Journalism

“Hello gorgeous”

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I am a woman in my early thirties and I work as a journalist that specializes in Sports and Local news. I can’t really count all the times that a man whom I was interviewing or asking for information to, has greeted me with something similar to “Hello gorgeous” or “beautiful” or “baby”. It happens so often… and at first, I felt bad because it bothered me. A few months ago I had to call the press contact for a political group, who happened to be a man, a bit older than me. I didn’t expect this kind of behaviour because the group he represents supports the feminist movement and is pro-civil rights. But he promised to send me (by WhatsApp) some info that he could not provide at that moment. That’s when it began, probably because he saw my profile picture. Since then, every time we had to speak, by text or on the phone, he would start the conversation with a “hello gorgeous” and then proceed to try to talk me into going on a date. I have told him that we can’t go on a date because our relationship is only professional and that I don’t feel comfortable with his behaviour, but he does not seem to understand it. And I feel so powerless because I told my boss and he told me not to make so much fuss about it because he wasn’t “doing anything wrong” and asked me to be nice to this guy.

Lili

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A few years ago I was sexually assaulted on the street. It was four o’clock in the afternoon and I was minding my own business when I was attacked by an opportunist taking advantage of the fog and the winter light. The incident left me traumatised, especially as it happened in my own neighbourhood. When I found out that a number of women had been attacked via the local newspaper , but worried women in my area seemed to be uninformed, I took matters into my own hands and contacted the local press (Nottingham Evening Post) anonymously, telling them that I wanted them to run my story, in the hope of raising awareness. I wish I hadn’t. First of all, they clearly had no concern for my own safety, wishing to print a photo of me on the front page. When I said they could photograph me from the back only, then they took me to the place where I had been assaulted – which was of course traumatic – and took a photo of me from behind. As a result, I felt reduced to a ‘victim’, stripped of my humanity, with the readers lapping up the tale of my distress. They also changed my age to make me younger than I am, supposedly because this gives them a ‘sexier’ sexual assault. They ignored the details of how I had fought back and even chased after my attacker, trying to punch him to the ground and keep him there until someone could come and help. Instead they repeated the juicy details of how he ‘had a mad look in his eyes and seemed totally out of control’. I foolishly didn’t learn my lesson from this, perhaps traumatised at the time by the fact that more women were being attacked and wanting to do something to help, and so when a women’s magazine (Glamour magazine) contacted me via the paper, I agreed to talk to them too. The female journalist on the phone gave me a ‘girl power’ type speech about how I’d be helping other women to convince me to do it, but they repeated the same kind of reporting style as before, all sinister horror movie details and ignoring the practical advice I gave about carrying a rape alarm, taking self-defence classes etc. I am writing this to warn women now, not to ever speak to the press if they have been the victims of a sexual attack unless they are absolutely sure of what the journalist will print and have a power to veto. I was left thoroughly disgusted with their treatment of my case, and I know many women have had it a lot worse.

College Campus

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I am an aspiring journalist, a brazen feminist, and a proud speaker. I am 5’2, a freshman in college, so my intensity is packed into a fun-sized package. Since my outward appearance is “cute” or innocent looking, I am hardly ever taken seriously. In my first weeks at Willamette University, I was “mansplained” repeatedly. This, I had always assumed, was an urban myth. Sure, it happened some places but never in the liberal bubble of the pacific northwest. As the only freshman on the newspaper staff, I was shocked when a fellow classmate “took the time” to explain to me how to draft a professional email. This boy over the span of fifteen minutes “taught” me how to schedule an interview and repeatedly offered to “look over my article if I needed help.” I have worked for five different papers, conducted hundreds of interviews and worked in newspaper offices for the past three years. I’ve dealt with countless old newspaper men not taking me seriously, and overcame the challenge. Yet, despite all this, an unqualified bio-chem major “taught me” how to draft an email.