Why are women and girls still missing?
… from life, canonic literature, and our collective long-term memories? Leave a comment to join this dialogue, after reading this post. Then keep scrolling to see today's writing prompt.
Have you noticed the steady growing number of books about missing women and girls in the past decade or so? And if you have, have you taken a beat yet to consider why there are more stories like this and what it means?
There is no shortage of titles like Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica, All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker, And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall, The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas, College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight by Shawn Cohen, Woman Missing by Kaelin Wennerberg, Invisible Victims: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of the Columbia River by Diane Fanning, etc. And there are just as many true crime podcasts and docuseries centered around missing women and girls, if not more.
Stories about missing women and girls are everywhere you turn nowadays. But why? And in what ways does this trend matter? Especially when the world seems more obsessed with learning about missing women and girls than it does with ensuring they never go missing in the first place or with protecting them once they’re ‘found’ if they’re ever found alive.
In all seriousness, these stories (real and imagined) have become a popular trope, even a popular type of trauma porn, for a variety of audiences everywhere. Such audiences include men who want to ‘save’ these women and girls, who remind them of their wives, sisters, and daughters. They also include other traumatized, empathetic women who want to avenge and or protect these missing women or girls (mostly the memory of them and their lives) in some way. And they include those passive consumers who like consuming good gossip about ‘careless’ or ‘innocent’ women and girls, and or encountering a good true crime puzzle to solve from the comfort of their couch, and ….
I can’t help but wonder: Is this growing obsession with missing women and girls in the popular stories we tell and produce for the masses indicative of a growing awareness around all the sadly historic, common, and widespread violence against women in the real world in the wake of the #MeToo Movement? Or is it indicative of the always-there pervasive and perverted need to forever portray and see women and girls as passive, weak objects that, though they might try, are unable or unwilling to protect themselves from predators and systemic violence, as well as everyone else’s apathy about their lives and the violence they endure? And where does the concern for telling their stories in order to protect and empower these missing women and girls and consuming their stories passively for entertainment meet and or diverge?
Do these popular stories about missing women and girls work to uphold or challenge the patriarchy, in other words? Because my observations and intuition tell me that maybe it’s a little bit of both, which is why we can’t be too careful about how, when, and why we continue to tell these stories about missing women and girls, and which audiences they cater to in the long run. Especially now, as the current powers that be try to strategically dismantle the rights and protections women have fought for and earned for over… well, since the dawn of human civilization if you’re really paying attention to honest portrayals of the plight of women throughout history.
I have more questions than answers regarding this topic, but I can’t stop wondering whether all these stories about missing women and girls are doing more harm than good, to some degree at least. And whether these stories are silently becoming nothing more than fodder for the detached entertainment mills owned and operated by men and or the patriarchy that generates and sustains them. Which might lead to more people becoming apathetic to such stories over time as they’re consumed more rapidly, without real reflection or sense of genuine social and institutional responsibility— especially when women are the ones penning them.
It can’t be a coincidence that we don’t see that many stories about missing women and girls gain widespread acclaim or attention for longer than a few media or publishing cycles, can it? Once missing women and girls are missing, it’s presumed more often than not that they’ll stay missing after a few cycles have lapsed. And when they are ‘found,’ even if it’s only their mutilated corpses that are found, the world and its consumers seem satisfied enough to move on… to the next story about a missing woman or girl who will also probably stay missing, with little to no reprieve. Missing women and girls get attention, particularly young white blonde women, but never for long, and never beyond some obsessive homogeneous, stereotypical grouping apart from the genuine complexities of what make up their individual identities. Meaning, they’re more often seen as daughters and mothers first, and what they have done for others, not by their occupations and or individual intellect, personality traits, or pursuits.
And pieces of literature about missing women and girls don’t receive that many prestigious awards from literary institutions either, as they are typically only viewed as pop culture entertainment and therefore valueless to the enduring literary canon. But why is that? No, really, why is that? Is it because stories about missing women and girls are a dime a dozen and therefore too mainstream to warrant enduring attention and, ironically enough, credence? Or is it because missing women and girls aren’t being portrayed in what is perceived as high-brow or award-worthy literature? Or is it because women are still mostly invisible in the literary canon that endures to this day, which was established long ago by patriarchal institutions? (Consider what is deemed as a Classic for a beat, and under what conditions women are represented as authors or protagonists… which is primarily within domestic spheres and roles, or within contexts regarding their sexuality and relationships with men…)
On the flip side, it also can’t be a coincidence that both real and imagined stories about missing women and girls have continued to gain traction and popularity as women continue to become more visible within and across society and societal institutions, and as they’re seen more often as whole, distinct individuals separate from men and how men perceive them and or treat them … right? As women and girls have gained more autonomy over their livelihoods and bodies, they seem to show up dead and missing a whole lot more, in other words, no? Are we just paying greater attention now, or did I get all of that backwards?
Essentially, I want to know: In what ways are these stories about missing women and girls helping women and girls gain more visibility in life and literature, as well as more legal protections? And in what ways are they doing the exact opposite? Does the answer to those questions rely more heavily on who is penning them, who is publishing and distributing them, who is studying them and deeming them worthy, or who is consuming them? Or are all these stories nothing more than examples of sensationalized media for popular consumption and sales? Which is still an issue in a lot of ways— that stories of missing women and girls are only worth anything when they can be consumed in large quantities?
I’m going to leave my thoughts on this topic there for today. I will probably pick it back up at some point, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, join this dialogue by leaving a comment. I am curious what you think about this topic.
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© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
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Today’s Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt: Missing Woman
Write an informative piece regarding a woman who has gone missing, either real or imagined.
Writing Tip
When completing this prompt, try to include facts about the missing woman and her life that aren’t related to the men in her life, or her naive or ‘risky’ lifestyle. See what works and think about why it works or doesn’t work. Use this prompt to challenge typical stereotypes and representations of missing women as much as you can.
