving that society is more concerned with what is considered to be “in style” in order to stay relevant, instead of focusing on the amount of lives that are constantly lost to lack of media coverage and focus.
Forms like the music video and hashtags are powerful ways to inform an audience whose attention spans are growing thinner as time goes by. Yet the novel remains an extremely strong force in sending out a message, especially one that is still a main concern for most people.
References
- “Chibok Girls: Kidnapped Schoolgirl Rescued in Nigeria.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42570472.
- DuMontheir, Asha et al. The Status of Black Women in the United States. Washington: Institution for Women’s Policy Research, 2017. Print.
