Amanda Knox’s $4million Book Deal
There is one news story on everyone’s lips today – Amanda Knox’s reportedly $4 million book deal with HarperCollins regarding the murder of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher.
In HarperCollins’ statement, Jonathon Burnham said “Aided by journals she kept during her imprisonment, Knox will talk about her harrowing experience at the hands of the Italian Police and later prison guards and inmates”. The book will also cover Knox’s life in Perugia before the murder, and her own account of the events surrounding the killing.
So is this a good or a bad thing?
Everyone’s initial reaction to this deal is along the lines of “what the…?!” Four million dollars (which works out at about £2.5 million) is being given to Knox because a young woman was murdered.
It is a fact that this is happening because of a murder, and that’s my biggest problem with the book. Anything that takes advantage of something so awful for such a large amount of money is frankly sickening.
It could of course be argued that Knox was pushed into this deal by HarperCollins, a big cooperation who will make millions from this deal themselves, but the fact that Knox has refused any interviews since her return home to Seattle, Washington strongly suggests that she’s happy to work with the publishers to squeeze as much money out of this event as possible.
This just stinks of Knox taking advantage of a tragic event, and this book will undoubtedly set her up financially for life – she has become a semi-celebrity due to the fascination the public has with events like these and she seems pretty willing to play along to the publics’ interest.
It cannot be ignored that there is one person who will not be able to give their own tell-all account of the events, and that person is Meredith Kercher.
It is highly unlikely that the Kercher family will be approached by a world-wide publisher, because it is not grief that sells books but scandal, and that is a sad truth.
The Kercher family have to live with what happened to their daughter, and will not be given a comfortable $4 million to live on: they have to deal with what happened, and live with the fact that their daughter’s murder has resulted in Knox receiving this deal – Kercher’s murder has turned Knox into a millionaire.
There is an intense focus from the media of Knox’s part of this trial rather than a focus upon her now ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. There are rumours that Sollecito will be part of a very similar tell-all deal about the events, but he is always on the sidelines of these stories.
Time and time again, the media have focused upon the women involved in these kinds of scandals, because the public is always much more shocked by female involvement in such high-profile crimes.
Take a look at the media focus upon Myra Hindley and Rose West for an example. These two women were involved in disgusting crimes, no doubt about it, but they were also martyred and demonised by the media to a far greater extent than their male counterparts.
Women are very easily vilified by the media, without their voices ever being really heard. It is so often the case in trials such as these that, rather than paying attention to what the accused is saying, there are entire articles written about what Knox was wearing, and that obviously proves that she doesn’t care about what happened.
If Knox cries, she’s obviously not upset about what happened, she’s ‘acting’ because she’s female and that’s what women do – they fake cry to get attention.
Knox dared to kiss her boyfriend, and rather than him being criticised for it, she was characterised as an evil woman aroused by the murder. Knox has had plenty of bad press, so there is a strong argument for her having her voice heard at last.
But these are just my opinions. What do you think?
Gina Kershaw
(Image via saschapohflepp)
What do you think?