Women Aren’t Valued or Taken Seriously Until We’re Dead

The tragic death, and assumed murder, of influencer Gabby Petito has gotten people talking about how the media treats missing and murdered women and how domestic violence is systemically downplayed. But there’s more to it than that.

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I’m so fucking sick of women being treated as collateral damage.

Domestic violence is systemically underplayed in this society. It is reduced to “tumultuous relationships” which quickly falls down the slippery slope to “what did she do to provoke him”.

Look, there isn’t much I can say about Gabby Petito and how the media treats missing and murdered pretty young white women that hasn’t already been said a million times by now. But the reason why I’m adding my take to the growing rage-filled commentary is because I feel the need to point something out that people have been glossing over.

It’s that we don’t recognize how women “have so much potential” until it has been completely extinguished.

We are vaunted more when we are dead than when we are living, breathing, and full of hopes, dreams, fears, and…