{"id":54001,"date":"2018-05-02T13:12:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=54001"},"modified":"2018-05-02T13:12:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:12:06","slug":"can-amanda-knoxs-new-show-bring-end-siut-shaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=54001","title":{"rendered":"How can Amanda Knox’s new show bring an end to sIut-shaming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hester Prynne had to stand on a scaffold in the middle of town, wearing her red letter \u201cA\u201d for adultery in the novel from which the new Broadly Facebook series The Scarlet Letter Reports<\/em> gets its name. Compared to series host Amanda Knox and her interview subjects, you might wonder if Hester got off easy.<\/p>\n

In the series, which premiered Wednesday morning, Knox talks to women about the public shaming and abuse they experienced in the media and online after daring to speak up for themselves while also being female. In the 10-minute segments she sits down with Anita Sarkeesian, the feminist video blogger who was a target of Gamergate abuse; Amber Rose, who has been badmouthed by exes Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa; Mischa Barton, who took her exes to court for their threats of revenge p\u03bfrn; Daisy Coleman, the Missouri teen bullied by an entire town after she was date raped; and Brett Rossi, the p\u03bfrn star who has sued ex-fiancee Charlie Sheen for assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at women who\u2019ve all had very different experiences, but they all have echoes of the same problem,\u201d Knox tells Yahoo Lifestyle of her subjects. That problem is the way society simultaneously sexualizes women for profit and then vilifies them for it.<\/p>\n

Yeah, Amanda\u2019s Been There<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Knox isn\u2019t exactly approaching this as an objective journalist. In the show, she addresses the way police, prosecutors, and the media used her own sexuality as proof that she murdered her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. She was acquitted of all charges upon appeal in 2011, and again by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015. Since then, she has been working as a writer and advocate for the wrongly convicted. She pitched the idea for The Scarlet Letter Reports<\/em> (at first simply as an article for Broadly) knowing she would bring her own context to the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t going to be an interview, this is going to be a conversation between two women who have been there,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t pretend I\u2019m not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first episode, Knox curls up on Sarkeesian\u2019s couch and nods knowingly as she listens to her tales of being digitally edited into p\u03bfrnography and receiving graphic death threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has been vilified in the media, [I know] it takes a lot of courage to be willing to sit across from me and say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve been there and I see you and I hear you,\u2019 \u201d Knox explains. \u201cThat\u2019s what the women said to me, as much as I was saying that to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second episode, she and Rose bond over what it\u2019s like to be torn apart by the media over having sex, while men simply get congratulated. After their chat, Rose gave Knox her number and a \u201cSIut\u201d cap, and they\u2019ve been texting ever since.<\/p>\n

SIuts: A Primer<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Leora Tanenbaum, author of I Am Not a SIut: SIut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet<\/em>, sees the direct line between Knox and her interview subjects. It\u2019s part of the sexual double standard that has existed since the time of the Hebrew Bible, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSIut-shaming is a way for men in power (and also for women in power) to categorize some groups of women who are perceived to be overly sexualized, who are perceived to be violating norms of femininity, to keep them in their place and punish them,\u201d she tells Yahoo.<\/p>\n

These days, women have felt freer to embrace their sexuality, and social media has given them the means to share it, Tanenbaum says. This has, sadly, meant more women than ever are getting branded with that scarlet letter. Case in point, reporters picked up the \u201cFoxy Knoxy\u201d nickname that plagued Knox during her trial from her MySpace page.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously not everybody is going to be accused and charged with murder,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is a very extreme example. But you exert your sexual agency, you\u2019re not ashamed of it, you\u2019re public about it, and you will be judged, shamed, and policed.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n
\n

Be Like Monica<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Though she started working on The Scarlet Letter Reports<\/em> before the #MeToo movement really took off last year, Knox says it\u2019s made people ready to hear these stories. If the show gains traction, there are many other people she\u2019d like to sit down with.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many women were on my wish list,\u201d she says. \u201cThe one person who has been a huge inspiration and model to me has been Monica Lewinsky. \u2026 They totally destroyed her life, and the fact that she was able to build herself back up and make legitimate contributions to society and speak to her experience with so much compassion and authority \u2014 she is such a model to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knox and her first five subjects are all at different stages of building themselves back up, too. Rose, for example, said she truly doesn\u2019t care about how the media portrays her anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d Knox says, marveling at Rose\u2019s peaceful attitude. \u201cFor me, I get to work. I spend a lot of time thinking and then meta-thinking, and I get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victims aren\u2019t the only ones who have work to do, of course. Tanenbaum has some thoughts on how everyone can start reshaping the vernacular surrounding women. Step one is to stop calling anyone a \u201csIut\u201d or any of its synonyms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not advocating censorship, but I am advocating mindfulness,\u201d she says. \u201cUsing those words adds to this attitude that it\u2019s OK to otherize women, that it\u2019s OK to use derogatory language. I think it\u2019s important as a first step forward to just never use these words at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Tabloids to Policy<\/strong><\/h1>\n

When Knox pitched this project, she wanted to take the tabloids to task for exploiting salacious stories about women. The trick is not to become part of that exploitation as she asks women to retell these stories all over again for her show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m hoping that people get out of this is they look at the evidence and then they say, \u2018I\u2019m seeing a human being; I\u2019m not seeing this object, the gold digger, or the sIut, therefore I\u2019ve been lied to,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you scrap someone\u2019s context and make them into two-dimensional versions of themselves, you are sacrificing truth in the process. That doesn\u2019t just affect the people that are in the media. It affects all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tanenbaum explains how both the famous and everyday cases of the sexual double standard wind up having an impact on all women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese attitudes about women\u2019s sexual agency affect public policy about birth control, about abortion,\u201d she says. \u201cThey affect the mindset of juries deciding sexual assault cases. This is such a bigger problem than that girl over there and that woman over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Knox wants \u2014 and this may be a tall order for a show told in 10-minute segments \u2014 is to make people ask questions about the attitudes many have taken for granted. That begins by giving women control over their own narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all healing by adding our voices to the chorus of voices of other people who are authoring our experiences,\u201d she says, \u201choping that we are assuming an authority over ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hester Prynne had to stand on a scaffold in the middle of town, wearing her red letter \u201cA\u201d for adultery in the novel from which the new Broadly Facebook series The Scarlet Letter Reports gets its name. Compared to series host Amanda Knox and her interview subjects, you might wonder if Hester got off easy. 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