Female Journalists and Harassment
A stereotype that I have often seen in media is how women are treated poorly in the journalism field. As a woman pursuing a degree in journalism and mass communications, there is often talk among my fellow female journalists about us using our looks to get to where we want to be. Women are accused of “sleeping their way to the top” and are often hyper-sexualized by others in the industry. Women are often ridiculed for their presence in certain spaces, specifically broadcasting.
According to research displayed in the National Library of Medicine, recent evidence shows that the learned automatic response to objectify women has become culturally ingrained to a great extent. Girls are sexualized due to pressure by peers to be attractive. Women are expected by society to be beautiful and to have an amazing, small body, and they are being sexualized in their everyday lives regardless of their jobs.
Criticism from the public is not a new concept for journalists. Abuse of journalists has recently increased within modern-day media. Journalists are often bombarded with hateful messages, death threats, and sexual or physical harassment. According to Prism, a community of journalists delivering thought-provoking news, white women, women of color, and people who are perceived as women in media are subjected to abuse on a level that goes far beyond the subject they’re covering.
The stereotype that women are using their looks and bodies to reach higher levels within the industry is not accurate. Women’s presence in media and news is not based on their sexual endeavors. When I researched information about female news anchors, I found an article about the “Hottest CNN Female Anchors”. This stereotype does not have much relation to inaccurate information or missing context. This generalization mainly rests on biases. The sexualization of women in media and society can result from a combination of both overt and implicit biases. Overt bias refers to an intentional bias where individuals or institutions consciously objectify or sexualize women for various reasons, often driven by profit, sensationalism, or traditional gender roles. For example, some advertisements or media portrayals intentionally sexualize women to attract attention or cater to certain audiences. In these cases, the bias is clear and intentional. However, implicit bias involves beliefs that are unconscious to the individual. Media creators and consumers may unconsciously perpetuate stereotypes and norms that contribute to the sexualization of women without consciously intending to do so.
A piece of media that stands out to me when I think about women who were harassed in the journalism field is the 2019 movie “Bombshell” featuring Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, and Nicole Kidman. This movie does not directly perpetuate the stereotypes, but it shows certain examples of women in the newsroom being sexualized by colleagues and consumers.
This movie is about women working for Fox News who stand against the CEO, Roger Ailes, due to alleged sexual harassment. The actresses portray Fox News past anchors, Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson. This movie shows how these women struggled with sexual harassment in the newsroom and even shows disturbing sexually explicit scenes that are based on the real scandal. A quote from this movie that perpetuates this negative stereotype is “Roger likes to joke — to get ahead you got to give a little head”. This insinuates
A piece of news I found that perpetuates this negative stereotype is related to the UK’s GB News network. The company recently suspended Laurence Fox, a male journalist, over misogynistic comments he made about a political journalist, Ava Evans. “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel,” Fox said on-air. This was ignited by comments made by Evans about men’s mental health. This perpetuates the stereotype of female journalists being sexualized by making disrespectful remarks about a woman's attractiveness and suggests only “incels” would be attracted to her. An incel is defined by Oxford Languages as a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually, typically associated with views that are hostile toward women.
This media construction is very harmful to me and my female or female-presenting peers who want to pursue a career in the news. These misogynistic comments encourage harassment against women. I cannot see how this media construction can be beneficial to anyone, however, I can see men or male-presenting people receiving more media attention at the hands of “controversial” women.
