The Absent and Silenced Voice in Media Representations of FilipinaVictims of Homicide in Australia

Abstract

This article explores the absent and silenced voice in Australian newspapersthrough case studies of two Filipino women – Nenita Westhof and MarylouOrton – who were victims of homicide in Australia. It draws on a feministdiscourse analysis of newspaper articles and interviews conducted with theirfamilies and friends. The method used is one way of enabling people to hear thestories of those who do not have a voice in the present. Analysing newspaperrepresentations in light of the interviews provides an entirely different, moreaccurate and just reconstruction of the women's lives. Mediarepresentations of Nenita and Marylou bore little resemblance to their‘lived reality’. In most instances, journalists did notacknowledge that the women were victims of domestic violence. Furthermore,sexist, racist and class-based discourses constructed Nenita and Marylou inaccordance with dominant representations of Filipino women in Australia. Theywere held accountable for their own deaths, while their abusive male partnerswere frequently portrayed as victims of women who abused them. The articleargues that such representations sensationalize the issues, misrepresentviolence as the women's fault and shift responsibility from theperpetrator to the victim. In the process, they silence women'svoices.