Saturday 30 May 2009

Who was she anyway?

This article from the BBC, which I have quoted in full, annoyed me. It discussed the murder of Kinga Legg by her boyfriend, but throughout the article, her boyfriend is discussed as a businessman, while she is his girlfriend. We learn about his businesses, his houses, where he lives, and his bankruptcy in 2006. In the last sentence, it is noted that she too is a successful businesswoman, and owns a tomato growing company with sites in the UK and Poland. But while he is the focus of the article, she is reduced to the bloody body in the bed. The effect is to make her ancillary to her murderer throughout, reducing her to his partner and a victim, rather than a human being.
Porsche recovered in murder hunt

Police in Cheshire have found a sports car thought to belong to a businessman whose girlfriend was found beaten to death in a Paris hotel room. Ian Griffin, 39, is at the centre of an international manhunt after Kinga Legg's body was found at the l'Hotel Bristol on Tuesday. Cheshire Police recovered a Porsche 911 they were looking for during searches of properties connected to Mr Griffin. Surrey Police have also been searching a property as part of the inquiry. Ms Legg, 36, from Poland, checked into the £1,000-a-night hotel on Monday. Mr Griffin arrived later.

Company owner

Her body was found by a hotel cleaner the following day. French police said she had died from "internal bleeding caused by multiple blows". Mr Griffin, originally from Warrington, previously lived in Knutsford and had several businesses listed in Cheshire. In 2006 he was declared bankrupt at Warrington County Court. Two plain-clothes officers from Cheshire Police had been standing outside his parents' home in Delph Lane, Winwick, on Friday. Ms Legg owned international company Vegex, which supplied Tesco and other supermarkets with tomatoes. The company has a site in Oxshott, Surrey and Opatówek, Poland.
The alternative, in case you were wondering, could be something like this:
Police in Cheshire have found a sports car in the murder investigation of businesswoman Kinga Legg, found beaten to death in a Paris hotel room. Legg's partner, Ian Griffin, 39, is at the centre of an international manhunt after her body was found at the l'Hotel Bristol on Tuesday. Cheshire Police recovered a Porsche 911 they were looking for during searches of properties connected to Mr Griffin. Surrey Police have also been searching a property as part of the inquiry. Ms Legg, 36, from Poland, checked into the £1,000-a-night hotel on Monday. Mr Griffin arrived later. Ms Legg's body was found by a hotel cleaner the following day. French police said she had died from "internal bleeding caused by multiple blows".

Kinga Legg owned international company Vegex, which supplied Tesco and other supermarkets with tomatoes. The company has a site in Oxshott, Surrey and Opatówek, Poland. Mr Griffin, originally from Warrington, previously lived in Knutsford and had several businesses listed in Cheshire. In 2006 he was declared bankrupt at Warrington County Court. Two plain-clothes officers from Cheshire Police had been standing outside his parents' home in Delph Lane, Winwick, on Friday.
It's not just the reordering of Ms Legg's person via that of her partner, but the use of her name throughout the article, instead of 'she', that makes her a central part of the text; a central part of the story- which after all is about her. To be honest, it would also be nice to get the words domestic violence in there and the 'found beaten to death' does disembody the crime from the murderer. But, equally, at this stage in the investigation it may be problematic to accuse a particular suspect of the crime.

4 comments:

parisgal said...

I agree with you on the BBC article. And in fact, I think much of the UK media discussed the sttory in a similar or even worse fashion.

I really object to the fact that Griffin is referred to as a 'tycoon' and Legg as a 'millionairess' (The Sun Exclusive: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2456692/Playboy-lifestyle-of-murdered-Kingas-lover.html). 'Tycoon' implies he works for his money and 'millionairess' implies she doesn't (i.e. a member of the Paris Hilton league). Interestingly, she appears to have been successful in her Vegex business venture, while he appears to have been bankrupted and to have been pursued for fraud.

He also appears in many press photos in a suit while she appears in a glamourous evening dress, the images of each reinforcing the media prejudices articulated in the articles.

Moreover, the focus of many media stories is the 'battered body in the bath'. From a stylistic perspective, the alliteration is appealing and there is a certain naked (and lurid) sexuality about the image of the 'body in the bath'. Thus, it adds a slushy and unreal 'murder mystery' novel perspective.

All the above elements combine to minimize and depersonalize the tragedy of Kinga Legg's death.

We don't yet know if Griffin is responsible for Legg's death so we shouldn't in any way make reference to domestic violence at this stage. If we remain open-minded, Legg's death and Griffin's disappearance could indeed be due to a multitude of reasons.

Feminist Avatar said...

This is interesting- I hadn't seen the other coverage. It reminds me of a case from the early 1900s where a man killed three of his wives in the bath (he makes it looks like accidents and moves from place to place and a curious journalist puts it all together), but that case was presented as 'bodies in the bath' and was recently made into a TV film. So there is definitely a lurid appeal about this sort of story.

Anonymous said...

I just want to add that some girls actually do work hard for their money and Kinga was one of those girls...its a shame that we never get any recognition for that and are usually treated as a doormat of a bankrupt boyfriend...
Its very sad but unfortunately in 21 century its still a man's world

Feminist Avatar said...

Only 'some'? :)