Lorena Bobbitt And Amanda Knox Bonded Over Being ‘Shamed And Vilified Women’

True-crime junkies will recognize Lorena Bobbitt and Amanda Knox as two high-profile names from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. While the women’s stories vastly differ, they came together at the Washington, D.C. true-crime festival “Death Becomes Us” to discuss how their images and cases were impacted by the media.

Lorena Gallo (nee Bobbitt) gained notoriety in 1993 when she was tried for cutting off her husband John’s penis after she claimed he raped her. Lorena was acquitted of the crime by reason of temporary insanity and spent a month in a court-ordered mental hospital.

Amanda Knox became a household name when she was convicted and later acquitted of murdering her roommate while studying abroad in Italy. Amanda spent four years in prison before her conviction was overturned, and she has consistently maintained her innocence over the years.

Both women sat down with Fox 5 before the convention where they shared what brought them together. But before delving into their similarities, Amanda made an important note.

“Well, one thing that I would speak to. Didn’t commit a crime,” she said, pointing at herself. Regardless, both women shared they felt defamed by the media coverage of their cases—and it was these similarities the women focused on.

“Lorena and I have a lot in common,” Amanda began. “The thing that resonates most with me when we both spoke to each other over the phone was how this is a historic moment in the history of shamed and vilified women.”

Worldwide media portrayed Amanda in a negative light throughout the majority of her trial, dubbing her “Foxy Knoxy” and wildly sensationalizing the story using Knox’s good looks as a focal point. The prosecution painted a picture that Amanda killed her roommate Meredith in a violent sex game gone wrong.

Lorena was similarly smeared in the media during her trial; the subsequent headlines and discussion around her allegations of abuse against her husband John shined a light on the issue of marital abuse in a way that no case before had ever done. Tabloids repeatedly questioned Lorena’s intelligence and motives, and John was ultimately acquitted of Lorena’s rape accusations.

The two women now say they have bonded over this shared trauma and their desires to reclaim their own stories. Amanda says they are doing this by calling out the forces in the press that were, as she says, “Exploiting our trauma for the sake of profits and entertainment.”

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“Thanks to documentaries — we have basically reclaimed our narratives,” Lorena added. “Now people know the stories and the truth about what happened. It is very important for us to get the message across.”

“I think people expect, like, us to crawl under a rock of shame and die,” Amanda continued. “We are showing that not only are we the characters you thought we were, but we have a right.”

Both women have gone on to become advocates in their own right. Amanda recently returned to Italy for the first time to speak at the Criminal Justice Festival’s “Trial By Media” panel. Lorena, who now lives in Virginia, runs an NGO to help survivors of abuse.

The main message both women hope to communicate is a simple one: they are people, too.

“We are human beings,” said Lorena. “Just like you, just like people sitting watching television. We are human, we are women and we can support each other.”