Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Oh. Nice.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/10/austria.fritzl/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Sometimes you have to look at a headline and wonder. I know that writing a catchy headline is tough. You want to grab your audience's attention. Suck them in. Make them want to read your story. That's the news biz.

But seriously, dude. Referring to her as "incest dungeon girl"? Not cool. Really insensitive. And that's the kind of name that sticks. Someday, after about a lot of therapy, she's going to have to live in the real world. Does she really want to be standing at the drugstore counter, when somebody says, "Oh, my god! You're the Incest Dungeon Girl!"?

Names are powerful. You put stuff out in the Universe, and you have no control over what happens. You have to be really careful when you say stuff. Especially when it will be out there on the Internet. Call her father (or grandfather, ugh) the "Dungeon Freak". Let him wear that tag. But his victims should be treated with more care.

2 comments:

Desiree' said...

First thought: That man is all kinds of evil.

Second thought: How did his wife not know their daughter and her kids were locked in the basement. She must be really dumb. "Elizabeth? Hmm...Haven't seen her around lately. Maybe she moved out."

Third thought: Not only is the title bad, but it said that the girl was held in the basement for decades (plural). Funny thing is, she's 19. lol

FirePhrase said...

Evil about sums it up.

On his wife, you have to think that normal, well-adjusted, smart, self-confident and an inquiring mind weren't really on his short list of things he was looking for in a woman. And that was before she spent years married to a psychopath.

That girl may have spent 19 years in that cellar, but I'm sure it felt like a hundred. Poor kid.

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