A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Wildeybeast]

So, here's something I wanted to chuck out for discussion and see what people make of it. This seems like the best thread.

Two students drown, one in [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26406035"]Derby[/URL], one in [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26422745"]York[/URL]. Both went missing within a week of each other in January and sparked missing person investigations over the several weeks it took to recover their bodies. Both seem to have drowned accidentally after a night out. Despite the remarkable similarities, only one story makes the national news, whilst the other barely makes my local news.

So my question is this; did Megan get more coverage because she was an attractive young woman or did Nadish not get the same coverage because of his skin colour?

[Psychosplodge]

I never realised she made it to national, I only recall seeing her on my local news.
Compare that with this morning on local news I'm pretty sure a male student was reported as missing in similar circumstances in York and I can't even find the story online to link to.

[eldargal]

I find male comedians to be even more homogeneous honestly, apart from David Mitchell and a handful of others they all are vulgar and swear a lot and are borderline racist/sexist. Most of the female comediennes I am familiar with are American funnily enough but they are quite varied and extremely amusing, don't ask for their names though.><

there may be an element of 'she's pretty so more sympathetic' but given how many women go missing with hardly a word from the media I expect it has more to do with his brown skin than anything. Plenty of WoC go missing without generating much media attention. Much worse in America, tens of thousands go missing every year and the police won't even look into it.

[Psychosplodge]

I never realised she made it to national, I only recall seeing her on my local news.
Compare that with this morning on local news I'm pretty sure a male student was reported as missing in similar circumstances in York and I can't even find the story online to link to.

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-26431352"]Found it[/URL]. searchs on google still mostly return the Megan case or claudia lawrence.
York appears to be dangerous place to drink.

[Wildeybeast]

there may be an element of 'she's pretty so more sympathetic' but given how many women go missing with hardly a word from the media I expect it has more to do with his brown skin than anything. Plenty of WoC go missing without generating much media attention. Much worse in America, tens of thousands go missing every year and the police won't even look into it.

Probably. It just struck me that the two cases are so remarkably similar and yet get very different levels of coverage. I think that says something very telling about the way our news is reported and consumed.

In other news, an uneducated Indian man battles big business, superstition and prejudice to create a machine that produces 'home-made' [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26260978"]sanitary towels[/URL] at an affordable cost for women in poor parts of India, whilst also giving some of those women a business selling them. An excellent read.

[Rissan4ever]

In other news, an uneducated Indian man battles big business, superstition and prejudice to create a machine that produces 'home-made' [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26260978"]sanitary towels[/URL] at an affordable cost for women in poor parts of India, whilst also giving some of those women a business selling them. An excellent read.

WOW! That is amazing! Improving the health of poor Indian women, fighting the stigma around menstruation, and creating an industry that gives them jobs! What a great guy!

[Wildeybeast]

Yeah, and it seems he pretty much did it single handedly, mostly through sheer bloody minded persistence. My only surprise is that he seems to have taken his shallow wife back again.

[Nabterayl]

Eh, I don't know about you, but I don't know enough about Indian marriage or their marriage in particular to judge. I mean don't forget that he also persisted in something that was ruining their life, presumably in flat contradiction to her requests to stop. We don't have any kind of detail about the conversations they had. Sounds like they're happy, and I think that's about all you can say.

[Rissan4ever]

I'm with Nab on this one. The article talks about how badly he and his wife were treated in their village. People thought they were both sleeping around, or that he was a pervert, or possessed by evil spirits. It sounds to me like she couldn't endure the social pressure anymore. That's hardly shallow.

[Wildeybeast]

Possibly. His mother treated him the same way. I don't know about the specific pressures they faced, all I know is if someone I loved was doing something they believed in, I would be standing up for them against the social pressures, not abandoning them. Everyone came running back when he'd made a success out of it.