This week I’ve been keeping up to date with Abby Sunderland’s story. She is the 16 year old California girl who is trying to become the youngest person to sail solo nonstop around the world. She set sail about 6 months ago on her very own boat, and in an interview with ABC News she said "Every time I go sailing there are new challenges, and it's amazing. I love doing it. Being alone just adds to the challenge for me. It puts me in a position where I'm the only one there to take care of things."The publicity that her journey has drawn is of course tremendous, but very recently they lost contact with her in the Indian Ocean after she went through a lot of bad weather and she was lost for several days. Eventually her signal was located and she was rescued and brought back to shore. Now the commentary has turned from encouragement for the young girl to questioning about the whole idea in general. What kind of parents would allow their 16 year old daughter to stay out late at night, let alone sail entirely around the world by herself? This girl is pretty remarkable, and made it halfway to her destination yet all eyes are drawn on the safety risks for the young lady. I can’t imagine the same kind of concern would be held if this was a young boy who was setting sale. It makes me think of the damsel in distress fever that the media gets in this country. Over the past decade there have been a number of publicized cases of young girls’ terror. Stories such as the late Natalee Holloway who went traveling in Aruba on a Senior trip and was brutally murdered by 3 local men. The formula to publish this is to take an attractive young white girl, have her go abroad and watch the “poor helpless thing” becomes the victim of a horrific crime. When this happens America gets to turn to their daughters and say “see what happens when you step outside the nest”. Instead of being given the respect and homage these tragedies deserve the girl’s actions are ripped apart by the headlines.
Abby’s story is getting completely sensationalized by the media. Months ago plenty of people didn’t even know about this courageous young girl’s adventure and now that something bad has happened they are getting ready to pounce on it. It seems that a female victim lost at sea sells a lot more papers than a female captain. Society has such low expectations for teenage girls that they are only willing to report when they encounter a crisis and not celebrate her accomplishments. I think Abby is incredible and should be respected for her successes rather than scolded for trying. She is exactly the kind of woman that we need more of in the public, as long as the emphasis is placed on how remarkable she is.
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I find it very interesting that you point out that it was all something extraordinary for someONE to sail around that world at the young age of 16 however gender eventually becomes a topic and because she is a girl, there are far more associations with negativity and danger as I would expect the media to rather have with a boy. It is hard to say because this is not the case however as you mentioned, I agree with you in saying that she should be respected for her success thus far and not because she is a female who should not be out late and what not. I have one other sibling, a sister, and my father was always saying when we were growing up that it was unsafe for us to go out by ourselves or that we shuold respect our curfew more so than if he had had sons! Unfortunetaly I agree in thinking that it is somewhat less safe for girls to be alone rather than boys however I feel as though society projects that boys in general are much more trusted to take care of themselves than girls.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more - if she had completed her attempt - she would have had a small article on page 4 or something...nothing like the media frenzy that is occurring now. Didn't her brother attempt this as well? The last article I read did mention several other teens who were successful in their attempts - did everyone but me hear about those young men and women? I doubt it...there was nothing to sensationalize by the media. Good news is boring news I guess. With the NBA finals on and the World Cup - I doubt anyone would have known anything about it if she didn't have to be rescued. I'm with you - I think this girl is amazing - at my age (48) I wouldn't even THINK of doing something like this and I'm a pretty independent person! I'm not sure I would put the Natalee Holloway story in the same light - she went there with friends on a senior celebration - and those animals had no regard for human life - one of them presumably twice now. I understand your point of the damsel in distress thing - but Natalee didn't really do anything dangerous - she was with a group of friends. My husband and I sent out daughter - at the end of her junior year in high school on a trip with her language class over to Europe - we didn't think of that as putting her at risk just like I'm sure Natalee's parents didn't. Abby's parents sound very assured of their daughter's capabilities and allowed her to try something most parents would never allow. That type of non-traditional behavior scares the ...heck... out of most people and fear spreads faster than courage. I have to give them kudos - I couldn't do it but I think its an amazing thing that Abby accomplished - I'm sure it's not the last time we'll hear about this adventurous young woman!