Gay Talese Is an Old: But that’s no excuse for spewing misogynist bullshit
Look. I haven’t read anything by Gay Talese. I’ve heard his name thrown around a lot, going all the way back to my early days in journalism school. He’s most famous for a profile he wrote for Esquire about Frank Sinatra in 1966 called Frank Sinatra Has a Cold. Sinatra wouldn’t give Talese an interview, so Talese basically spent three months stalking Sinatra and interviewing his friends so he could do a celebrity profile for some reason? It’s supposedly the best profile ever written or something. Maybe it is! Who cares? We’re here today to bury Talese, not to praise him.
Over the weekend, there was a “Power of Narrative Writing” conference at Boston University. Talese was being interviewed on stage in front of a big audience. And then, as my colleague at the Boston Globe, columnist Shirley Leung, describes it:
Speaking at a conference at Boston University on Saturday, the legendary journalist-turned-author struggled to answer a question about female writers who inspired him.
He mentioned Nora Ephron and Mary McCarthy, followed by an awkward silence. Finally the 84-year-old writer blurted out: “None.”
Talese went on to explain that women writers of his generation did not like to talk to strangers and that prevented them from taking on tough subjects.
Another colleague, Globe arts editor Amanda Katz, tweeted:
And Globe Metro editor Anica Butler, tweeted:
What the actual fuck, Gay Talese?
A lot of attention has been paid to the fact that he said he wasn’t inspired by any women, and that’s garbage in and of itself. But worse is his assertion that women only want to talk to nice safe people in nice safe places.
I work with dozens of amazing women doing journalism that is anything but safe and comfortable. You’ve probably seen one of them on the big screen, Sacha Pfeiffer (played by Rachel McAdams), taking on the Catholic Church’s decades-long coverup of sexual abuse by priests in Spotlight. There’s Maria Sacchetti’s immigration reporting. Akilah Johnson on the streets in Ferguson and out on the campaign trail. Evan Allen and Laura Crimaldi and Shelley Murphy’s crime stories. And dozens of others at the Globe and thousands at news organizations across the country and around the world, in dark alleys and war zones and the living rooms of mothers who have just lost a child. Women are everywhere in this business, and they are fearless.
A lot of people (mostly old white men, go figure) have rushed to Talese’s defense. He’s 84, they say! He’s the product of a different generation, they explain! He’s a fantastic writer, and you’re not, so shut up, they cry!
Fuck all of that.
He’s 84? Sorry, you don’t get a pass for being bigoted cause you are old. Also:
“It was a different generation?” Fuck you, it’s 2016 and we don’t have to put up with garbage from fifty goddamn years ago. Plenty of living people who are the product of our garbage, racist, misogynist, homophobic, awful past have evolved. Just because your best article was written in 1966 doesn’t mean time stopped then.
“He’s a fantastic writ — ” Oh just shut the fuck up.
Others have tried to defend Talese by saying “well he just was describing what things were like back then. He wasn’t saying he thinks that now.”
Bullshit. He spoke IN THE PRESENT TENSE when declaring that women don’t like to tackle tough subjects. Not in the past. Now. And even if he WAS speaking in the past tense, it wasn’t true 50 years ago either.
And here’s the problem. It’s not just Gay Talese. There are many many misogynist (and otherwise bigoted) old men in newsrooms everywhere, and they have a lot of power. They hire, they edit, they shape coverage, and decide who gets to cover what.
So don’t tell me “oh he’s 84 and is just expressing his opinion.” Even if opinions didn’t have power (and they DO), the Gay Taleses of the journalism world are having a direct impact on the women they work with. Every day.
We have to put an end to making excuses for and tolerating this behavior. It’s fucking garbage, and it has to stop.
UPDATE: Talese emailed Shirley Leung to clarify that, really, it is only women of his own generation that he finds boring and useless.
