A Woman Stabs Her Boyfriend And All The Media Can Focus On Is Pop-Tarts

18-year-old Catheline Marie Colon has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after stabbing her boyfriend, Shawn Andrews, 19, with a steak knife after he reportedly refused to let her have a Pop-Tart.

Colon had lived with Andrews for three months, but had recently moved out. She was in Andrews’ apartment, collecting her things, when the incident occurred. According to ABCNews, “Police say she wanted to get a Pop Tart and he said she couldn’t have anything. Police say Andrews pushed and hit Colon, and she stabbed him in the chest, causing a severe wound.” Andrews is currently alive and hospitalized: his condition has not been released.

Sadly, the fight over the Pop-Tart will reduce a fairly horrifying story into an “isn’t that wacky?” phenomenon. The picture used on ABCNews’ website is the one I used above: the tiny box of Pop-Tarts has been added to her mugshot, in what appears to be an attempt to bring more attention to the fact that she was denied a Pop-Tart as opposed to the fact that this woman stabbed her boyfriend after he pushed and hit her. The violence on both ends has been brushed aside in favor of the “ha ha ha Pop Tarts” factor, completely missing the fact that domestic violence is rarely as simple as it seems. ABC News also runs this story under the headline “Toasted Treat Spurs Violent Behavior.” Oh really? I was under the impression that the violent behavior came into play because her boyfriend pushed and hit her before the stabbing. But if the Pop-Tart factor makes it a wacky story, let’s brush aside the violence at hand!

The commenters on the ABCNews site are already making light of the situation with bullshit sexist comments:

Dude, don’t make women hungry. You wouldn’t like them when they’re hungry. To all who do not understand this: if a hungry woman asks you for food, you give it to her. Just some good advice from a guy who knows. Anyway, I don’t blame her, because all women get like this when they’re hungry. She’s cute too. She wins in my book. I hope they let her off due to temporary insanity, and charge him with torture for denying her the pop-tart.

We’ve got to put an end to this Pop-Tart violence before it gets out of hand. And what about knife control? Just think of all the children eating Pop-Tarts with kitchen knifes laying around in plain view.And another thing: Was this an assault knife that she used? Perhaps that’s the reason we have so many more Pop-Tart injuries than Europe.

Though one commenter kicks some common sense into the discussion:

It isn’t really funny, her nutcase boyfriend beat her. I never find hitting someone no matter the reason funny.. pity it even made the news. Maybe as news of the stupid or weird, but really abc is it that slow a news day? I would like to know more about the economy and other topics not nuts on parade…. thanks.

Sadly, domestic violence incidents like this aren’t terribly uncommon. The Pop-Tart angle may be what makes this story different from every other domestic violence story that goes unnoticed and uncovered by the media, but by focusing on the “lighter” elements of the story, we’re missing the true, and extremely sad, story that lies beneath.