Dose #62: Gabby Petito and the stories we choose to consume

Plus! Belle Gibson, The Cult of Real Housewives, and child-free living as an act of resistance.

Feb 23, 2025

The first Sunday Dose monthly edition. All the TV, film, books, articles, podcasts, and music I consumed this month. Packed FULL for the inner circle – welcome!

Someone asked me the other day what I’m most curious about at the moment.

I love this question. So much better than “How are you?” which often feels perfunctory and unnecessarily loaded.

So what am I curious about?

I’m curious about feelings and what they reveal, how emotions shift and change depending on the day.

This may sounds basic. We all feel, right? But I’ve spent a lot of my life trying not to feel. So feelings are new to me.

Since leaving my full-time job and moving interstate, I have felt a whole host of emotions – elation, grief, excitement, despair…

It’s like playing Wheel of Fortune with a feeling wheel. I don’t know what feeling will come up next – fun!

I’m also curious about… New beginnings. Rituals over routine. Grief as an inevitability. Opportunities to connect with strangers. What we choose to consume and ignore.

Because my curiosity has been channelled elsewhere, my consumption has been about pacification. I want to be entertained, lulled into an alternative realm where my neuroses are relegated to the greenroom.

Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is totally okay. But I do try to use my consumption to delve a little deeper.

What does our natural inclination for specific entertainment say about culture? The wider context(s) of the world? What does it reveal about ourselves?

5 good things 🔪

I’m so bloody grateful I can work for myself and from anywhere, and that work has found me before I’ve had to put myself out there. I’m scared.
Fictions ability to rip my heart out, cut it up into a million pieces, and then put it back together again (yes, another book has devastated me).
The wisdom to set up routines immediately upon arriving to a new place. Routines are a powerful anchor during periods of upheaval, punctuating the week and keeping me grounded.
Crunchy green salad with a sweet chilli dressing. What a culinary thrill! What a reminder of nature’s gifts!
The false promise of a new retinol serum. Will it make me look 7 years younger, or am I wasting hundreds of dollars buying into a copywriter’s portfolio piece? I’m fine with both.

WATCHING

American Murder: Gabby Petito 🔪

It was only a matter of time before Netflix turned Gabby Petito’s #VanLife footage into true crime fodder. It’s too “feedafied” to pass up.

I was swept up in the Petito madness along with everyone else. The 22-year-old was everywhere. Broadcasted on international news. Van life influencers sharing clues and hot takes inspired by true crime swarmed Tiktok.

When the cam footage was released, we all knew what happened. Petito was another victim of domestic violence. Another death that could have prevented if only people knew the clues.

Watching the police questioning the couple is incredibly frustrating. They're quick to decide Petito is “crazy”, just another woman who needs to calm down. One cop actually says, "I tell my wife to have a shower when she's stressed out." Cheers, mate!

The cops book Laundrie a night in a hotel for some "peace" and send Petito back on the open road, even though she's visibly distressed and should definitely not be driving. Yeah, poor Laundrie deserves a hot bath and a drink!

Two weeks later, Laundrie strangles Petito to death.

As tragic as Petito's story, the media attention surrounding it was out of control. It was a classic case of what journalist Gwen Ifill described as "Missing White Woman Syndrome."

Missing White Woman Syndrome is a term to describe mainstream media's disproportionate coverage of missing white women and girls, when women of colour get little coverage at all.

According to the National Crime Information Center, in 2022, 97,924 of the 271,493 girls and women reported missing were Black, even though Black women and girls comprised only 14 percent of the female population in the US. These cases go unreported, when cases like Petito’s are broadcasted everywhere.

What about in Australia? According to Four Corners, 315 First Nations women have either gone missing or were killed in suspicious circumstances since 2000. But this is only an estimate. No agency is keeping count. But when it comes to missing white women and girls, we hear about it 24/7.

Just think, Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl who was abducted in Portugal in 2007 who we're still talking about almost a decade later. And closer to home, Cleo Smith, who was taken from a campsite in WA, and was luckily found a short time later. That story made international news. Why? Cleo was a white blonde girl.

American Murder: Gabby Petito mentions Missing White Woman Syndrome at the end of the series, which is something, especially as it’s a trending Netflix docuseries. But it seems like an afterthought.

After immersing myself in the Petito story yet again I questioned: By watching a "Trending Now" show on Netflix, what am I paying attention to, and what am I choosing to ignore?

Apple Cider Vinegar 🔪

Another story about a pretty white woman. This time a conwoman. Who can forget Belle Gibson?

At the height of skinny women drinking green juice blurred by Hipstamatic filters, Gibson led the charge with her emotive “cancer journey” and wellness app The Whole Pantry before being outed as a fraudster. Apple Cider Vinegar is a mini-series based on this salacious story.

I love watching TV series based on true stories because I get hours of research material. And I actually didn’t know the full story before watching.

I had only seen that 60 Minutes interview where Belle answers the simple question “How old are you?” with such an iconic response it’s now a meme for middle-aged women lying about their age.

I loved Apple Cider Vinegar. The show captures Gibson’s delusion, showing how far a narcissist will go to prove to the world and, more importantly, to herself, she matters.

The series also interrogates the wellness industrial complex that has gone through several permutations since Gibson was the hot new thing. So there’s a lot to unpack!

Lead actor Kaitlyn Dever does a fantastic job portraying Gibson’s saccharine manipulative affect. And her Australian accent is so good I was surprised to find out she’s American.

So what is Belle doing now? I found out she’s implanted herself in Melbourne’s Ethiopian community, and she seems as delusional as ever.

Just quickly

So happy The White Lotus is back! I loved Amanda Whiting’s take on the first episode.
And then, suddenly, it’s a week ago, and a meticulously restored junk-rigged sailboat is approaching the harbor. This, I think, is my favorite part of the White Lotus formula. Meeting a raft of strangers and trying to suss out which ones we’ll hate just because they’re entitled and which ones we’ll hate because they don’t realize how entitled they are. Which ones we’ll hate for being everything we object to and which ones we’ll hate because they remind us of ourselves.
I can always count on Soft White Underbelly for heavy doses of humanity. I came across this interview with ex-porn actress Crissy Outlaw (née Coran), who struggled with self-worth, and seemingly love addiction, that resulted in a brief and regretful porn career.

Quick reads 🔪

There Is No Safe Word: How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades

Two of the women… compared him to an anglerfish, the deep-sea predator that uses a bulb of bioluminescence to lure prey into its jaws. “Instead of a light,” one says, “he would dangle a floppy-haired, soft-spoken British guy.” - Lila Shapiro

Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

There is an alarming pattern of what’s known as “under-policing” of Indigenous women who end up dead.

The Childfree are Ungovernable

It often appears to me that the majority of people blindly follow certain scripts in life — school, marriage, house, children, retirement, death — written and propagated by institutions, without ever questioning their validity. -
Antonio Melonio

101 ways to make and maintain friendships

One of my best tips for making new friends to go to things alone. It can be daunting, but potential new friends are more likely to approach you when you are alone. Be bold and approach others too! -
Madeleine Dore

“What Is It Like, Being Childless?”

There is a gap between mothers and nonmothers, between parents and nonparents, and if you have never seen these gaps, it is because you have never looked. -
Colleen Addison

LISTENING

The Cult of Real Housewives on Sounds Like a Cult

I’m obsessed with Real Housewives, and actively studying it. Sounds Like a Cult's Real Housewives episode is part of this research. Guest Kate Casey uses the social structure outlined in Queen Bees and Wannabes to analyse the show.

In every group of women, there are the following archetypes: Queen Bee, Sidekick, Banker, Floater, Bystander, Wannabe, and Target. And they all play different roles. If you're a Real Housewives fan and want to delve deeper, this ep is a must-listen.

HARRISON JAMES: "My Stepmum Fell Pregnant With My Daughter" on It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield

Abbie Chatfield speaks to sexual abuse survivor and activist Harrison James about the abuse he endured from his step mum, and the advocacy work he’s doing to improve the justice system. Abbie Chatfield is a great host who asks thoughtful and compassionate questions, and James answers with humility and healing.

Naomi Watts talks menopause: “Women grin and bear it” on Happy Place

Well, it didn’t take long for me to arrive in my late thirties and be thinking about perimenopause. I tend to pre-grieve and prepare for the future. Luckily, people like Naomi Watts are making the shift in hormones look a little less scary.

Doechii 🔪

I never wanted to become one of those people stubbornly listening to the same songs they came to age to… but I’ve got into the bad habit of comfort listening to low-fi ambient shit. SO I’m making the effort to listen to new stuff. I’m loving Doechi’s debut album Alligator Bites Never Heal, particularly the song SLIDE.