Jezebel: women's media center

Are Female Journalists Immune from Sexism?

LatoyaPeterson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:40:00 EDT

Earlier this year, Tina Brown announced that Hillary Clinton needs to carve out time to go to the gym, while Laura Ingram launched a jab about Meghan McCain's weight. Chloe Angyal from SpliceToday is wondering: why all the woman-on-woman hate?

Angyal neatly sidesteps the ever popular "catfighting women!" angle and instead shifts the focus on why so many conversations about prominent women in the public eye revolve around their physical appearance. She writes:

It's notable that in both of these cases, women were attacking their own. In an age where "bitchy" women make for big news and big box office, it would be easy to imagine that women are to blame for their own double-bind. But the truth is, America has a widespread cultural discomfort with women in positions of power. Sexist remarks about Clinton's appearance and demeanor, made by Chris Matthews and other pundits, were infuriatingly frequent during last year's primaries.

Indeed they were. As you may remember, the Women's Media Center put together a video for their campaign Sexism Sells, But We Aren't Buying It, released during the height of the election season:

Sadly, this can't just be blamed on the crush of the election cycle - the gendered attacks on women working in and around politics have continued to this very day.

I fully cosign with Angyal when she concludes:

The time has come for America to decide: are we going to be a nation in which any person, regardless of their appearance, can contribute their valuable ideas to our public debate? Or are we going to continue to waste time, and women's talent, chatting about lipstick, hairstyles, shorts and pantsuits?

The Female Journalists Who Weigh Down Political Discussion [Splice Today]

The Predictable Reactions Of White Men To Racism, Sexism And Sonia Sotomayor

Megan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:40:00 EDT

Watching these clips of media sexism directed at Sonia Sotomayor, I'm forced to wonder how a bunch of white guys hate the term "identity politics" so much and yet are unable to identify with anyone other than other white guys.

Unfair & Unbalanced

Dodai — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

The Women's Media Center has launched "Sexism Sells, But We're Not Buying It," a video and online petition campaign. At issue: The pervasive sexism in political coverage. "While Hillary Clinton's campaign has cast a spotlight on the issue of sexism, this isn't a partisan issue: it's about making sure that women's voices are present and powerful in our national dialogue," states the organization. Watching all of the sexist clips from "news" shows compiled in one video is nauseating, and the focus on looks, cosmetics, cleavage and terms like "nagging voice" and "the Wicked Witch of The West" is extremely infuriating. At least there's this quote: "We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." That's Susan B. Anthony, who died in 1906. (Click the picture to see embedded video.) [Women's Media Center]