The Amanda Knox Paradox

Amanda Knox—we all know her as the American exchange student who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy in 2007.

 

Also known as “Foxy Knoxy,” she was the quirky, “sex-crazed” foreigner who kept her vibrator in the shared bathroom, never flushed the toilet and did cartwheels at the police station.

 

But who is she really, behind the scandalous tabloid headlines and alluring front page covers?

 

In a 2021 interview with the New York Times, Knox said “it wasn’t just the facts of the case that were distorted, it was really truly my identity.” At the time of her trials, she was surrounded by a media frenzy in both the United States and in Italy, attracting publicity that not only vilified her during the legal proceedings, but still has long-lasting implications for Knox’s private life more than 15 years later.

 

Knox now lives in a quiet neighborhood on Vashon Island in Washington State with her husband, daughter and three cats. After so much scrutiny under the public eye, she dreams of an anonymous existence, fantasizing about moving to a remote village and becoming a seamstress.

 

Yet Knox is living a paradoxical life, actively posting on social media, speaking out in a Netflix documentary and producing a podcast with her husband. Knox says she feels compelled (rightfully so) to control the narrative about herself. Frankly, she also depends on the media to pay her bills, because how can you get a “normal” job when your name comes with so much baggage?

 

In 2013, Knox released a memoir about her story, titled Waiting to Be Heard. Most of the $4 million she earned from the memoir was used to pay back her legal fees and loans. But while Knox could have sold the novel under any title she wanted, her chosen title sends a message, almost screaming that she wants to be seen and heard by the world.

 

Whether authentically or intentionally (or a combination of both), Knox also plays into the narrative that the media has created for her as a quirky, flamboyant woman.

 

In a time-travel themed wedding, Knox married her husband, Christopher Robinson, on Leap Day in 2020. The couple dressed in extravagant costumes and emerged from futuristic pods for their vows. Before the wedding, Knox even created a website asking the public to donate money for the “best party ever” for her family and friends.

 

Knox and Robinson seemed to stick with their sci-fi theme when their daughter was born in 2021, naming her Eureka Muse.

 

On Knox’s podcast Labyrinth, she revealed that she and her husband attended DomCom, a dominatrix convention. A popular speculation was that Kercher’s death was a result of a sex game gone wrong, and Amanda said she felt extremely bothered by the misdirected focus during her trials on her sexuality and went to the convention to see what “a sex game gone right” looked like.

 

Besides the fact that this comment sounds somewhat insensitive, it only adds fuel to the fire that Knox claims she doesn’t want. She even shared how she participated in the convention by stripping down to her thong and how she was flogged in a hotel ballroom with other attendees.

 

So maybe the media’s portrayal of Knox’s identity is not entirely without basis—who’s to say, perhaps Knox is indeed quirky and sex-crazed. But still, that certainly does not mean she is a murderer.

 

Plus, no matter how much truth is behind other people’s descriptions, nobody likes losing control of your own narrative—especially when a murder conviction is also involved.

 

The only people who might be even more unhappy than Knox about not being in control?

 

Meredith Kercher’s family. For them, it’s less about what the media coverage was, but the lack thereof.

 

There is another contradictory paradox to be found here, in that the actual crime and victim became the background of a story where, instead, the suspect took center stage.

 

Even though Knox is still haunted by the ghosts of sensational, clickbait headlines, she has been acquitted; Kercher’s family tragically lost a daughter and sister and is still missing concrete answers.