QUERY ON 9/11 COVERAGE

I have noticed something a tad odd about much of the coverage regarding survivors of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  It first struck me a couple weeks ago when People ran an article about the lives of 9/11 widows five years later.  They featured a cross-section of women raising their children in the aftermath of having lost their husbands on one of the planes, or in one of the buildings, or in the course of firefighting.  Then there is this brief snippet on Doug Phillips's blog offering prayers "to the widows and fatherless children of 9/11."

Granted, Mr. Phillips's blog reflects a rather idiosyncratic  (or may I say "fringe") view of the sexes.  But it seems to me that much of the public discussion across the board seems to focus on the female survivors of the attacks.  Am I imagining that?

And if it's not my imagination, why are the widowers and motherless children of 9/11 not mentioned?  After all, there were plenty of female victims on that dreadful day.  What's the deal? 

Comments

[Zan]

I thought the same thing!

I just came to the conclusion that there are more widows than widowers as a result of that day.

[Zan]

Barbara Olsen was a writer who died in the plane that hit the Pentagon. She left a husband behind...very sad. The two books by her were conservative current event books.

[Mama-Feminista]

We discussed this exact issue in a graduate class on Monday. Perhaps this individual was suggesting that being fatherless is more important than being motherless? Another such comment was made on Jeopardy last night. Thought not as important as lives lost on 9/11 Alex stated at the end of the game that wow looks like we have another "woman champion two days in a row."

[The Happy Feminist]

Zan, one of the things that really wigged me out about 9/11 was the death of Barbara Olson. I had been watching her on television on a regular basis up to the time that she died. Even though I didn't actually know anyone who died on 9/11, I felt as though I knew her.

[Shawna R. B. Atteberry]

The Jim Lehrer Hour did talk to a widower--a pilot; his wife was one of the flight attentandants on the plane that went into the Pentagon. But that was the only one I saw, and I was wondering the same thing myself. Do widows just make for better ratings?

[h sofia]

According to this website, 25% of the people who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001 were female.

[Kali]

It's an interesting observation. My intuitive explanation is that it's an attempt to throw everything into a "war" framework by eveokig images of war widows. Also I think "grieving widow" has more cultural currency and resonance in general than "grieving widower." But I don't know why. I assume it's because of the historical assumption that women are defined by their husbands to a greater extent than men are defined by their wives so the loss of a woman whose husband died was assumed to be greater (and usually was greater, at least economically) than that of a man whose wife died and the cliche is echoing on into the present day.

[Chipmunk]

There was a very good interview with former S.G. Olson (Barbara Olson's husband) regarding the 5th anniversary and how he was doing 5 years later.

[will]

They tried to interview a bunch of the men, but their new hot young wives wouldn't let them.

In all seriousness, it is an excellent question.

One would think that the tv people would think it was much more tramatic to lose a mother than a father.

[Zan]

While I don't see a cultural consipiracy here, I as a traditionalist did see that no one was addressing the mommies and daughters that were lost. Whether you agree or disagree, majority rules and that is why the coverage focuses on the majority of the grievers which would be widows. Much like the majority of media coverage focused on New Orleans after Katrina hit because that was where most of the victims were. (To be fair, though, New Orleans also had other issues which required more media attention such as the slow recovery response.)

I didn't know Barbara Olsen was on TV. What show did she do? I was reading one of her books when she died. So sad. I remember that I was very "into" a lot of women conservative writers like Laura Ingraham and had just been introduced to her. I was fresh out of college and so excited to be reading something other than nursing school related books.

A man I go to church with had a cousin and his cousins' wife who were on United 93. My cousin, also, worked nearby the twin towers as a stock trader. The year before he had turned down a job offered to him on the 98th floor of one of the towers.