Missing White Woman Syndrome/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The news covers the search for middle-to-upper class white women more than any other.

  • Played Straight: Alice goes missing, and the news covers her search. The same day, Maria goes missing, and the news mentions it in passing (or not at all).
  • Exaggerated: No one, not even her immediate family, has any idea that Maria is missing and in danger. Everyone knows about Alice, however.
  • Inverted: The news covers the search for Maria, but only mentions Alice's disappearance in passing (or not at all).
    • The news covers the search for Bob, but barely mentions Miguel's disappearance.
      • Or vice versa.
  • Justified: The news media were only alerted about Alice's disappearance; for whatever reason(s), no one bothered to alert the media when Maria went missing.
  • Subverted: The news covers the search for Alice, even though she is poor.
  • Double Subverted: But she is still white, and still perceived as a "good" girl by mainstream society, which the media considers more "marketable".
  • Deconstructed: If more people knew about Maria's disappearance, they might have information that can be brought to law enforcement officials. It also (unfortunately) says to those who don't have the "right" skin color or live the "right" lifestyle in the "right" community that they don't matter.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied: See "Exaggerated"
  • Lampshaded: "A beautiful blonde woman went missing today..."
  • Averted: The news coverage of Alice and Maria is equal.
    • Both Alice and Maria are safe, present, and accounted for.
  • Enforced: See "Double Subverted"
  • Invoked: Alice and Maria go missing on the same day.
  • Defied: See "Reconstructed"
  • Discussed: "I feel bad for Alice's family, but does anyone so much as mention Maria?"
  • Conversed: "It's as if Maria doesn't matter, simply because she's not wealthy or white. So much for unbiased news coverage."
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama: The increased news coverage leads to Alice being recovered alive, but Maria is killed...and Maria's community gets into an uproar.

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