Oh hell no

From what I’ve seen, the New York Post isn’t the classiest news outlet there is. That said, there is still no excuse for this article, titled One-Legged Hooker Slain.

A one-legged hooker was killed in Brooklyn after a john hit her over the head, causing her to fall backwards out of her wheelchair and slam her skull against the wall, cops said yesterday.

Um, excuse me? A woman was murdered. A living, breathing, feeling woman was killed while doing her job. Say what you will about the job, doesn’t matter. Her job is not and never would be reason to kill her. Has anyone else noticed the sickening dichotomies in news reporting? Especially between men and women, or when describing people of colour? The first such example that hit me in the face was that infamous comparison of the two pictures in the news from Hurricane Katrina. I don’t remember verbatum, but I recall a caption describing a picture of a black man trying to find supplies “looting” while a white couple was “searching” or something. More recently, I remember seeing a comparison of two murdered mothers, brought to my attention on Feministing. Both had been killed and both had had their babies cut from their wombs. This is sickening, no matter how you look at it. However, the “body” of one “mother” was found while the “corpse” of another was found eviscerated. Nice.

A lot of people talk about the objectification of women in sex, but I think this really exemplifies the fact that some people are just things. One-legged hooker? Corpse? These were women. I am shaking my head, I am saddened, and I give my respects to those women and their families. They did not deserve to be murdered and they did not deserve this horrific level of disrespect. Most of all, their sex and their race should have not a thing to do with how they are treated, in life and in death.