Remembering the murder of Gabby Petito

Gabby Petito was murdered by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, as the two were travelling cross-country in the hopes that Gabby would develop a broad body of followers in the van life community.

The precise date is uncertain but Petito died in late August of 2021. Her body would be discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on September 19th of that year.

The case was a mass media sensation in large part because she seemed to have martyred herself to the cause of social media influence. An 'influencer' is nowadays a sort of job title. I know, I know, I tend to wince when I hear the word used that way, too. But it is.

Anyway, if the "van life community" had taken to regular consumption of Petito's posts, she could have sold her services as a social media guru to advertisers, that is, selling her mention in the course of her YouTube videos of products useful for life in a confined and often moving space.

As a new Netflix docuseries stresses, Petito continued her van life with an increasingly volatile fiance because she thought it necessary for her brand -- she was selling herself to that community as half of a happy couple.

This is not victim blaming. Petito was viciously murdered and -- had Laundrie not 'escaped justice' via suicide soon thereafter -- trial and judgment would have followed in due course. There is no excuse for domestic violence, and "the victim failed to escape the situation" isn't one.

Saying that, though, one can also observe the various contexts in which this ancient evil re-asserts itself. And the Netflix series is a thoughtful look at the downside of the romanticization of social media "influence" as a business plan.

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