Car Crash near Granville Island last weekend
One of the people hit was the absoloutely amazing Chanelle Morgan. I had classes with her last year. She is/was an incredibly talented artist and a brilliant theorist. All the media reports is the she was the fiancee of a doctor. My friend Fernanda puts it well:
I only knew Chanelle through school. I had classes with her for the last two years. I don't even have her on Facebook to post this on her profile, which, apparently, is something that people do. Facebook is a strange phenomenon. It seems an inadequate medium through which to express this kind of message and grief, but considering that Chanelle was only an acquaintance of mine, it's all I really have.
I can't speak of how I feel without cleaving to empty, eulogistic clichés. Anyway, how I feel is mild and irrelevant compared to the grief that hundreds of people must now sink in. Suffice it to say that Chanelle was so striking a person that her face and voice keep floating in my gaze since I found out yesterday. I could insert adjectives to describe her as I knew her: brilliant, unique, sweet, funny, intelligent, attentive, talented. I could try to explain how she was the kind of person that academia and our generation in general need more of. But that, too, sounds empty.
All I can do to address this loss is tear apart the news reports of her death, both to challenge the overshadowing of Chanelle that I see in them, and to try to voice what I'm certain would have been some of her opinions on the matter.
Examples:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090210.whitandrunsb10/BNStory/National/home
http://www.canada.com/Doctor+fiancee+dead+after/1273080/story.html
http://news.aol.ca/article/doctor-fiancee-killed-in-vancouver-hit-run/520790/
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2009/02/10/8332106-sun.html
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/02/10/8330366-sun.html
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=80d0b559-81ae-497f-86be-34aa503e3fce&p=1 (<--an exception, but still problematic :)
Drawing on a conversation that I had with Steph last night, I am struck by the media's collective construction of this story of the "doctor and his fiancée." The titles and content of the pieces all go something like this: "a young cardiologist, 31, and his fiancée, 25..." They romanticize the fragility of their burgeoning nuptials, framing the tragedy as first a loss of an upstanding married couple to be, and then a loss of two incredible people. One article even begins by suggesting that Aneez proposed to Chanelle that evening. True or not, it points to the media's desire to frame the story as a classic, heterosexist, romantic tragedy. That's not Chanelle, and Steph tells me that's not Chanelle and Aneez. According to her, their relationship was a "partnership" and anything but "traditional".
Even more disturbing is the imbalanced reporting regarding who Chanelle and Aneez were. In every article, the writer first tells of the dedicated cardiologist in detail, focusing on his career development and his exceptional skill. Next comes "his fiancée," briefly described as caring, sweet, a former nurse's aide or an aspiring teacher. Can you say gender roles? And overvaluation of medicine and the natural sciences? And undervaluation of the arts, creative and otherwise? Are we so patriarchal a society that journalists can't tell their story through any trope but that of the upstanding, appropriately heterosexual couple? I'm sure Chanelle would have bristled at these news stories if they were written about total strangers. They're incredibly problematic.
I don't need to tell you guys that Chanelle was a genius, a brilliant critical theorist and artist, hilarious and emotionally intelligent. She was in what I gather was an exemplary relationship with an equally brilliant individual, but she was not a "doctor’s fiancée." She could have written circles around these journalists with their total lack of imagination.
There's my critical analysis of the news reports on Chanelle's death, dedicated, obviously, to her. I'm sure she would have done a much better job.
This tragedy couldn't be more senseless. Chanelle was a beautiful and inspiring person and she would have done so many important things for our fucked up world. To anyone reading this, I'm so sorry for your loss. To Chanelle, and Aneez (though I didn't know him): there are no words for how you will be missed. May you rest in peace...
EDITED TO ADD:
I feel like an ass for calling attention to this but is there no fucking justice in the universe?
We lost a fierce femininja, amazing artist, incredibly overall brilliant woman and the person who made the choice to drive his giant ass SUV drunk and run over her and her fiancee, though he is now in police custody (after fleeing the scene) is the kind of guy who lists on his myspace profile that he hates racists but also dislikes Gay people because "(its just wrong .. 2 negatives are not supposed to attract)"
SERIOUSLY!
I only knew Chanelle through school. I had classes with her for the last two years. I don't even have her on Facebook to post this on her profile, which, apparently, is something that people do. Facebook is a strange phenomenon. It seems an inadequate medium through which to express this kind of message and grief, but considering that Chanelle was only an acquaintance of mine, it's all I really have.
I can't speak of how I feel without cleaving to empty, eulogistic clichés. Anyway, how I feel is mild and irrelevant compared to the grief that hundreds of people must now sink in. Suffice it to say that Chanelle was so striking a person that her face and voice keep floating in my gaze since I found out yesterday. I could insert adjectives to describe her as I knew her: brilliant, unique, sweet, funny, intelligent, attentive, talented. I could try to explain how she was the kind of person that academia and our generation in general need more of. But that, too, sounds empty.
All I can do to address this loss is tear apart the news reports of her death, both to challenge the overshadowing of Chanelle that I see in them, and to try to voice what I'm certain would have been some of her opinions on the matter.
Examples:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090210.whitandrunsb10/BNStory/National/home
http://www.canada.com/Doctor+fiancee+dead+after/1273080/story.html
http://news.aol.ca/article/doctor-fiancee-killed-in-vancouver-hit-run/520790/
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2009/02/10/8332106-sun.html
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/02/10/8330366-sun.html
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=80d0b559-81ae-497f-86be-34aa503e3fce&p=1 (<--an exception, but still problematic :)
Drawing on a conversation that I had with Steph last night, I am struck by the media's collective construction of this story of the "doctor and his fiancée." The titles and content of the pieces all go something like this: "a young cardiologist, 31, and his fiancée, 25..." They romanticize the fragility of their burgeoning nuptials, framing the tragedy as first a loss of an upstanding married couple to be, and then a loss of two incredible people. One article even begins by suggesting that Aneez proposed to Chanelle that evening. True or not, it points to the media's desire to frame the story as a classic, heterosexist, romantic tragedy. That's not Chanelle, and Steph tells me that's not Chanelle and Aneez. According to her, their relationship was a "partnership" and anything but "traditional".
Even more disturbing is the imbalanced reporting regarding who Chanelle and Aneez were. In every article, the writer first tells of the dedicated cardiologist in detail, focusing on his career development and his exceptional skill. Next comes "his fiancée," briefly described as caring, sweet, a former nurse's aide or an aspiring teacher. Can you say gender roles? And overvaluation of medicine and the natural sciences? And undervaluation of the arts, creative and otherwise? Are we so patriarchal a society that journalists can't tell their story through any trope but that of the upstanding, appropriately heterosexual couple? I'm sure Chanelle would have bristled at these news stories if they were written about total strangers. They're incredibly problematic.
I don't need to tell you guys that Chanelle was a genius, a brilliant critical theorist and artist, hilarious and emotionally intelligent. She was in what I gather was an exemplary relationship with an equally brilliant individual, but she was not a "doctor’s fiancée." She could have written circles around these journalists with their total lack of imagination.
There's my critical analysis of the news reports on Chanelle's death, dedicated, obviously, to her. I'm sure she would have done a much better job.
This tragedy couldn't be more senseless. Chanelle was a beautiful and inspiring person and she would have done so many important things for our fucked up world. To anyone reading this, I'm so sorry for your loss. To Chanelle, and Aneez (though I didn't know him): there are no words for how you will be missed. May you rest in peace...
EDITED TO ADD:
I feel like an ass for calling attention to this but is there no fucking justice in the universe?
We lost a fierce femininja, amazing artist, incredibly overall brilliant woman and the person who made the choice to drive his giant ass SUV drunk and run over her and her fiancee, though he is now in police custody (after fleeing the scene) is the kind of guy who lists on his myspace profile that he hates racists but also dislikes Gay people because "(its just wrong .. 2 negatives are not supposed to attract)"
SERIOUSLY!