Draining The Acid Bath
Nancy Rommelmann, who writes beautiful pieces about "female fabulists," doesn't buy into the pitythink of a lot of people about the woman whose acid attack turned out to be self-inflicted. An excerpt from her blog item:
The more I write about fantasists and charlatans, the less mysterious their reasoning becomes.This morning, the Vancouver police are apparently still baffled that a woman would make this up. That the force spent many hours and dollars on a goose chase. They do not yet say, they are angry. They say, instead, of Storro, "It's obvious to everybody here that she's got a fragile mental state." They have also just announced, they might bring charges against her. And I think they should.
But here's a bet: there will be cries that we should not further persecute someone who is obviously in enough pain to disfigure herself in a bid for attention. That had -- and I might call this the Laura Albert rationale -- Storro only been given the love and support she needed, she would not have had to resort to such drastic measures, and that she did only proves, we were not there for her when she needed it.
Read Nancy's stories here.
She has Münchausen's syndrome, which makes her a nut case in need of psychiatric treatment.
Tony at September 19, 2010 1:54 AM
And the infantilization of women continues apace.
Equal, but special is the new separate, but equal.
brian at September 19, 2010 7:42 AM
borderline personality disorder is probably more likely than munchausen's. I'd hate to be that fucked up...sad.
Gspotted at September 19, 2010 10:33 AM
The media reaction has been interesting... "Oh, poor thing, she needs help!" Whereas, if it had been a guy, the consensus reaction would have been more like "What a moron!"
Cousin Dave at September 19, 2010 11:52 AM
I originally read about this incident on Jezebel, and the women over there are crying for blood-largely because Storro (a white woman) identified a fictitious black woman as her attacker. Many of the commenters pointed out, and probably rightfully so, that had Storro been black she wouldn't be receiving so much media sympathy.
I don't feel sorry for her per say, but she's been painfully disfigured and publicly reviled-it's hard to see how she could be punished any worse.
Shannon at September 19, 2010 1:55 PM
I think anyone that is nucking futs enough to self- mutilate as Storro has done is a shoe in for the insanity defense.
This story is fairly local for me and there is much WTFery going on in the local gossip spots.
LauraGr at September 19, 2010 3:53 PM
Maybe she was trying to do acid and just didn't get the correct meaning of acid.
The Former Banker at September 20, 2010 12:33 AM
I think she should be punished for lying to the police and having them devote numerous hours of manpower investigating her lie. She shpuld at the very least be forced to pay for all the man hours spent on her. Just because she's crazy doesn't mean my tax dollars should be wasted in this manner and the police taken away from working on other crimes. This is a local story for me too and I'm still shaking my head over it.
BunnyGirl at September 20, 2010 12:43 AM
OK, I think we got the rest of the story now. After the "attack", Storro solicited a lot of donations for her treatment. She's now being sued by some of the people who donated money to her. It looks to me like the whole thing was an elaborate scam to get a free makeover. Link
Cousin Dave at September 21, 2010 4:03 PM
For the "black" thing alone she should do long, hard time. This shitheel at least had the courtesy to punch the clock... Not NEARLY soon enough, but a convenience for the rest of us.
> it's hard to see how she could be punished any worse.
Let's experiment! Let's try some things... Bold, playful, imaginative probes of what the future might hold! C'mon... Let's extend ourselves into uncharted territory and learn what's out there! We can take notes and everything! We're Americans, OK? We're expected to be daring and outré!
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 21, 2010 5:41 PM
A woman as pretty as she was does indeed have some mental issues, regarding the incident. Why the hell else would somebody that attractive uglo-fy herself in that manner?
Judging by the way I've been treated by some by just having acne, I would wager facially disfigured people are treated horribly by some. Why would any woman rationally want that???
Or she could just be a moron, like Cousin Dave apparently implied.
mpetrie98 at September 22, 2010 7:57 PM
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