Other sources have provided more succinct commentary than I probably can, but the general gist is that Sanesha Stewart was fatally stabbed in the Bronx last weekend. Because she was a trans woman, and a person of color, the police of course have assumed that she was a sex worker. Much ado in media coverage has also been made of Stewart's physical appearance (no doubt because her height and breast size are critically relevant to her murder-- I mean, I'm also always curious to know what sexual assault survivors were wearing whenever I read news reports of incidents like that, since obviously there's no other way to reasonably infer whether they were asking for it.) The news has also generally insisted on referring to Stewart by her birth name (um, and her actual name as a "feminine nickname"), a transvestite, and a "man who dressed like a woman."
It's kind of interesting though, that despite the media's obvious commitment to portraying her death in as callous a manner possible, it's still pretty clear in the articles that her neighbors are kind of devastated. Anyway, the NY Daily News' most recent article is probably the least offensive so far (though not by much), and it's here.
No comments:
Post a Comment