Why so much attention to the Amanda Knox/Raffaele Sollecito case

[DallasDad]

The only thing I know about Amanda Knox is that her name has taken up way too much space in various venues, including JREF. My assumption is that she must be pretty, otherwise no one would really care. I have not bothered to try locating a photo in order to validate my guess.

 

[PhantomWolf]

People masturbate to Amanda Knox.

It's because she's a rather good looking girl.

It's been said already and bears repeating: people want to bang Amanda Knox, hence, their fascination. Besides sex, what else motivate most people who are not on bath salts to do anything?

Admit it—you would, or one of the other main actors.

The standard answer used to be: because she's hot, is dear little Foxy Knoxy.

Oh, and did anyone mention that Amanda Knox is hot ?

All I can say is that certain peoiple obviously have very low standards.

 

[Bill Williams]

Added to that is indignation at an obviously wrong conviction; it is at least gratifying that there should be such a variety of people eager to add their voices to the blogosphere against an injustice.

What is more difficult to understand is that there should be a substantial group of people, with dedicated websites, clamouring to sustain the original guilty verdict, and that there should remain a core of them continuing to do so long after their case has completely collapsed.

Correct me if I am wrong, but those websites grew as catalogues of the prosecution's case - often relayed from the courtroom on the very day some lurid factoid was addressed by the prosecution.

It led to a critical mass of outrage - which might have been appropriate outrage if there'd been a sliver of truth to what the prosecution was claiming.

I don't want to take this discussion off topic.... but this is one of the continuing fascinations for me. Discussing this case with folk from those websites is like being in a timewarp.... there is unquestioned loyalty to the prosecution case, without so much as a nod to the defence or to the decisions at not one, but two fact-finding trials.

If there were no such repositories of information that harkens back to 2008 - 2009, I'm not sure I'd follow this. The attention I pay to it is perhaps more suspect that most - I cannot explain how some people can be at this for so long and not know that there's been a defence case, a decision to convict, an appeal, a new DNA analysis, the collapse of the prosecution's case, and a thoroughly convincing acquittal.

The Hellmann motivation's report is a complete trashing of the court which convicted.... but even the court which convicted trashed major elements of the prosecution's case (motive, mixed blood, psychopathology (or lack of same) of the two students).

Yet there are some stragglers who insist on going on as if psychopathology belongs to this, as if mixed blood is a given, as if there is any motive whatsoever for the two students to have been involved.

It's amazing.

 

[John Mekki]

I am seeing that the option "As it is a very important topic of discussion, which deserves 1000+ pages of talk " is not getting much replies..

 

[Baylor]

What happened to Meredith, and for that matter Amanda, is a parent's nightmare.

How about the world finding out that your daughter's a whore? That's gotta be a parent's nightmare.

 

[Baylor]

All I can say is that certain peoiple obviously have very low standards.

Oh whatever. She's a cute girl albeit trashly once you acquire the information. The still pics show she was clearly attractive at the time of the murders.

 

[anglolawyer]

Murder, sex and justice/injustice are all compelling. I confess to a voyeuristic interest. I vote for the first three buttons in the poll.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

alive and well

How about the world finding out that your daughter's a whore? That's gotta be a parent's nightmare.

If you think that the clear majority of young people in college are celibate the whole time they are students, I suggest you think twice (I teach at a university). The Italian authorities with the conscious or unwitting help of the media portrayed Ms. Knox as a woman of loose morals, but they had to resort to falsehoods and subterfuge in order to do it. In reality all four flatmates were sexually active, drank lightly, smoke marijuana--in other words acted like normal 20 something young women. One of the great fascinations for me in this case was learning that misogyny is alive, well, and still quite damaging in the twenty-first century.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

Oh whatever. She's a cute girl albeit trashly once you acquire the information. The still pics show she was clearly attractive at the time of the murders.

I have gotten to know her, and I have become friends with her mother and stepfather. She is a delightful person, she is respected and dearly loved by her family and friends, and there is nothing trashy about her.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Oh whatever. She's a cute girl albeit trashly once you acquire the information. The still pics show she was clearly attractive at the time of the murders.

While I would say she's not unattractive, and perhaps cute in the girl next door, sort of cute, she wouldn't make it onto the list of the world's million hottest women, so I really can't see why some people are supposedly so gaga over her looks. Presonally I think she's fairly plain in the looks department.

Though to be honest it usually seems to be used a bunt force ad hominen used again anyone that supported her innocence, in the idea that people only supported her in the hopes of getting laid by the supposed bombshell.

In reality she isn't that pretty. She has lightbrown/blondish hair, and breasts, and isn't overly ugly. So, as I said, some people obviously have very low standards.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

deja vu all over again

The only thing I know about Amanda Knox is that her name has taken up way too much space in various venues, including JREF. My assumption is that she must be pretty, otherwise no one would really care. I have not bothered to try locating a photo in order to validate my guess.

We are all agreed that Amanda is attractive. In the universe of possibilities, this might explain why straight men and gay women would take an interest, but it falls on its face as an explanation for why gay men or straight women would. Other potentially wrongful accusations/convictions have become major stories without the issue of the attractiveness of the defendant's being raised as an issue. The West Memphis Three and the Duke lacrosse three come to mind in the U.S., but there are better examples from Great Britain, such as Barry George. I wrote much the same thing as my comments above almost two years ago in a thread in forum community, and I had hoped never to have to revisit the topic. I hoped in vain.

However, there are empirical reasons to reject Amanda's attractiveness as the prime mover here at JREFF, reasons that have become apparent since that long-ago FC thread. Bruce Fisher's site, Injustice in Perugia, changed its name to Injustice Anywhere. I suggest forum members pay it a visit. I have started threads on the Hank Skinner case, and Skinner is a balding, middle-aged, slightly pudgy man. RoseMontague has participated in the discussion of the Sabrina Misseri case; Sabrina, it must be ruefully admitted, is a woman; however, she is not especially attractive, if I may say so without intending to be ungentlemanly.

 

[Strawberry]

While I would say she's not unattractive, and perhaps cute in the girl next door, sort of cute, she wouldn't make it onto the list of the world's million hottest women, so I really can't see why some people are supposedly so gaga over her looks. Presonally I think she's fairly plain in the looks department.

Though to be honest it usually seems to be used a bunt force ad hominen used again anyone that supported her innocence, in the idea that people only supported her in the hopes of getting laid by the supposed bombshell.

In reality she isn't that pretty. She has lightbrown/blondish hair, and breasts, and isn't overly ugly. So, as I said, some people obviously have very low standards.

The same thing happens in the WM3 case. If you're a supporter, the nons accuse you of worshipping Damien Echols/being a Damien groupie, etc. Its self defeating in the end, because people like that fall for their own mythology and end up weakening their own arguments. For example, so convinced that supporters would be terribly wounded by any derogatory comment against Echols, the nons wasted about 90% of their energy insulting him and planning parties for his execution night, instead of dealing with case facts.

 

[Baylor]

I have gotten to know her, and I have become friends with her mother and stepfather. She is a delightful person, she is respected and dearly loved by her family and friends, and there is nothing trashy about her.

I don't think you'd be saying that circa 2007.

 

[Baylor]

If you think that the clear majority of young people in college are celibate the whole time they are students, I suggest you think twice (I teach at a university). The the Italian authorities with the conscious or unwitting help of the media portrayed Ms. Knox as a woman of loose morals, but they had to resort to falsehoods and subterfuge in order to do it.

I am well aware of that. Even in the information age, most young women try to keep their ONS's on the DL.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

I would genuinely like to know

I don't think you'd be saying that circa 2007.

Why do you believe so?

 

[Chris_Halkides]

unique circumstances

I am well aware of that. Even in the information age, most young women try to keep their ONS's on the DL.

Are you aware of the circumstances under which Amanda's list of lifetime intimate partners was written and became public?

 

[PhantomWolf]

I don't think you'd be saying that circa 2007.

From what I know of her life in 2007, she wasn't really that much different to most Uni Students of the time.

 

[Baylor]

Are you aware of the circumstances under which Amanda's list of lifetime intimate partners was written and became public?

Yes

 

[Baylor]

From what I know of her life in 2007, she wasn't really that much different to most Uni Students of the time.

She seemed to have engaged in a lot of uncommitted sex with different number of partners in a short period of time. I'm not saying this is unusual or "different" but when a woman engages in this type of behavior and it becomes known, often she gets branded--especially by other women--as a "whore."

I'm not saying this is how I perceive her, I'm saying this is how the public likely does due to the information that's been released.

Also, pinning the blame for a murder on someone you know is innocent would be described as "different."

 

[Baylor]

While I would say she's not unattractive, and perhaps cute in the girl next door, sort of cute, she wouldn't make it onto the list of the world's million hottest women, so I really can't see why some people are supposedly so gaga over her looks. Presonally I think she's fairly plain in the looks department.

Though to be honest it usually seems to be used a bunt force ad hominen used again anyone that supported her innocence, in the idea that people only supported her in the hopes of getting laid by the supposed bombshell.

In reality she isn't that pretty. She has lightbrown/blondish hair, and breasts, and isn't overly ugly. So, as I said, some people obviously have very low standards.

I don't think she's been compared to celebrities or ever been deemed a "bombshell."

At the time of the murders, she did have the "girl next door" looks which often elicits sexual fantasies in men. (young & fertile, easy access, attainable/not much competition)