Could Sexism Be A Good Thing?
By now, Name It. Change It.’s ongoing frustration with Howie Carr is well documented. Since February, the Boston Herald columnist has referred to U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren as “Granny,” a meant-to-be-clever reference to the Beverly Hillbillies, over 20 times. When he’s not busy attacking Warren for her looks, he usually settles for slapping equally creative diminutive labels on her, with “Liz” narrowly edging out “Lizzie” in terms of frequency.
Last week, the Herald outdid itself by putting a picture of Warren on the cover, with both “Liz” and “Granny” worked into the headlines. Sexist media coverage of a female candidates by a reporter is, unfortunately, all too common. And Name It. Change It. has encountered our share of unapologetic ones. But what’s different about the Herald is that the sexism is not coming from a single voice with the paper, but from the entire publication.
And we’re not the only ones who’ve noticed.
Yesterday, Greg Mitchell from The Nation called out The Herald for their sexist treatment of Warren saying, “No other mainstream media outlet has shown Warren such disrespect as a woman running for office.” Bravo, Greg! If we want to change the sexist media environment faced by women in and running for office, we all need to do our part to call it what it is: sexism.
In his article, Mitchell wonders whether this ongoing sexist battle might not be a good thing for the Warren campaign: “But sexism, indeed, might work in Warren’s favor, given the usual breakdown of voters in the state, meaning more than half are women.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
As Name It. Change It.’s groundbreaking research demonstrates, even mild sexism, such as scrutiny of a woman candidate’s appearance or referring to her in the diminutive, can hurt her campaign’s prospects. Part of what makes Carr’s relentless sexism so scary is that…it works. At least if you’re trying to discredit the woman candidate in the eyes of the voters.
However, our research also shows that “actively responding to sexism and calling it out can not only undo the damage that the original comments dealt, it also can win over more voters than before.” The best part? The burden to call out media sexism isn’t entirely on the candidate. We can all play a role.
Our research shows that it is important for third parties, like Name It. Change It. or, in this case, The Nation, to sound the alarm when we see these types of sexist attacks. Openly acknowledging and responding to sexist media coverage helps “repair damage that sexism can inflict on a woman’s campaign.” It will also have a “positive effect on a woman candidate’s favorability across the board (i.e., not just with women voters), whether or not the voters even heard the original attack.”
Greg Mitchell and The Nation are to be commended for shining on a spotlight on the Herald’s blatant sexism. We encourage other members of the media and readers like you to follow suit. Whether you want to write, blog, tweet, yell, or sing about it, it’s important to let media outlets know that sexism wont’ be tolerated.
Published by Kate McCarthy on 08/03/2012