Dear ___,
As part or our media monitoring work with Name It. Change It.,
we
recently sent the letter below to Newsweek. Sexism
is sexism and we will call it out when we see it.
Thanks for your support!
The Name It. Change It. Team
***
August 15, 2011
Newsweek
395 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Re: “The Queen of Rage” (August 15)
To The Editor:
On behalf of the Women’s Campaign Forum Foundation (WCF Foundation) and
the Women’s Media Center, we are writing to express our disappointment
with the sexist nature of your August 15th coverage of presidential
candidate and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06). As organizations
committed to eliminating political gender bias in the media, we found
the cover photograph, title, and accompanying article to be demeaning
and degrading. It is ironic that you also featured Gloria Steinem in
this issue. As the creator of the name of our joint initiative, Name
It. Change It, she stresses that media coverage of candidates must pass
the test of reversibility – if it wouldn’t be directed at a man, it
shouldn’t be directed at a woman. Newsweek failed that test.
Women make up 51% of the United States population, yet occupy only 17%
of the seats in Congress and a mere 23% of state legislatures. Only six
out of fifty state governors are women. The United States ranks 86th in
the world in the number of women elected to public office. Having a
greater female presence in government would be exceedingly beneficial
to our national discourse, and yet the media continues their disturbing
trend of judging women based on their gender rather than their
professional merits.
The media’s unfair portrayal of women is one of the leading reasons
cited by potential female candidates for declining to seek public
office.
[1] Choosing an
unflattering picture of Congresswoman Bachmann and representing her as
“The Queen of Rage” is precisely the type of subversive sexism that
depresses female involvement and deprives our nation of a much-needed
balance in perspective.
Our research shows that this type of mild sexism
can be just as electorally damaging to female candidates as out-and-out
misogyny.
[2] In order to combat
this,
WCF Foundation,
Women’s Media Center, and
Political Parity have joined forces to create our
national Name It. Change It. initiative. Name It. Change It. is a
non-partisan project devoted to erasing the pervasiveness of sexism
against women candidates across all media platforms. With the U.S.
economy in crisis, wars being fought overseas, and attacks on women’s
health running rampant, it is time to choose our politicians based on
their resumes instead of their wardrobes.
Neither WCF Foundation nor Women’s Media Center take any position on
Congresswoman Bachmann’s political views. However, a sexist attack on
one woman is an attack on all women, regardless of party. We challenge
the editors of Newsweek to stop engaging in the same tired, sexist
portrayal of women that has become the unfortunate norm in our media.
This type of coverage moves our national discourse backward at a time
when we need to push ahead. For more information on sexism in the
media, we encourage your readers to visit
www.nameitchangeit.org.
Sincerely,
Siobhan “Sam”
Bennett
Julie
Burton
President/CEO
President
WCF
Foundation
Women’s
Media Center