Yeah, the way the media dissected her actions was really gross and sexist. I've lost a few people close to me and a lot of times people would basically drag me out of the house to have fun, because they were worried about me. When I was in my early 20s, I was out clubbing less than a week after my best friend was killed, because we were dumb 20-somethings who had no idea to deal with that kind of loss and my friends (who didn't really know my deceased friend very well) thought it would make me feel better. It didn't really, but I still put on a big smile and acted like I was having fun because no one wants to be that girl crying in a club, plus it was a little better than lying in bed in my shitty dorm room staring at the ceiling because I was too depressed to do anything else. So then I kept getting dragged to other social events and putting on a show of having fun even though I felt numb at best. I've since learned that it's actually pretty common for people to party (often in a self-destructive way, like drinking too much, using illicit drugs, or having risky sexual encounters) after a loss in an attempt to distract themselves and/or drown out the sorrow.

I'm not saying Casey Anthony was mother of the year or something, and I think she was at least neglectful which contributed to Caylee's death and at worst murdered her daughter, but her case was the perfect example of how we think there's a "right" way to grieve and see anyone who deviates from that as suspicious. I mean, I only casually followed the case at the time but I heard more about her partying than about the fact that, you know, she repeatedly lied to the police and didn't even report her daughter missing (and her mother only did so after a month). That's absolutely ridiculous.