Amanda Knox's First TV Interview Is Heavy on the Slut-Shaming

By Madeleine Davies  |  May 1, 2013 | 7:10pm
Latest


Last night, 20/20 aired the special Murder. Mystery. Amanda Knox Speaks, featuring an exclusive Diane Sawyer interview with Amanda Knox, the first of its kind since Knox was acquitted from the charges of murdering 21-year-old fellow foreign exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. Knox, who just released a book about her experiences, spoke to Sawyer about the events surrounding Kercher’s death, the innocent man she blamed for the murder and the villainization of her sexual past — a villainization that continues to occur, even in this very interview.

Sawyer began the interview by reading some of the nastier taunts thrown Knox’s way straight to interviewee’s face. Unsurprisingly, they were all of a slut-shaming nature — a tone that unfortunately persisted as they moved on to different topics. Sawyer repeatedly asked Knox if she regretted her behavior — not just the inappropriate in-court smiles and the alleged cartwheel she did inside the police station while awaiting questioning (Knox denies that this ever happened), but whether or not she regretted doing normal young people stuff like having an online presence and dating around in college. Remember, though — Amanda Knox is a girl, so why wouldn’t she expect those completely innocent activities to come back to haunt her?

“Foxy Knoxy,” Sawyer asked skeptically about the nickname listed on Knox’s online profile that would eventually become her moniker in newspapers across the globe.

“Yeah,” Knox responded. “There was also a lot [in that profile] of me talking about my mom being my hero and what kind of music I liked and how I liked rock climbing and rollercoasters and my sisters.”

But was she naive, Sawyer pressed. Naive for what? Signing up for MySpace? Sleeping with a few of her classmates? Having a nickname?

“I was naive enough that I didn’t understand the way bad things can happen to regular people for no reason,” Knox responded rightly.


But what about what Knox actually did do wrong, like falsely accuse innocent man Patrick Lumumba? After being interrogated ruthlessly for hours in a language she didn’t understand, Knox told Sawyer that “they pushed me about [a text message to Patrick], and told me to think, told me to remember that I had met him, I can only describe it as breaking down. I didn’t know what I remembered and what I didn’t remember anymore.”

“I am still sorry, to this day, that I named Patrick Lumumba,” she said.


The interview spent little time focusing on Meredith Kercher, the victim who will never heal from these horrible circumstances, focusing instead on the sensationalist nature of the trial. Kercher’s family believed Knox’s guilt throughout court proceedings, refuse to meet her now and say that they will never read her book.

“Everyone always talks about Amanda, instead of celebrating the beautiful girl they lost,” Meredith’s father told ABC in a statement.

“I hope that eventually I can have their permission to pay my respects at her grave,” Knox said of the Kercher family. “And I’d also like them to know that she talked about them, to me. And she talked about how she wanted to be a journalist, like her dad. And she talked about her sister.”

 
Join the discussion...