"Heartbreakingly pretty"

[2beesornot2beesthatisthehoney]

Watching ITN news right now. Tragic awful story about the death of a young girl. Teenager helping with enquiries I think. Anyhow the point at which I thought FFS was when a picture was shown of the young girl whose death was described as "all the more tragic" because she was "heartbreakingly pretty". It would be sad whatever , not because of how she looks. It's a terrible story but what a comment by the reporter?
AIBU?

This sounds like a form of Missing White Woman Syndrome, where media coverage is more prominent and hyped when attractive white women go missing as opposed to BME women.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

As sad as it is that a young girl had died, her level of attractiveness has no bearing on how tragic her loss is and feeds onto the culture we still have that a woman's worth is based on how conventionally attractive she is. Excusing it by saying he was emotional/it was unscripted etc. is allowing this rhetoric to continue. Any untimely death is tragic, we don't need to quantify it in terms of physical attractiveness.

I think it's a fair enough criicism of the reporting.

But obviously the really sad thing is that a family lost their daughter and a young girl lost her life

Forgot to add, jojo, that this girl could have been good at football or singing or been amazing mathematician. She could have had a talent, or something that she worked hard on, but all that gets a comment is her appearance.

The thing is Jojo, they wouldn't say her loss was all the more heartbreaking because she was clever, or a great singer or good at football.

Or if she was not very attractive but 'had a really great personality'.

They just don't say things like this about little girls because all that matters is that they're pretty.

And meanwhile the families of all children who have tragically gone too soon are devastated. Regardless of what their child looks like.

But the reporter doesn't know what the little girl was good at, he's just looking at a photo before him and was maybe lost for words as others said.
To say it's ' all the more tragic' is inappropriate but I guess he's human and as someone who often sticks my foot in it I can sympathise - I'm sure he regrets it now

Some talents you don't have to work on tantrum you are just born with them like singing for some it just comes naturally, some who are born pretty may have to work on that too, none of these mean you are a good person so what's the difference between mentioning looks or a singing talent for example, both pleasing to the senses but equally shallow but when someone is described as pretty just seems to annoy the hell out of a lot of people, I realise it's inappropriate the way it was worded but it probably means the reporter was a human who was upset at the tragic story.

Was it ITN?

Ah yes,see it was. It figures.

You can't make something more tragic if it is tragic already.
It's like when people talk about the talent of a young person who has died or the fact they'd just been accepted to college. No. ffs it is tragic they are dead end of.

By raising this I was not as some pp suggested watering down the main issue that a child has died. In my view it's heartbreaking , period. Apologies to anyone offended I raised it.
I did think he was bumbling his words , which as a professional, dealing with a very sensitive subject, he shouldn't . But that he said it to me shows how normalised such a phrase it has become.

My thoughts are with her family. RIP

Good grief. I bet he is kicking himself.

Is it appropriate to bring this matter up when a young person is in the news losing there life? A generic conversation about this at another time would surely be better?

Their not there.

I've noticed this so much when the deaths of women/little girls are reported. The "prettier" the girl the more tragic the loss. Someone said that when my sister passed - "Oh no, but she was so beautiful". She was beautiful - inside as well as outside, but I'd have been no less heartbroken if she'd looked like the back end of a bus, and neither would that poor girls family.

This particular comment just shows that even in death females (even children) are still judged on their appearance.

RIP to the innocent child who lost her life before it had even really began and massive condolences to her family

Jesus Christ I'm sure there are other things to get outraged at at this particular time. A child has been murdered at this is what's sticking out to you? Ffs!

Bad taste.

I just watching this on +1 and he did say heartbreakingly pretty and that it was tragic but I'm pretty sure he did not say all the more tragic.
I have heard the theory before though that the murder or disappearance of pretty children gets more coverage, and that was cited as one of the reasons for the vast Madeleine McCann interest.

I do slightly agree JoJo that he was maybe just being human, partly anyway.
But then I can always see both sides of things (often anyway)

I hope this is deleted too. And any others about this awful occurrence.

It's not bad taste to comment on crap reporting.

Good Lord,is no one allowed to comment on anything on MN anymore?

This particular comment just shows that even in death females (even children) are still judged on their appearance

Yes,exactly and that's definitely worth commenting on.

Can you not see people are commenting on the REPORTING as a separate issue to the tragedy itsmine?

Yes it is appropriate. Apparently if she was ugly it wouldn't have been such a loss.

That's a fucking appalling comment and completely indicative of where our society is.

A 7 year old child has been murdered. Someone murdered a 7 year old child.
And it's worse cos they were pretty so it more of a loss.