Memoir – a self-reflective writing that personalizes history. As we have discussed in class this past week, memoirs are not only written to remember, but to remember differently. Many memoirs are used to commemorate the lives of sex-workers in the Downtown Eastside, portraying a different (and deeper) side of them. In doing so, they oppose society’s attitudes towards gender, racial and sex-work stereotypes. As Jiwani and Young argued, these stereotypes “demarcate the boundaries of respectability” (895) for women and associates them with degeneracy even after their deaths. Aboriginal women are especially susceptible to sexual violence. This is due to the stereotype of Aboriginals being an unprogressive, unreasonable and uncivilized people. In the Missing Women Case, many of the women were Aboriginals. Jiwani and Young further states that these women were “silenced victims” who failed to be active agents, perhaps because of their history of colonization and assimilation. However, their silence contributes to their representations of sex workers deserving violence. Aboriginal women in the Downtown Eastside have become invisible victims of violence, but visible deviant bodies. Sadly, these racist stereotypes are re-inforced by police and state authorities, who not only criminalize these women but also neglect their concerns.

Media and news coverage also tend to re-inforce negative stereotypes by being impersonal and highlighting deviancy. In analyzing 2002 print coverages on the Missing Women victims, Jiwani and Young found that many stories “fixed the identities of these women as troubled, abused runaways” (906). Their descriptions of the women are impersonal, and many do not link their behavior with past life circumstances, such as divorce, abuse, etc. In Missing Sarah, Maggie portrays the media’s ability to inaccurately portray one’s character. The CBC footage of Sarah only portrayed a woman dressed in slutty clothes walking down the street, looking like she was high. However, Maggie knew that that was not her sister, and was worried that it would give viewers the wrong impression of her. She claimed that “remembrance is a powerful act, but it must be done right” (254). Maggie was relieved when the documentary actually portrayed her sister as more than a “drug-addicted prostitute” during its airing.

Maggie further opposes society’s views of negative stereotypes in her memoir Missing Sarah. By providing a detailed account of her sister’s life, she shows that she was more than just a sex worker. Little incidents from Sarah’s past might also explain why she chose to leave home. For example, in grade three Sarah was given a school assignment about family roots. She was agonized about it, partly due to the fact the class was asking her prying questions. After her mother talked to her about her roots, and explained to her class about adoption, Sarah felt much better. Another incident was how Sarah secretly taped an interview with herself, in which she revealed how she felt “not too good” (36) about being adopted into a white family. She also blamed herself for her parents’ divorce. These little incidents portray how Sarah might have felt depressed about her racial difference from her family. The internalization of her family troubles may have compelled her to experiment with drugs for relief. Indeed, Sarah’s memoir opposes society’s gender, racial and sex-work stereotypes by helping us to understand her better. It not only depicts reasons for her actions, but also how she was one of us.

Jiwani, Y., & Young, M. L. (2006). Missing and murdered women: Reproducing marginality in news discourse. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(4), 895-917. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/219564084?accountid=14656