“Are you not entertained?”- Why family violence is currently front page material for all the wrong reasons
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit of a cliché when it comes to being a redhead with a temper. The issue that has recently attracted my ire is that of the deranged chef in Queensland who brutally murdered and then ATE his partner. To say this crime is horrific is an understatement. However, what is more horrific is the front page of Queensland’s own Courier Mail in response to the crime. The front page showed a picture of the victim wearing a bikini and in a provocative pose, with the headline “Monster Chef and the She Male”.
The fact that Ms Prasetyo was a trans-gender female and an escort is irrelevant. That the media has spun the story to put those two facts front and centre reeks of victim-shaming. Honestly, it’s 2014 and we are still perpetuating the “she had it coming” defense? She was a real person, with a family and a life, and that life was taken away from her by the man that she was married to. By the way, her Mother has told reporters that she worked as an escort to support her family and put her little sisters through school- you don’t see that in any headlines do you?