In the second semester of ASTU100, we have been focusing on the media representation of marginalized groups, basing our studies on Jiwani & Young’s paper on missing Aboriginal women in the Downtown Eastside area. We have covered a number of articles and documentaries on the topic, each one written from its own individual perspectives. For example, the documentary Through a Blue Lens by the National Film Board looks at the downtown Eastside’s infamous drug addiction problem through the perspective of the police officers tasked with patrolling the downtown neighborhood. The documentary offers the audiences a different perspective of the issue than is represented in the mainstream media.
Missing Sarah by Maggie de Vries offers a similar experience to the readers, exposing the first person view of what it’s like to live in this neighborhood filled with poverty, danger, and drug use. The book, written by Sarah de Vries’ sister draws content from Sarah’s personal journals which tell everyday stories of the downtown Eastside area. Sara de Vries was a mixed-race sex trade worker and was also a heroin addict. Her existence and her story, like many other women, were not recognized until this book was written by her sister who is Caucasian. This brings up the issue discussed by Jiwani and Young of framing. Framing is the “selecting and highlighting some facets of events or issues, and making connections among them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation, and/or solution” (Jiwani and Young). The book Missing Sarah attempts to bring this issue into the mainstream by putting a “counterframe” on it. The book is also validated by the author’s ethnic background; since the author is Caucasian and is not part of the marginalized population, de Vries’ story is all of the sudden considered much more important to society.
With the mainstream framing of the downtown Eastside as a troubled, dangerous neighborhood, it challenging to impose a successful counterframe. But by using her status as an author and a Caucasian woman, Maggie de Vries is able to bring to light issues which were marginalized and silenced for the last few decades. It is important to keep track of these attempts for the counter-framing of certain public issues to find the “other side” of the story.