Missing Woman Syndrome and Invisible Men

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Missing Woman Syndrome and Invisible Men

WASHINGTON / October 1, 2021 – David Derrick Scott went missing on September 1. Andre Moore was reported as absent on September 2. And Gregory Hill has been missing since September 28. These three persons, catalogued by the Washington, DC Police Department (1), share similar characteristics — all of them are Black men. A Google News search for these men turned up zero results.

In contrast, media coverage of the Gabrielle Petito story has been non-stop. A Google News search about Gabby Petito turned up 19.2 million results.

Why did Gabrielle Petito’s disappearance warrant 19.2 million media “hits,” while David Derrick Scott, Andre Moore, and Gregory Hill remained, for all intents and purposes, invisible?

The U.S. Department of Justice sponsors a program known as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, called “NamUs.” The initiative tracks the 600,000 persons who go missing every year in America. Among these missing persons, 58% are male, while the remaining 42% are female.

Of the missing persons who are later found to be dead, 68% involve men and 32% are female (3).

Analyses of indigenous persons reveal a similar pattern: 62% of missing native Americans are male. An article in VOA News asked the obvious question: “Are Missing and Murdered Indigenous Men in US Being Ignored? (4).

It is difficult to skirt the conclusion that sexism is partly to blame for the invisibility of missing men. Several months ago Senators Cortez Masto of Nevada and Murkowski of Alaska published an editorial that made no attempt to disguise its bias. Titled “Shocking History of Violence Against Native Women is a Crisis We Can Stop,” the article spotlighted the problem of missing and murdered American Indian women — but studiously omitted mention of missing and murdered Indian men (5).

In addition to Missing Woman Syndrome, there’s Abused Woman Syndrome. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that each year, 4.2 million men are victims of partner violence, compared to 3.5 million women. During last year’s COVID lock-down period, an endless stream of media accounts sounded the alarm of an impending “spike” in domestic violence cases involving women who were “trapped” at home and found themselves at the mercy of their controlling and abusive husbands.

The spate of alarming articles was later termed a “Media Hoax,” for two reasons (6):

The predicted domestic violence “spike” never happened, and in some localities, the number of abuse incidents actually decreased (7).
Contrary to the numerous anecdotes of women victimized by their coercive partners, government surveys of the use of coercive control tactics reveal that men are by far the most common victims (8):

o Men: 17.3 million victims annually

o Women: 12.7 million victims annually

These realities create a disturbing conundrum: Despite the fact that a majority of victims of abuse are male, the most recent Biennial Report to Congress reveals that male victims represent only 1-14% of recipients of services funded by the Violence Against Women Act (9).

Sexism isn’t the only explanation for biased media coverage — chivalry likely plays a role, as well. If a male newspaper editor orders, “If it’s a missing white woman, you’re going to cover that,” sexism probably is not at work. Instead, a desire to affirm one’s protective instincts may be at work. Chivalry is fine when confined to persons’ private lives, but may be harmful when expressed in the public arena where “equal treatment under law” is one of the key principles of our society.

Missing Woman Syndrome can be a two-edged sword. Commentator Derecka Purnell reveals that “White women’s cries and lies have galvanized law enforcement and lynch mobs to act on their behalf for centuries.” (10) Wendy McElroy concludes that the absent coverage of missing and abused men represents a “parody of human rights in which only approved groups are recognized as victims….Only those who share the secondary characteristic of approved genitalia receive compassion.” (11)

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