This photo has been bothering me for some time now because its just so monumentally hateful. I came across this on Facebook and just felt like face palming. The person who created this was clearly out to attack Amanda Todd. Possibly someone who had been hurt by a girl like her some time in his life. But I’m just making conjecture at this moment. I would assume that it was made by someone hates people who receive sympathy when a tragedy like a 15 year old girl commits suicide.

The arguments here are clearly intended to portray Amanda Todd as a perpetrator who got what she had coming, thereby justifying her suicide in the eyes of the author. On the other side it portrays Paris Hilton as a victim and a kind-hearted soul that didn’t deserve it. In reality they are both victims and neither one deserved it. Paris Hilton got fame and attention for what happened to her, she eventually profited from it. Amanda Todd got death, a teenage suicide.

Here I will break down the arguments by doing what the author of this picture did not do. Explore the material conditions that make up what happened to both of them that lie behind this awful hateful work.

The first argument is simply ridiculous, it doesn’t even say anything really. Is two people having consensual sex comparable with someone masturbating? I don’t get what this is supposed to mean. Given that the author is against sympathy for Amanda Todd, I can only assume it was intended to attack her. But it doesn’t make sense at all.

One the second point it does correctly state that Hilton didn’t want her sex tape to be released publicly. One was consensual while the other one was not. While this is true, one needs to keep in mind that Todd is a minor, and minors really don’t make the best decisions. Of course Hilton didn’t make the best decision in trusting the man who took the video. But its pretty hard to attack the decisions that I hear were made by a 12 year old. Besides, Hilton is an adult and was aware that what she was doing ran the risk of being released to the public, especially considering she was at the time some minor celebrity.

The next point is absurd, I’m not even sure if the maker is trying to compare Hilton to Todd on this one. They point out the fact that Hilton sued the person who released the tape and then donated some of the money to charity while Todd is listed as “persuading” a 13 year old boy to cheat on his girlfriend.

Like what? What is the comparison here? Was Amanda Todd supposed to sue and then give money to charity? How is that comparable to Todd allegedly encouraging someone to cheat on their girlfriend? So Todd is supposed to be bad because she didn’t donate money? How was she supposed to, She was only a kid. Even then, if that was not the point, then this was a horribly skewed comparison. Something good about one person compared to a bad thing about another not based on the same or similar situation or event? That would be like if I compared Bill Clinton’s saxophone playing with Reagan’s Contras death squads in Nicaragua. Its laughable comparison. Besides, its known that Hilton also “convinced” men to cheat on their girlfriends.

Which even then is misogynistic, because its typically blaming the woman for the man’s chosen behaviour.

Afterword Todd is criticized for making a video claiming that she made only one mistake. The criticism doesn’t make any sense, Hilton herself considers what happened with her sex tape to also have been a mistake because she trusted the wrong person. They both admit to having made mistakes, but a double standard is placed here. Its completely hypocritical to attack Todd for the same thing Hilton did. Todd was attacked because the person who made the image has a grudge against Todd for the sympathy she received for having died. While Hilton was harassed by media and received more attention, Todd was in high school. Life is high school is terribly unrealistic, where immature emotions run high and things seem worse than they are.

Todd was trapped in a school where she was being attacked constantly, Hilton went back to her mansion and lived in luxury not having to live the same material conditions with an ability to escape. The age difference make a tremendous amount of difference, the maturity level makes a ton of difference. Todd dying as a teenager and Hilton profiting from the media attention is a huge difference. By comparison Todd didn’t have the capital to turn the terrible event into a profit like Hilton did.

This picture only aptly demonstrates the double standards that exist in our society. Hilton is an aware adult who made profit form her mistake. Todd naive child who died as a result of the harassment for her actions. To make things even worse it blames Todd for a boyfriend cheating. Encouraging him was wrong, but it was not her fault, he CHOOSE to do the cheating.

Even the images were intended to skew the comparison. Hilton is depicted properly clothed wearing a t-shirt promoting charity while Todd is shown in her underwear posing for a picture. This is intended to portray Todd as a slut, and not Hilton. Hilton has pictures of herself in underwear posing for all kinds of cameras in public and in magazines, as well as semi nude photos for advertising purposes. Its not okay when you do it in your home for someone (a lot like making a sex tape) but its okay when you do it for commercialization. So even trying to making an unfair depiction like that is fallacious. It reveals a deep seeded hatred for not only women, but for someone who received sympathy for dying.

Its sick.