REALLY DAMN SEXIST: Student Run Newspaper Attacks Female Student Government Officer
Sexist attacks against women aren’t only confined to public candidates. It seems that women engaging in student governments are falling victim to baseless sexist attacks from their peers which can be more aggressive, if not criminal. UC San Diego student, Carli Thomas, found herself the victim of a vicious attack from The Koala, a student-run newspaper, which ran the headline “Carli Thomas is a fat whore” next to a doctored image of Thomas with a man’s genitalia in her face. Thomas “believes it’s retaliation for her decision to cut funding” to the student-run paper, according to a story by 10news.com. The Koala is a satirical paper that often runs stories about students on campus; however there is nothing satirical about this article. Satire is defined by dictionary.com as “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.,” yet this headline does not indicate in letter or tone irony or sarcasm, and it does not ridicule vice or folly. It’s a definitive, false statement about a young woman’s sexuality in response to a political decision.
When a woman runs for political office at the national, state, or local level, they not only have to fight a political battle, but also a sociological battle. In their campaigns women have to overcome societal stereotypes, and frequently need to combat sexist attacks from the media, other campaigns, or even their electorate. It’s a difficult battle. Female student officers and candidates can fall victim to the same attacks that women running for public office face. The experiences that girls and young women face in student government shape their perceptions of politics and will affect their decisions to pursue public office in the future. Tolerating these attacks in school environments is not just detrimental to the girls who endure these attacks, but are also detrimental to society because it discourages girls from engaging in politics which will only widen the gender gap in our government.
Tolerating sexist attacks encourages girls to think that they come and go without much outcry from anyone because free speech permits people to say whatever they want, or worse that people do not care enough to take action to change it. Our own mass media only enhances this perception. It’s commonplace for commentators to call female politicians “witches” when they aggressively push for their policies, or comment on the “hotness” or “attractiveness” of a female candidate that is winning their race. Similarly, for young women running for student office, rumors can spread about their personal lives or worse a school newspaper can print lies about their sexuality. We know how to prepare women running for public office, but how do we prepare girls and young women seeking student government offices for similar hurdles to success? More importantly, how can we as a society act in order to create schools and municipalities that no longer tolerate de facto repression of female politicians through the public evaluation their sexuality?