While procrastinating homework Friday afternoon, I came across a new Tumblr called “Said to Lady Journos.” Intrigued, I clicked through page after page of documented sexist remarks submitted by anonymous reporters and media folk.
Created only three weeks ago, the blog has been getting attention-grabbing headlines at Poynter, BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress and The Huffington Post, among others. It continues to snowball as Twitter takes hold, and it is spreading like wildfire.
According to an article in Poynter, an anonymous West Coast reporter started the blog to bring some awareness to sexism in the male-dominated industry after she was told, “You’re pretty smart for a young lady.”
I frequent another Tumblr called “Lady Journos!” run by Ann Friedman, who works to highlight the efforts of female journalists and help close the byline gap. The gap is the difference between the number of published articles written by men and those written by women.
VIDA — Women in Literary Arts is an organization that reports on the literary arts byline gap every year, and just posted the results from 2012 on Monday. The trend shows significantly more articles are published by men, and 2012 continues the trend with significantly fewer published articles by women. The organization isn’t forcing the conversation one way or the other, but reporting the numbers and serving as a forum for the conversation that takes place. Here’s to hoping the conversation continues.
Many female journalists working in this post-80s world are expecting to work their way up the journalism ladder without having to deal with sexist comments from their sources and most definitely not from their boss or co-workers.
I would argue that you don’t have to be a “lady journo” to understand why these remarks are offensive and unprofessional. Surprised that I actually know the rules to American football, basketball or baseball, follow a game and enjoy watching it? Enjoy the moment and don’t say something stupid, like “You’re pretty smart for a young lady,” as if following the rules for the United States’ most popular team sports is all that difficult.
It seems what we are really waiting for is the older generation of baby boomers to get tired of their profession and stay home, leaving the work and legacy to the spring chickens slowly taking over the office.
I waited for this to happen in my last job. The oldest man in the building was definitely the creepiest, calling all the young ladies “sweetie” and making snide comments about how fun it would be to get a hug. Ewww. We all gave him a pass because he was “just a creepy old man” and he would be gone soon anyway. The whole administrative office breathed a big sigh of relief when the old fellow retired and quit showing up every day to give us the creepy eyes.
I guess I thought journalism would be different. Because we’re traditionally on the “front lines,” reporting on cultural issues and
social change, I thought, despite differing political views and values, the journalistic community would be progressive enough to recognize they can be catalysts for social change. But maybe that’s a pipe dream too.
Here’s the thing — it’s not like we can’t have a good time in the workplace, enjoy each other’s company and have our own snarky remarks and private jokes. Just understand, if we don’t know each other, and you make a “clever” comment that has something to do with my gender, we are not going to be friends.
Heaven help the man who says, “That’s a nice-looking pair of legs on you. What was the question?” or calls me a silly little girl.