hmmm

[emmelinemay]

This article is bothering me for some reason.

A teenage girl has been convicted of murdering a 16-year-old boy who she had lured into a "honey trap".

From the the first sentence - "Shakilus Townsend would still be alive today if it had not been for a teenage temptress who toyed with his emotions and then betrayed him." through to the last - "Joseph now faces a life sentence and will have plenty of time to mull over the part she played in the death of an innocent boy." the article bothers me.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is that is getting to me. There's something about the way the girl is presented in the piece, the language used, the way the victim is referred to by his first name throughout, and yet she is referred to by her surname.

What do you think?

Edit - One thing has just hit me. Hidden away at the bottom of the article is the comment "McLean and five other youths were also convicted of murder on Wednesday."

So ALL of the kids were convicted, but the girl involved is the one that gets the article. Because she's a girl. Are girls involved in murder more evil than boys involved in murder? Or is this girl's crime, in the writer's eyes, the 'betrayal' of a boy who (after seeing her for 6 weeks) wanted to make her his 'future wife'? Is that her crime? Not being a 'good future wife'?

The boys that actually BEAT THIS BOY TO DEATH get about 2 sentences in the whole article. They BEAT HIM TO DEATH and yet the true villain of the piece is this foolish girl?

Edit the second: I am not saying what she did was ok, or 'less evil' than the beating up. My issue is SPECIFICALLY with the language used to report this crime, which makes her 'womanly wiles' out to be a crime as horrific as sticking the knife in herself. I am unsurprised that the female commenters get it, and the male ones (with a few notable exceptions) don't.

Comments

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's that simple, from what i read about the case (albeit in the press) it was the girls idea to set the guy up because she was dumped for having a fling with him and brought him to her ex in order to gain favour with him again. Bearing in mind the boy and mcclean had had previous fights and the girl is almost definately complicit in knowing he would be stabbed/killed when she handed him over.

However there are the other aspects such as the whole transgression of a girl doing something bad when society expects women to be nice and kind and nurturing, but expects men to be evil sadistic killers.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I am sure there is more to the story than we are getting, but there were 6 people convicted for murder, not one. The way this article reads, you'd think it was only her.

Do articles about murder etc usually use first names for victims last for killers in that way? I've never noticed before.

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

it's a powerful trick as it depersonalises the criminal and gives us a strong link to the victim, designed to heighted the moral outrage.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

I dunno, what she did was ice cold. She put on a pretty dress, told him she was taking him to meet her relatives, and all along she knew what she was doing.

Not to excuse for a second what the 5 boys did, mind. But she took it to another level, she was not a "foolish girl".

[bluekieran.livejournal.com]

The reason she's news is that her role in the murder was unconventional, and if it was true that she only expected him to get beaten up, her conviction is questionable (or at least interesting, not sure how that part of the law works).

[blonde-venus.livejournal.com]

Oh God, as soon as I heard the words 'honey trap' on the news yesterday I winced. Would there be a equivalent phrase used for a woman you was tricked by a man? I don't think so.
Also I'm no legal expert but surely she is an accessory to murder as opposed to a murderer? This also raises some interesting gender based questions. Hmmm.

[lydiamorgan.livejournal.com]

This story has definitely taken on a different slant since it was first reported, when I remember her involvement was mentioned as an aside. The article is definitely a little more sensationalist than I'm comfortable with, especially coming from the BBC News site which is usually a bit more sensible.

There are a few things that bother me too - firstly that first paragraph. 'Teenage temptress'? 'Lured to a honey-trap'? It's like they're trying to make her out as some kind of femme fatale, subtly glamourising the murder whilst at the same time condemning the culture that allows it.

Also, as you've pointed out, the fact that the 5 youths that actually stabbed, clubbed at beat the poor kid to death hardly get a mention, whereas her name and picture are splashed over the article. Why are they drawing more attention to her (admittedly heinous) crime? Why, because it makes for an interesting twist on what would otherwise just be another gangland murder, of course.

And one last thing - if we're looking at ways of reporting this, why is the villain the 15 year old girl who is being used for sex by a violent older boy, and threatened with 'the beats' unless she betrays the poor kid who wants to do right by her, rather than the 18-year old thug who forced her to set the situation up? There is a definite bias here, and it reflects the trend to portray female criminals as 'worse' somehow than men.

I'm just saying, it's all about spin.

[suicideally.livejournal.com]

The language of the article bothers me too. It reminds me of some of the coverage of Amanda Knox "Foxy Knox! She's a SEX killer, phwoar!".

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

They are making her out to be some kind of Black Widow as far as I can tell.

ALL of them knew what they were doing, noneo f them is more guilty than the other, yet they are making her out to be worse than the boys.

She was cold and calculated, thinking she would get her man back by bringing him what was, esentially, a sacrifice, but did she really know they would kill him?

She lured him into a trap, that much is certain. She betrayed a boy who said he loved her, also true.

Whether that makes her better or worse than anyone else involved? I don't know.

The press does seem to be treating her differently, but perhaps because she was pivotal in this crime. She led him on, and brought him to his death, knowlingly or otherwise. She says she thought they were 'just going to beat him up'.

Had she not done it, they wouldn't have killed him then. They may well have killed him later, as he was already on their list.

All of them are complicit in his death.

[aliasrob.livejournal.com]

I think the issue is that she created the situation, by a) cheating on her gangster boyfriend and b) setting up the other kid in an bid to get back with him.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

She is quite cute, that Amanda Knox, you know, for a stone killer.

[aliasrob.livejournal.com]

I think it just comes down to novelty. This is an interesting story, hence it gets press. That's all it is. Ad revenues.

[aliasrob.livejournal.com]

Is this a courtroom proceedings type thing? I could see prosecution lawyers doing the same thing.

[ant-girl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the 'honey trap' thing has been really bugging me too.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen on the news a man leading a woman into an ambush by a gang of women who then killed her, but I suppose the same term would apply.

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

*agrees*
It bothers me too.

[mark13.livejournal.com]

The article is written in very salacious terms, and is nowhere near as neutral as news should be.

This has been worrying me recently about the BBC, both online and on radio. Their news reporting has really started to slip more towards tabloid style sensationalist reporting, and prioritising trivial made up news over serious events.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

Would there be a equivalent phrase used for a woman you was tricked by a man? I don't think so.

This is definitely one of the things that is bothering me, added to Nick's point that society 'expects' men to be evil, but when women do it, it's OMG MORE EVIL THAN ANYTHING.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

But there are plenty of stories about men leading women into an ambush by men who then rape her.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

Thank you for putting everything that bothers me actually into words, you are so spot on.

I guess I also have a 'slant' from where I work, having learnt a lot more about how gangs (in Hackney anyway) operate - for example about how girls are used/treated in gangs. For example one initiation is that the girlfriend of the gang leader has to commit a sex act on all of the other male members. And yes, if they fall foul of the gang they wouldn't have thought twice about retribution, girl or otherwise.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

And had she not done it, they may well have gone after her instead. That's how gangs work.

I think the journalist has misunderstood, deliberately or otherwise, how gangs operate.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I noticed it a long while ago, back when the congestion charge was introduced.

I was off sick that day, and saw the BBC news coverage of the introduction of the charge for most of the day. Pretty much every update was 'well, there is no chaos, YET. But it is still early, there may be CHAOS AND CONFUSION LATER. We will have to WAIT AND SEE if there is going to be an CHAOS later'.

When no CHAOS occurred, and the congestion charge's introduction was comparatively straightforward (and actually seemed to have the desired effect in that it reduced the number of people driving into London) they just dropped it and pretended they'd always known it would work.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

Link?

This just seems more evil to me even than a drink-spiking/gang rape scenario, due to the emotional involvement and manipulation.

[aliasrob.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Is it a newspapers job to decide what's more evil than anything? Should we be looking to them for guidance on that?

She did..

[brute-force.livejournal.com]

... set him up. The boys who killed him were just tools.
it's like taking him to the aquarium and pushing him in the shark tank. do you then say, "well she was just an accomplice, the SHARKS were the real murders here."? Sure the reporting is not perfect, People have an expectation of pretty girls as innocent. Maybe the article has a point there....
There are men who Tell a girl she is special and lure them into prostitution, drug running, getting raped, and murdered. She did the same type of thing.
The end result of her direct actions was that she made sure the boy was there to be killed. I can't seem to be to worried about her being liabled in the press.
Personally I think I would through a party if I found out she was beat up in prison.