Amanda Knox is making a new name for herself as a host with the new series, The Scarlet Letter Reports. The Broadly show, which premiered on Facebook Watch Wednesday, gives a platform to women who have been "vilified" and "objectified" in the media—something Knox is familiar with.
The 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, which Knox was accused of, played out around the world. The Seattle native was labeled "Foxy Knoxy" in headlines, a sex-crazed American exchange student who allegedly orchestrated a sex game gone wrong. She was acquitted of Kercher's murder twice, but she hasn't been able to shed the reputation of being a cold-blooded sex deviant.
Now, Knox wants to help redirect the narratives of other women who have had their character tainted by the media. She sat down with polarizing female figures like Amber Rose, who wants to change the meaning of disparaging words like slut.
Knox, 30, was inspired by the 34-year-old former model. "I really connected with her about taking the derogatory words people throw at you and turning them into something else," Knox told Newsweek. In real life, "she has this warm, motherly presence that I wasn't anticipating."
Knox could relate to Rose. "I'm also another one of these women who have had their story taken away from them and their identity taken away from them because of the way the media portrayed them," she told Newsweek.
Rose joined the SlutWalk in 2015—which started after Toronto police said women shouldn't dress like "sluts" in 2011 if they don't want to be sexually assaulted—to end victim blaming, slut shaming and excusing rape because of a woman's appearance.
With a history as a stripper and dating high-profile rappers like Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa, Rose has been regularly attacked by her exes for her sexuality. West, who dated Rose from 2008 to 2010, said in 2015 he "had to take 30 showers" before he dated Kim Kardashian. Khalifa, who shares 5-year-old son Sebastian with Rose, blasted her as a stripper in the song "For Everybody" after they split in 2015. Rose claimed she and Khalifa split because he cheated.
While watching The Scarlet Letter Reports, Knox wants people to see the innate kindness of the women who have been objectified. "I really want people to see the humanity in these women I spoke to. These women have been labeled a certain thing and then made to represent that thing to our media," she said. "I think that part of it is wanting people to walk away from the show thinking compassion has a role in the media. It's honestly to our detriment that we lose context and truth for the sake of a splashy headline."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Maria Vultaggio is a Brooklynite originally hailing from Long Island. She studied English at Stony Brook University and interned at the ... Read more
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