Podcast

The podcast "Therapy Over True Crime" aims to shift the focus from the criminal aspect to providing information about Kaylee Anthony. They discuss the timeline of the case, the obsession with Casey Anthony, and the media's role in sensationalizing the story. They suggest putting the victims' names first in narratives and supporting organizations that protect children. The podcast advocates for a more ethical approach to true crime and emphasizes the importance of therapy. Hello everyone, and welcome to our podcast, Therapy Over True Crime, where today we're going to talk about the Kaylee Anthony case. My name is Kendall. My name is Kayla. And my name is Jess. In our podcast, we hope to change the narrative of this case to be less criminal-focused and more focused on providing information about Kaylee. We will do this by providing details that are relevant to bringing Kaylee justice and debunking false information that has been dominating the case since the very beginning. Here is a brief overview of the timeline in this case. Kaylee was last reported being seen June 16th, 2008. Casey was arrested July 18th, 2008. He was charged for child neglect, giving false statements of Kaylee's whereabouts to law enforcement and law obstruction during the investigation. Then, on December 11th, 2008, Kaylee's skeletal remains were found in the woods. In an article by the New York Post, there's a dramatization of the criminal by calling Casey Monster Mom. Getting it back to the topics we covered in the beginning of the semester, specifically the Hostek murder and the jury of her peers, this is relevant because of the parallels of sympathy for the mother and the dramatization for sensationalism. CBS covered the Kaylee Anthony case with an episode of 48 Hours in 2008. This case has been talked about since 2008 up until now. An article called Where is Casey Anthony Now? A Look at Her Life After Acquittal by People is from January 5th, 2024, and it is a prime example of the criminal-centric narrative by talking about Casey's whereabouts today with not much mention of Kaylee at all. Another issue we found while researching this case is if you Google Kaylee Marie Anthony, you'll find mostly pictures of Casey instead of Kaylee. Instead of the daughter Kaylee Anthony being the main focus of the story, her mother was the one that everyone focused on due to her strange actions after the murder of her child. She was a compulsive liar, showed little to no emotion after the death of Kaylee, and proceeded to live her life as normal after the death of her child. The focus began to be put on Casey when she did not seem to look like a person who could have murdered her daughter. She lived quite a normal life and was the definition of a beautiful young mom. The obsession with Casey Anthony stems from people being able to relate from her looks, lifestyle, and demeanor, which leads them to not understand why a seemingly normal person would do something so terrible to their child. When killers do not fill the mold of what society wants them to look like, the harm of humanizing and villainizing them begins. We see this in the podcast serial with Anon. At first, it seemed as if there was no way he could not have killed Hay, but as the series went on and we learned more things about him, it proves his innocence. Comparing this then to the Anthony case, we see a mass villainization of her by the public, leading an obsession with her to form. Although these two things are different, the public's overlook of the victims occurs in both cases. In Anon's case, the public sees Sarah humanizing him in a way that wants to prove his innocence, which takes the focus off of Hay. In Casey's case, the focus is on her because the public cannot understand her actions, which makes her look like more of a villain, which is again, more focused on than it is on Kaylee. So Kendall, how do you think people might pay more attention to the victims of the case rather than becoming obsessed with the killers? So I think obviously it's a really hard line when it comes to not being obsessed with the killers because of what they did is something that's so out of the ordinary. People become obsessed with things that don't occur in daily life. I think that the way someone could pay more attention to the victims rather than being obsessed with the killers is putting their name first when it comes to a narrative about true crime. So for example, what we did with Casey Anthony and Kaylee Anthony is commonly this case is talked about by referring to it as the Casey Anthony case. So if we then switch the narrative to make it the Kaylee Anthony case, we're putting her name first and we're giving more information about her before we start talking about her mom. Oh yeah, I agree. Great point, Kendall. So what role does gender stereotypes play, do you think, in this case? Casey is a woman and a mother. People like to see the perfect victim stereotype, meaning they're usually a young woman who's been the victim of a violent crime. Then on the flip side, there's the sort of idea of the perfect murderer, which is usually depicted as an older man who's had a questionable past. So in a way, Casey fits more into the people's ideas of a perfect victim rather than the murderer and it's hard to see otherwise. What role do you think the media plays in this case, Kendall? Yeah, so I think the media plays a huge role in how the audience interprets alleged killers. So especially in Casey's case, we see her being a target of villainization with articles, as you mentioned earlier, calling her monster mom and then the widely popular photo of her frowning dominating the internet even today. So the media paints a picture of her, which makes the audience view her in a certain way and I can't help to think of the case of Chris Watts, who had killed his wife and his two daughters. After the girls and his wife's death, pictures began circulating across the internet of him with his daughters instead of a mugshot being shown of him. So I think doing this creates this false idea that he was a family man, that he loved his daughters and wife, when in reality, he was the killer of them. So I think that when the media portrays people in specific ways, it gives the audience the false idea of humanizing and then becoming obsessed and villainizing a person that has done truly heinous things and the victim stories, as I said before, then become lost. We as a society must stop seeing criminals as people we can relate to and putting them on a pedestal and the main focus of true crime narratives. If Casey was not made to be the main focus of the narrative, we would know her daughter's name before hers. There are various organizations to which you could help support the family, but in doing so, you must make sure that your donations are going directly to the family. The Kaylee Marie Anthony Foundation was shut down in 2011 due to it being deemed fraudulent and the money going directly to Casey, who was the alleged killer in this case. Instead of going to support Kaylee's legacy, we would instead like to guide you over to UNICEF as a way to get involved in protecting children globally from domestic and other forms of violence. As co-founders of the Miranda Morgan Fan Club, we would like to give a big shout out to our sponsor legend, queen, girl boss, god, Miranda Morgan, for teaching us all about the true crime genre's flaws and how something that is meant to be enjoyed as entertainment can be detrimental to the families and sensationalized killers. The moral of the story is, true crime sucks and it's unethical. If you have the choice between a sweet Hallmark movie and Dateline, choose Hallmark. Thank you for listening to our podcast about bringing light to the issues of true crime and more specifically to Kaylee Anthony. Always remember that every true crime case has victims who are real people with real stories and when we sensationalize alleged killers, we take away from their stories. And remember, get therapy before putting out true crime. Much love y'all. Kendall, Kayla, Jess.