Saturday, March 22, 2014

L'Wren Scott, and the awful truth about women's obituaries-Well written By Stassa Edwards March 20, 2014 Just saying

L'Wren Scott, and the awful truth about women's obituaries-Well written By Stassa Edwards March 20, 2014 Just saying

L'Wren Scott, and the awful truth about women's obituaries-Well written By Stassa Edwards March 20, 2014 Just saying


Coverage of the fashion designer's passing was just the
latest example of a sad journalistic tradition

By Stassa Edwards March 20, 2014

When news broke that respected fashion designer L'Wren Scott
had passed away on Monday, The New York Times noted her suicide with the
regrettable headline "Mick Jagger's Girlfriend Found Dead."

The Times wasn't alone in its faux pas; the Associated Press
dutifully tweeted, "BREAKING: Law enforcement: Mick Jagger' [sic]
girlfriend, L'Wren Scott, found dead in NYC of possible suicide." Though
the AP managed to slip Scott's name in the headline of the report, both news
organizations seemed to agree: Scott's death was newsworthy only because of her
romantic association with a legendary rock and roller. Editors at neither The
New York Times nor the Associated Press seemed to grasp that Scott's untimely
death was newsworthy because of her professional accomplishments.

One would think that after the stroganoff incident, the Gray
Lady in particular would have found a better way to note the passing of
accomplished women, but it clearly hasn't. The poor handling of Scott's death
speaks more broadly to the difficulty of recounting a woman's life — namely the
determination of a hierarchy of facts, a project that should seem gender
neutral but rarely is. It often seems natural enough to define women by their
relationships — wife, mother, girlfriend, etc. — and let famous men be
memorialized for their accomplishments, their family lives taking a backseat.
This was certainly the case with the aforementioned stroganoff incident, in
which the Times' obituary writers downgraded Yvette Brill from rocket scientist
to pretty good cook.


http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2014/03/lwren-scott-and-awful-truth-about.html
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