<p>Get your attention? Read on. A fellow student of my D2’s gradulating class (2012) just died. She was found on the subway tracks in NYC. She was found 12 hours after she entered the subway in the middle of the tracks in a fetal position covered in soot after leaving a bar in the village.</p>
<p>My D2 knew her to the extent they were Facebook friends and there were pictures of them together on Facebook. My D said they were at parties together and talked when meeting socially. But they were not close. But my D2 was understandably very upset.</p>
<p>I, too, was very disturbed. I did not know this young lady. But I could/can not stop thinking about it. She was an aspiring actress with a tremendous amount of promise and talent according to her professors. One will never know.</p>
<p>I was wondering why I was reacting so hard to someone I did not know. I think it was because I realize how one night, minute, moment can change lives forever. And I never know when one of these will change my life. Less than a week ago this young lady was getting ready for a fun night out. Then she was dead in a Subway tract.</p>
<p>What was MOST infuriating was the news stories. In almost every story they mentioned that she had leather pants and high heel shoes on. What relevance does this have?? What is this implying?? Both my D’ s and I were immediatelly offended by the numerous news articles stating or even emphasing this.</p>
<p>My sympathies to this young woman’s family. And may you, E, rock in heaven in high heels and leather pants!</p>
<p>Maybe the girl was drunk after clubbing and slipped and fell on the tracks? Looks like a rationale is trying to be established for why she was found on the tracks. </p>
<p>Condolences to the family and another reason to be careful when clubbing in NYC.</p>
<p>how awful, can understand how this would be so disturbing to even imagine to a peer of your d’s. wonder if any foul play was suspected? seems the last few years have seen a number of subway deaths similar to this. former NYer who traveled subways for years, my heart goes out to this family</p>
<p>this really is concerning…
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — New York City officials have called for an investigation into the recent subway deaths in an effort to put the brakes on the number of incidents.</p>
<p>There have been six subway deaths already in 2013. The circumstances in the incidents vary, but Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the rash of deaths on the tracks deserves a closer look.</p>
<p>Unless you were pushed by another (as in 2 of the deaths) or have a seizure or similar medical condition, I think it’s concerning that the city actually needs to investigate preventing citizens from falling onto the tracks.</p>
<p>I cringe at the thought of the young woman’s family reading these reports, because it appears as if there’s an implied element of slut shaming in them. But I don’t think that’s the intention. I think the underlying motive, maybe even unconscious motive, in describing the deceased’s attire, as well as her earlier appearance in a bar, is to counter the terrifying notion that anyone could be killed on the subway at any time for no reason. Once readers can put her in a category–girl who set out to party, got hammered, and fell–they can feel that this isn’t the sort of thing that could happen to them, that the danger wasn’t the city or the subway or other passengers, but one girl’s poor judgment. It’s comforting to be able to say “Well, I would never be in that situation,” and then not think any further about the whole event.</p>
<p>It seems with all the safety precautions we have these days it seems inconceivable that you can fall into the subways. I am not familiar but can there be fences around the tracks so people don’t fall in. </p>
<p>So sorry about this girl, it’s very shocking. I think it’s hard because it could be your kid.</p>
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While I do agree with most of what you said Momma, I also think there is an element of “slut shaming.” It does appears that alcohol was a factor in this death tragically. But had she been wearing sneakers, jeans and a tee shirt, would her attire have been mentioned?</p>
<p>During rush hour the subway platforms can be very crowded and chaotic. It isn’t that hard to trip even if you are sober when wearing very high heels.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it wasn’t rush hour. I say unfortunately because had it been she could have gotten assistance or at least it would have been reported immediately. Then the body, maybe alive for some of the time, would not have been in the tracks for 12 hours.</p>
<p>Also, had the stories been about how high heels can be dangerous, that would be different. But none of them were.</p>
<p>The only one I saw that covered it in that way was the New York Post, and I think it was very much intentional on their part. The Post headline was “High-Heel Corpse On The Tracks,” and the first two sentences of the story were:</p>
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<p>I know the Post, and it’s quite obvious what they were implying. Helping the police identify the victim was the last thing on the collective mind (if it deserves that name) of the Post.</p>
<p>The first two sentences of the New York Times story, by contrast, may have been melodramatic, but certainly didn’t have the same air of salaciousness:</p>
<p>This definitely reeks of sexism- someone DIED, but let’s sexualize her because that way, it is somehow her fault, right? She’s definitely not worth as much as a girl in jeans and a t shirt.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree. I don’t think there was any “slut shaming” involved. The difference between the two stories is that the deceased was unidentified when the first story was written and her identity was known when the NYTimes story was written. </p>
<p>is that one was in the Post and the other one in the Times. There were plenty of other news stories that came out before she was identified, and not one of them spoke of the woman in remotely the same way that the Post did. </p>
<p>I’m not sure the Post was implying that she was a “slut,” as much as they were implying that she may have been a prostitute. It may be 2013 in N.Y.C., but the Post is the Post.</p>
<p>Sexist or not, the Post’s article is disgusting. Even if the young lady’s identity was not known at the time the first article was written, there were many way to refer to her, and yet the Post chose to describe her as “high-heeled corpse”. Imagine if this was, god forbid, one of your loved ones?!</p>
<p>So sad. One account I read said she worked in a clothing store. Who knows–maybe it was the kind of place where she had to wear a certain style of clothing for work, then she went out straight after and didn’t have time to change into something the media would have had less interest in mentioning. It’s a tragedy no matter what the circumstances.</p>
<p>I just honestly don’t get it. If my D died, the last thing I’d be worrying about was how her corpse was described by the Post. Since her grandmother later gave an interview to the Post, I doubt the article upset her family either.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to the family; losing your child has to be excruciatingly painful.</p>
<p>Jonri- I cannot know what possibly was going on inside this families home. But I did read in one article that the family was too distaught to reply. The family was probably inundated by the press. An innocent 80 plus year old women reminisced about her grand daughter. To suggest that the articles did not upset her family is info we’ll never know.</p>
<p>But I do know I, my two 20 something year old Ds and some of their friends, were offended by the reference to her leather pants and high heals NOT just stated in the Post but by many articles.</p>
<p>If your Ds were offended, they were offended. I just don’t think there’s any reason they should have been. </p>
<p>I think if the parents were upset by the Post’s coverage the grandmother would have been aware of it and would not have given an interview to the Post. </p>
<p>We’ll have to just agree to disagree.</p>
<p>The tragedy is that a young woman died. That I think we can agree upon.</p>