Media Report to Women, The Blog

'Educate A Woman, Develop A Nation"

2011-03-23T17:07:00.000-04:00

"When you educate a woman, you develop a nation." So said Barbara Kaija, editor in chief of New Vision Printing and Publishing Company of Uganda this morning as the International Women's Media Foundation released its long awaited Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media. To the importance of educating women, she would likely add "and train them to be journalists," as she and other delegates to this week's IWMF conference in Washington discussed why female journalists are important for improving societies and offering a clear, more inclusive vision for the future of the world.

The two-year long study examined 522 media organizations in 59 countries. Data were collected and interviews conducted in 40 languages. Standardizing data collection categories across cultures and different organizational models was a vexing challenge, said Dr. Carolyn Byerly of Howard University, the study's director. Most organizations were forthcoming with information, she said, adding that the most resistance to disclosing employee data came from media organizations in the most developed countries.

Researchers found that 73% of the top media management jobs are occupied by men compared to 27% occupied by women. Among the ranks of reporters, men hold nearly two-thirds of the jobs, compared to 36% held by women. However, among senior professionals, women are nearing parity with 41% of the newsgathering, editing and writing jobs.

The global study identified glass ceilings for women in 20 of 59 nations studied. Most commonly these invisible barriers were found in middle and senior management levels. Slightly more than half of the companies surveyed have an established company-wide policy on gender equity. These ranged from 16% of companies surveyed in Eastern Europe to 69% in Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The full report of the study is here: http://iwmf.org/pdfs/IWMF-Global-Report.pdf

The Harsh Reality of Reporting from the World's Hotspots

2011-03-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

Reporters Without Borders released an analysis of the hardships women journalists face when they cover news in volatile areas that have cultural norms that resist the independence female journalists exemplify. Read the report, released on International Women's Day, here: http://en.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/international_women_s_day_2011.pdf

Nieman Reports Republishes Critical Essays by Women Journalists

2011-03-08T12:56:00.000-05:00

On the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, Nieman Reports has republished essays from 2001 and 2002, written by women passionate about journalism and clear-eyed about its shortcomings, particularly when it comes to reporting about women -- and employing them. Read them at
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports.aspx

Thursday, March 10: Watch A Webcast Panel Discussion at Global Journalist's International Women's Day

2011-03-07T13:58:00.000-05:00

This week marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and on March 10 Global Journalist invites you to join in a discussion about women in journalism for a live taping of its regular broadcast. The guests, who are journalists from Eritrea, China, Colombia, Iran and the U.S., will discuss the role of female journalists in newsrooms around the world. The community will be invited to participate in the conversation, ask the guests questions and share their own thoughts and experiences.
The event is FREE and open to the public. A reception will follow the live taping (Webcast details below.)

WHEN: March 10, 2011 6 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Fred W. Smith Forum, Reynolds Journalism Institute, University of Missouri-Columbia

You can reserve your spot here: http://gjwomensday.eventbrite.com/
View the 1-minute promotional video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5AOxinG4yc

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

If you can't make the live event, Global Journalist would still like to hear your questions and comments. How?

* Watch the live show on March 10th 6-7:00 from the website globaljournalist.org -OR- tune in from 6:30-7:00 on KBIA-FM 91.3

* CALL with questions or comments during the live show 573-882-8925

* Or- email questions or comments at globaljrnlist@gmail.com

* Or- Send a message on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/globaljrnlist

* Or- Send a message on Twitter @GlobalJrnlist

THE PANEL:

Salem Solomon: In her home country of Eritrea, Solomon graduated with a degree in journalism and mass communications. She worked for more than two years as a producer and anchorwoman for the English-language newscast of Eri-TV, the nation’s largest television network. In Columbia, Salem hosts and produces Africa Talks, a talk show on Columbia Access Television. She also works in the International Programs Office at the University of Missouri.

You Li: Li is a PhD candidate at MU’s journalism school. Before coming to the United States, she worked as a reporter for the legal and political beat of a daily newspaper in Dalian, China. She was also editor-in-chief for two years for her university newspaper in Shanghai, where she also founded the school’s first student journalism association.

Mary Kay Blakely: A contributing editor to Ms. magazine since 1981 and former Hers columnist for The New York Times, Professor Blakely teaches writing courses in MU’s journalism school. Her essays on social and political issues have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, LIFE and Vogue.

And joining the conversation by phone and Skype:

Mónica Villamizar is a Colombian reporter for Al Jazeera English who has covered the Chile mining story, the conflict in Colombia and the Haiti earthquake, among others.

Golnaz Esfandiari is a senior correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She previously worked in RFE/RL ‘s Central Newsroom as head of the Asia Desk and before that, as a correspondent covering developments in Iran and Afghanistan. Born in Tehran, Esfandiari's writing has focused on politics, human rights, and social issues in Iran and Afghanistan.

The Moderator will be Lee Wilkins, a professor at MU's journalism school. Wilkins studies and teaches media ethics, and she discusses media issues on the weekly broadcast of KBIA's Views of the News. She has received multiple teaching awards, and before academia Wilkins worked as a newspaper editor and reporter.

It's Women's History Month: Enough With Media Obsession About Bad-Boy Charlie Sheen

2011-03-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

Actor Charlie Sheen seems to be getting about as much media coverage these days as Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi, maybe more. Bad boys always seem to grab off the headlines, don’t they?These two are so much alike: bad tempers, revenge scenarios, buxom women close by to attend to their every need and seemingly oblivious to what truly awful persons these men are.

But this is National Women’s History Month. I'm concerned that many media resources that could be examining how women are faring will continue to focus on the strange, twisted existence of Sheen, star of “Two and a Half Men,” a blockbuster hit for CBS that has been roiled by Sheen's recurrent substance abuse. Sheen has been acting as his own publicist since he was dropped by his longtime representative a few days ago. He's booked interviews with network interview programs and dished to them, People magazine and TMZ.com about his family (he is the father of five, four of whom are under 10 years of age), his “goddesses” (live-in girlfriends who share a bedroom with each other when one of them isn’t in bed with him), and his contentious approach to personal and business relationships, especially how much his employers owe to him for his innate fabulousness, and why his fondness for drugs and pornography is really no one's business. The result is that his estranged wife has obtained a restraining order against him, his toddler sons have been removed from his household, and production of “Two and a Half Men” has been suspended. No show, no paychecks. Not a problem for Sheen, said to be worth $85 million, but not so good for the rest of the people connected with the show.

If you push past the media obsession with Sheen, you just might learn that yesterday the White House released a statistical portrait called Women in America. This is the first comprehensive federal report on women since 1963, when the Commission on the Status of Women, established by President John F. Kennedy and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, produced a report on the conditions of women. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/Women_in_America.pdf) Among the findings:

Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a graduate degree. Women are also working more and the number of women and men in the labor force has nearly equalized in recent years. As women’s work has increased, their earnings constitute a growing share of family income.

However, gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity. At all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009. In part because of these lower earnings and in part because unmarried and divorced women are the most likely to have responsibility for raising and supporting their children, women are more likely to be in poverty than men. These economic inequities are even more acute for women of color.

Women live longer than men but are more likely to face certain health problems, such as mobility impairments, arthritis, asthma, depression, and obesity. Women also engage in lower levels of physical activity. Women are less likely than men to suffer from heart disease or diabetes. One out of seven women age 18-64 has no usual source of health care. The share of women in that age range without health insurance has also increased.

Women are less likely than in the past to be the target of violent crimes, including homicide. But women are victims of certain crimes, such as intimate partner violence and stalking, at higher rates than men.

All of these are matters that demand renewed effort to correct, but the last paragraph ought to get our attention, since it leads directly back to Charlie Sheen and others like him. His verbal and physical threats of female partners are now a matter of court action. If domestic violence continues to be such a terrible factor in the lives of women, as the White House report tells us it is, let’s ask that the hours of TV and radio airtime and gallons of printer’s ink being given over to Sheen and his egomania instead be used to discuss the issue of domestic violence with the seriousness it deserves. It’s a travesty to allocate so much coverage to a TV actor who engages in precisely this dangerous behavior and flaunts his celebrity as a way of deflecting attention from it. Enough, already.

What We Have Here Is A Failure to Communicate

2011-02-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

Or so says a new report that the reason women appear so seldom as authors of letters to the editor of newspapers and other periodicals, or as essayists on their opinion pages, is because they seldom take the initiative to put their thoughts in writing and submit them for publication. Read about it at http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/118696/why-women-dont-contribute-to-opinion-pages-as-often-as-men-what-we-can-do-about-it/

Can't argue with the patterns described here -- that men are quicker to run to the computer and address issues they care about. But one also needs to consider the selection process. Editors aren't sitting on their hands, waiting for emails to arrive, or the Postal Service to show up with contributions. They also solicit opinion from readers. The challenge is to become known to editors as smart and insightful and a crack writer who can produce quickly.

As the saying goes, politics is personal -- so start locally. Though newspapers have less space than ever, they are more interested in reader input than ever (they don't have to pay for it!), so there actually are more opportunities for opinions to be published. There are also more online community news organizations and local blogs that welcome reader input.

Some inspiration for publishing our opinions comes from British writer Doris Lessing, who said, "Think wrongly, if you please, but think for yourself." And write about it.

Women and the Risky Business of Reporting the News

2011-02-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

The beating and sexual assault of CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo generated thousands of comments, ranging from sympathetic to the truly awful "she-asked-for-it" variety. Comments in the latter category said women shouldn't be handling journalistic assignments in international flashpoints; that her good looks were a temptation; that her western clothing was an affront to a culture where many (though by no means all) women cover themselves; and on and on. The fact that Logan has years of experience reporting from extremely dangerous environments seemed to be lost on those who posted comments like these.

The discussion did have an upside: bringing attention to the fact that assaults on journalists, male and female, actually happen and the profession needs to respond intelligently to these events. No one has precise numbers about physical and sexual assaults, especially for women, who often don't report attacks for fear of losing out on important assignments if their editors feel they are going to be in more danger than a male colleague. Kim Barker, writing in The New York Times, discusses her own experience and makes a powerful argument for the importance of keeping female journalists out in the field everywhere. Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20barker.html

Today Is Love Your Body Day, But Every Day Should Be

2010-10-20T11:51:00.000-04:00

The NOW Foundation has declared today, Oct. 20, "Love Your Body Day" and has made visuals and discussion materials available on its web site. These are terrific for classroom discussions in a range of high school and college courses. The package describes how advertisers and the media perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, sexual ideals and gender stereotypes that girls internalize at younger and younger ages, and that influence their behavior throughout their adult lives, sometimes with devastating physical and mental results. Read more about the program and see the slide show at:

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/presentations/SexStereotypesBeauty/index.html

Girl Scouts Leading New Campaign for Healthy Media Images for Girls and Women

2010-10-06T16:38:00.000-04:00

Today at the U.S. Capitol: The Girl Scouts of America convened a conference on how to urge the media to offer healthy images of girls and women. GSA also previewed a new public service annnouncement urging girls to be the best versions of themselves, not imitators of celebrities or ultra-thin models. Watch it here and pass it on:

www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/advocacy/watchwhatyouwatch/default.asp

Updated Industry Statistics Posted on Media Report to Women's Web Site

2010-08-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

Looking for the latest research on how women are portrayed by media? How they are used, or not used, as sources of news and expertise? What advertising and entertainment media convey about women's bodies and spirits? How women are advancing in media professions? Video presentations that illustrate media's power to influence?

Click here for data drawn from multiple sources by Media Report to Women Editor Sheila Gibbons, posted today, with links to research sources:

http://www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm

Fashion, Race and Essence Magazine

2010-07-29T10:29:00.000-04:00

Essence magazine’s hiring of a white fashion director has touched off a discussion of whether it makes sense for a magazine started at a time when black women were largely ignored by American women’s magazines (and when many of these magazines had, for years, been edited by men) should have given the job to a white woman. The new hire, Elliana Placas, has freelanced in fashion for Essence for half a year. Essence's editor, Angela Burt-Murray, decided to bring Placas on fulltime and is defending the decision. Placas has experience at O Magazine and House Beautiful, among others. “I got to see firsthand her creativity, her vision, the positive reader response to her work, and her enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand,” Burt-Murray said.

Comments from readers have touched on disbelief that a qualified black fashion editor couldn’t be found; that black fashion sense and style are both special and specialized and that someone outside the culture wouldn’t be as attuned to it; and that a position that could have advanced a black female magazine staffer’s career was handed to a white woman instead.

Hurt feelings and confusion abound in the early comments, though I’ve also read sentiments that say qualifications and experience should count most in this economically competitive magazine environment, in which many titles are struggling – and if Placas has the right resume, so be it. But does she have the right race, ask others? And how much should that matter?

I’m inclined to think that Essence, which began publishing in 1970, has matured to the point where it, too, can diversify its ranks and benefit from the mix. Burt-Murray seems to think so. Placas will need to be persuasive to win over the skeptics. But the proof will be in the pages.

Read Burt-Murray’s comments on the Placas hiring, and Essence's mission, at http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/essence-one-white-editor-wont-diminish-our-love-of-black-women.php

Sunday Morning TV Talk Shows: It's a Guy Thing

2010-06-14T14:33:00.000-04:00

American University's Women and Politics Institute has released a study that confirms with percentages what most of us know in our guts: Newsmakers on Sunday morning are mostly of the testosterone variety. Only 13.5 percent of guests being chatted up by David Gregory, Wolf Blitzer, Candy Crowley and the like are members of what used to be called the fairer sex. The long-standing excuses of TV bookers persist: the most influential players in politics and corporations continue to be men; women don't make themselves as readily available, don't seem as eager to be in the limelight; Sunday morning is a bad time for women who are protective of their personal time. However, I believe there's more to it than that. I think bookers are pressured to land the big "gets," the guests who in the eyes of the producers and their bosses lend gloss and stature to their programs. That approach naturally favors incumbency, longevity and seniority, factors that, at least to this point, haven't favored women. Details at
http://politico.com/news/stories/0601/38483

Controversy Brings Down Veteran Correspondent Helen Thomas

2010-06-07T15:20:00.001-04:00

Helen Thomas, veteran Hearst opinion columnist and before that, White House bureau chief for UPI, resigned today amid the furor caused by her May 27 comments about Jews, Palestinians and Israel. In an interview, Thomas said Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine" and suggested that Israel's Jewish citizens return to the European nations where they had lived prior to, and during, their persecution in World War II. These intemperate comments have cost Thomas a graceful exit from a remarkable, 67-year career during which she blazed trails for women journalists and aspiring political correspondents. Frustration among long-time observers of the endless Israeli and Palestinian negotiations -- and Thomas has had a front-row seat at the White House since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s and has met many of the players-- is undoubtedly rising. But comments such as these, coming from a journalist of Thomas's stature, are no help whatsoever, least of all to Thomas herself. It's a sad day.

Women Journalists Talk It Over

2010-05-21T14:44:00.000-04:00

The Poynter Institute has organized a forum on women in journalism and is live-blogging it. Follow the discussion at www.poynter.org/column.asp=id101&aid=183707. Discussion is lively and is showing us that some old issues for women in the newsroom -- parity, opportunity, the risks of pushing for change, acceptance -- don't go away entirely and new strategies are needed for moving forward.

Moxie Trumps Gender for Sawyer

2010-04-22T08:17:00.000-04:00

In the April 26 edition of Time magazine, journalist and ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer answered questions from readers. This gem illustrates how newswomen have refused to let gender be used to block them from plum reporting opportunities:

In response to a question, "What is the weirdest thing you ever had to do for a story?", Sawyer said:

"I made my way into the Russian White House in the middle of a coup attempt when [Boris] Yeltsin was President. No one was being allowed into the building. I went up, and the guard said women would not be allowed into the building. And I said, 'I'm not an American woman, I'm a journalist.' There was a momentary perplexed look on his face, and he said, 'O.K.' It worked. Sometimes a non sequitur is as good as strategy."

The entire interview is at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1982295,00.html

Where Are the Female Voices on NPR?

2010-04-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

We often fall into the trap of thinking that more liberal media, more progressive media, including many public broadcasting outlets, have a better record presenting women as authoritative sources than they actually have. National Public Radio Ombudsman Alicia Shepard blogged today about her research on NPR's performance in this regard and found it very much wanting. Read her post at www.npr.org/ombudsman/2010/04/where_are_the_women.html?sc=nl&cc=omb--20100402.

40 Years Later, Is It Better for Women in Journalism?

2010-03-22T12:28:00.000-04:00

It's always useful to look back and measure progress -- not measure our hopes and dreams, but look at what actually happened. Women who currently report and write for Newsweek have reflected on the history of women who worked there 40 years ago, with ambitions blunted and talent thwarted, who decided they weren't going to take it anymore. In a lengthy article in the March 29 issue, today's Newsweek women admit that, in terms of progress, "the victory dance feels premature." Read the entire piece at http://www.newsweek.com/id/235220/output/print

And the latest issue of Media Report to Women carries a nearly parallel piece about a female broadcaster, Alison Owings ("Evolution of a Broadcast Feminist" by Sarah Guthrie). In the 1960s, Owings worked for the ABC Washington bureau and later the NBC owned and operated station in Washington before moving to New York and CBS. The Newsweek women of that era were told "women can't write," and so was Owings. But that didn't stop her from breaking into the reporting ranks and becoming an activist who helped pave the way for younger women to enter TV news in markets large and small. Contact me at sheilagib@erols.com to order a copy of the issue containing this marvelous profile.

Even With Bigelow's Directing Oscar, Hollywood Still A Boys' Town

2010-03-16T10:25:00.001-04:00

Kathryn Bigelow's Best Director win at the Academy Awards March 8 was a welcome event. With the golden statuette in her hand, Bigelow became the first woman to win the award for best direction, with her work on "The Hurt Locker."

But female directors, and most female filmmakers, remain in short supply in Hollywood. According to a recent report, in 2009, women constituted just 16% of all directors, executive producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. Women were only 7% of directors in 2009, a figure dead even with the percentage of women directing films in 1987!

Martha Lauzen of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University tracks these figures annually, and each year it is dispiriting to see how little movement there is in women's advancement in the film industry. We need to patronize and praise films that involve women as storytellers and stars, from the indies all the way to the blockbusters, if we want to see more Bigelows walking to the stage to claim recognition for movies -- such as the powerful "Hurt Locker" -- that affect all of us.

Mean Girls?

2010-02-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

In the new issue of Vogue magazine, actress/writer Tina Fey says that she received hate mail after she began parodying Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live." "There are people who hate me because of that," she said, adding, "The weird thing is, when Darrell Hammond or will Ferrell or Dana Carvey did an impersonation of a president, no one assumed it was personal, but because Sarah Palin and I are both women and people think women are meaner to each other, everyone assumed it was personal." www.vogue.com/feature/2010_March_Vogue_Cover_Girl_Tina_Fey

Are women meaner to one another, really? Or does the culture, and media tropes, set them up to seem that way?

Consider the catfight coverage of Olympic skiers Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso, who have been competitors since childhood. A Today show correspondent talked about the "icy conditions" emerging in their relationship after Mancuso complained about a "popularity contest" in news coverage about the U.S. ski team. Other media picked that up.

Then Mancuso was frustrated in her attempt to defend her 2006 gold medal after her downhill run was stopped while Vonn, who had crashed on her run, was struggling to get off the course. Mancuso had to wait for 13 skiers before getting another chance, and she didn't medal in that event. She was understandably upset.

Smelling blood, some journalists pounced, looking for cracks in the cameraderie. We ended up with speculation about lot more personal drama than there really was, according to later statements by Mancuso and other team members.

What is it about women doing on-point political parody, as Fey did, or skiing the races of their lives, as Vonn and Mancuso are, that suggests they are mean?

After figure skating titans Victor Plushenko and Evan Lysacek competed, Plushenko whined that a man who doesn't do a quadruple move (Lysacek doesn't) shouldn't win the gold (he did). But it was a one-day story, and no one suggested Plushenko was a meanie.

Looks to me as if assertive women still make a lot of people uncomfortable.

Gender Bias in Media Persists for Female Candidates

2010-02-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

At a panel discussion Feb. 18, 2010 at The Aspen Institute in Washington sponsored by Madeleine K. Albright Women's Voices, Erika Falk of Johns Hopkins University showed us the dispiriting results of her research on press coverage of women presidential candidates, beginning with 1872 with Victoria Woodhull. (Yes, that's right; women began running for president before the vote was available to women in every state.) In spite of social progress, women's advances in the economy, in education, and in non-traditional occupations, "There has been almost no change in the pattern of disproportionate coverage," Falk said.

Falk did not compare male winners with female losers. She compared what she called "equivalent candidates" vying for nomination, and these were the results:

Item 1: Men received more coverage. If you aggregate the eight races Falk looked at, male candidates received twice as much coverage. And the articles about them were longer.

Item 2: Men received more substantive coverage. Twenty-seven percent of paragraphs in articles about men described their policy positions -- only 16% for women.

Item 3: Women's status was diminished when their official or professional titles were dropped on subsequent references, as when Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would be referred to as "Mrs. Chisholm" in subsequent references. This happened 32% of the time for women, but only 11% for men.

Item 4: Physical descriptions of candidates occurred four times for a female candidate to every one time for a male candidate.

There is obviously no upside to this for voters or for female candidates or for the nation, for that matter. The worst of it, says Falk, is that "media bias may not make women lose, but it may discourage them from running."

BBC News: Commander Mom

2010-02-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

Kudos to the BBC for launching a series on women at war on February 15 http://news.bbc.co.uk.2/hi/americas/8512484.stm. View this respectful profile of a Canadian officer commanding a combat unit. The emphasis on her family ties dominates the story -- a given, it seems, in media coverage of mothers rising in military units and ascending in performance. Let's see what the BBC offers in the days ahead -- hopefully, an assessment of military women's effectiveness and contributions as well as the family longings that affect any soldier, male or female.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

2010-01-30T19:41:00.001-05:00

Broadcast network CBS has revised its long-standing policy resisting broadcasting advocacy ads and has accepted $2.5 million from the conservative political group Focus on the Family to air an ad featuring collegiate football star quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. The ad will air during the ad-rich Super Bowl on Feb. 7. Pam Tebow is expected to explain how she rejected medical advice to terminate her pregnancy after contracting a serious illness, with the result that she had a healthy child who is now a famous athlete. Many women's groups, including the National Organization for Women (www.now.org) and the Women's Media Center (www.womensmediacenter.com), have criticized CBS for not announcing the change in policy until confronted about the Tebow/Focus on the Family antiabortion message. An intelligent, reasoned take on the controversy will appear in the Jan. 31Washington Post, and certainly elsewhere, authored by Frances Kissling, former president of Catholics for Choice, and Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Read it here: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902505.html?hpid=artslot

Anne Frank's Diary: Not Chick Lit, These Readers Say

2010-01-19T14:30:00.000-05:00

Some Washington Post readers have taken reporter Monica Hesse to task for writing about The Diary of Anne Frank as if it resonated primarily with young girls. Hesse's article appeared after the recent death of Miep Gies, the last living protector of the Frank family during their years hiding in an Amsterdam attic in a desperate attempt to avoid capture by the Nazis during World War II. While Anne Frank's story undoubtedly riveted readers who read it as girls and young teens, "for [Hesse] to assume that this feeling is peculiar to women diminishes the profound power of both of these lost lives," wrote Charles Tennes in a letter to the Post published January 16. "It is also obnoxiously sexist," he added.

In a letter published the same day, Edward Hayes Jr. said, "I discovered [Anne Frank] when I was a young black boy growing up in Northeast Washington.... Through its examples of neighborly love, determination for survival and heroism... it inspired a young boy not to take life for granted. The story of Anne Frank is indeed for girls, boys and adults."

Hesse quoted only females in her piece about the diary's power and influence ("Legions of women lose their last link to Anne Frank," January 13). Her point, I think, was to show how girls who were near Anne's age when they read the book were changed and shaped by her account of her ordeal. That's certainly a legitimate angle to take as the last link to the Frank family, also a courageous female, leaves the scene. Still, I have to agree with the Post readers who objected to the narrower focus of Hesse's piece. Anne Frank's diary has crossed generations, cultures, languages and sexes -- 25 million copies in 54 languages. Really, shouldn't that have been the headline?

Vogue Cover Model: Healthy or Chunky at Size 4?

2010-01-04T14:46:00.000-05:00

Hello, again -- I'm back to the blog after an absence of several weeks, during which I moved home and office. During that time, a news item caught my eye, noting that Vogue magazine was featuring a larger-sized model on its cover, Lara Stone, who is all of a Size 4! After years of cover models who have been Size Zeros -- yes, that's Size Zero -- this is considered to be some kind of a breakthrough, incredibly. You can read about Stone's and other models' sometimes self-destructive struggles to remain model-thin at http://www.vogue.com/feature/2009/12/vogue-lara-stone-size-four-healthy-model/

In a statement on the blog Modelinia.com, Vogue editor Anna Wintour expressed hope that the fashion industry, which insists on waif-thin body types, "will rethink its current preferences." Wintour, a powerful influence herself, could help that process along by featuring more realistic images more often. Size 4 is a long way from the size of the average American woman: 14.

Molly Ivins: New Bio, New Play

2009-12-15T07:34:00.000-05:00

I just finished Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life (Public Affairs Books), a biography of one of America’s greatest journalists and social critics, released in November. I heartily recommend it. This is not a funny book, though its subject was also a humorist with a rapier wit. This book illuminates the contradictions in life: as Dolly Parton has famously said, “you’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap” -- in Ivins’ case, it took a lot of heartache for her to be that funny.

The Molly persona, a down-home plain speaker with a Texas drawl, was created by a brilliant young woman, a daughter of privilege. Mary Tyler Ivins grew up in a tony neighborhood of Houston, went to private schools, including Smith College, and studied abroad in France. Her father was a top executive at Tenneco and his devotion to capitalism, and his domineering personality and conservative politics, were things that Mary, nicknamed Molly, pushed back against her entire life. Admiring many things about Texas’s self-made citizens, but repelled by the crass deal-making she overheard in her parents’ living room -- including talk of controlling oil prices to boost Tenneco’s profits – Ivins developed her considerable gifts as a reporter, writer and blunt observer of political life and societal fragmentation, tweaking the high and mighty (and many of her editors) in the process, and standing up for the little guy and gal.

She had legions of friends and was generous to a fault. She could hold her own with the best of the good ole boys and drink most of them under the table to get a story. Alcohol and tobacco were serious addictions and contributed to her health’s decline in her 50s. Breast cancer and heart disease finally took the life of this indomitable spirit.

But we have her many books, and now, this new biography. Happily, there’s more: Philadelphia Theatre Company will premiere Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel, to feature Tony Award nominee Kathleen Turner as Ivins. The Engels are twin sisters and journalists.

The new one-woman show will be directed David Esbjornson and will run March 19-April 18, 2010.

"We are thrilled at the happy and unexpected opportunity to produce this new play that celebrates the life of one of journalism's most colorful and iconic figures," Sara Garonzik, PTC's producing artistic director, said in a statement. "We are especially delighted to be working with the brilliant Kathleen Turner.”

Molly would probably be delighted, too.

World Doesn't End -- But It Will Stop Turning

2009-12-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

CBS anounced today that it's cancelling "As the World Turns," the venerable soap opera that has been on the air since April 1956. The last episode will air in September 2010. The news comes just three months after CBS announced it was ending another soap opera staple, "The Guiding Light," which began its run on radio nearly three-quarters of a century ago. The soaps, yielding to changing daytime television demographics (more women at work, fewer at home to watch, even with TIVO) and more topical programming offered by talk shows such as Oprah, Ellen and Dr. Phil, seem just too slowly paced for the tempo of today's television.

A good history of ATWT is here http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/12/cancelled_as_the_world_turns_w.php

The retrospective includes this fascinating detail: In 1963, CBS interrupted the broadcast of "As The World Turns'' to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. However, the actors had to continue performing because the show was live, not on tape, and could not be stopped. They were informed about JFK's death when the broadcast ended.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

2009-12-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

Like an increasing number of red-blooded American females, I enjoy a good football game. Last night, I settled in for the Baltimore-Green Bay game on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” In so many National Football League contests, the teams are cheered on by underclad, oversiliconed young women who provide eye candy for the male TV audience and those actually at the game who have seats down near the field. Typically, the TV camera crews zoom in on a lot of cleavage as the women toss their hair and offer come-hither looks while rustling their shiny pom-poms.

As the first quarter drew to a close last night, I realized I hadn’t seen a single shot of a cheerleader. This particular game was played in Green Bay, where the temperature at kickoff was 20 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind chills in the teens. Cynical me thought, in those conditions, the cheerleaders might not be showing enough skin to interest the guys holding the TV cameras.

But it turns out that Green Bay doesn’t have official team cheerleaders (the teams says it dropped them 20 years ago because of “fan indifference”), and neither do five other of the NFL’s 32 teams: Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers. Some of these teams had cheerleaders in years past, dressed in the type of wholesome cheerleader apparel you might expect to see at a college game. As it turns out, in Green Bay, student cheerleaders from local colleges take turns cheering at Packers games (these kids are not deemed worthy of TV time, it seems) but there are no “Packettes” in tiny shorts and tinier parkas

NFL cheerleaders are marketing devices for teams and filler for game-day telecasts. Obviously, most team owners believe they’re good for business (they’re cheap labor; they receive only a nominal payment for performing despite many hours spent practicing and rehearsing). Many NFL cheerleaders have “junior” organizations that charge youngsters for attending cheerleading and dance workshops, generating revenue and increasing exposure in their communities, where they also make guest appearances at events as “ambassadors” for their teams. They strike racy poses for calendars and looked thrilled to be on the other side of a leering camera lens during games.

But what are they getting out of it? Beats me.

White House Reality Show, Courtesy of Gate Crashers

2009-12-02T13:30:00.000-05:00

The brazen behavior of the so-called “White House Party Crashers” provided a fine example of how appearance and apparel can be used to manipulate perception. By now everyone knows that Michaele and Tareq Salahi bluffed their way into a state dinner held at the White House Nov. 24 in honor of the prime minister of India and his wife. Their clothing and grooming suggested style and wealth, particularly Michaele Salahi’s glittering red and gold sari-style gown, a glamorous image that doubtless helped when they expressed shock that their names didn’t appear on the official guest list and were then waved through by the Secret Service. But in their “you’ve got it wrong -- WE are the victims” interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show Monday, Tuesday, Dec. 1, the pair were dressed as if for a funeral: both in conservative black suits, and she in bland makeup with no visible jewelry except a gold cross on a chain at her throat. Both murmured, in hurting tones, comments about being “devastated” and “destroyed.” Their Today Show interview garb and bereaved demeanor was clearly another crass act by the couple, bent on salvaging Michaele’s bid to be cast in “Real Housewives of D.C.,” yet another Bravo “reality” show that will feature women competing for the role of most shallow.

Missing in Cleveland -- and in the Media As Well

2009-12-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

The “Imperial Eleven” of Cleveland – women whose decomposed bodies were found in the home of an ex-convict who lived on Imperial Avenue in that city – again illustrates how impoverished black women living at the margins of society can disappear with little notice by their community and the media who cover crime and social ills. The inattention to the vanishing of so many women in a community has fueled anger on urban radio and on blogs such as Cocoa Chicks Critiques, who wonder where the national media attention is when people who go missing are members of minority groups.

In the most recent issue of Media Report to Women (Fall 2009), Mia Moody of Baylor University, Bruce Dorries of Mary Baldwin College, and Harriet Blackwell, a recent Mary Baldwin graduate, compared media coverage of missing women, black and white. The significant difference in the prominence and durability of coverage of missing white women, in contrast with black victims, is not just a matter of journalistic blind spots; it actually influences what kind of results their bereaved families get, the authors say: “Media attention can affect how local authorities handle a case. Victims who receive national attention, inevitably, receive more aid from local and national police and investigative teams,” they write.

Based on their analysis of four cases, the team said, “There was a general template for how the press talked about missing women but it differed based on race. Mainstream press coverage of white women often included interviews of relatives and friends of the victim, a description of her neighborhood, and lots of information about the person’s personality. On the other hand, black-owned media and mainstream coverage of missing black women usually focused on the disparity in coverage, the person’s dismal circumstances, and the past of the victim’s abusive male. Although the media did not overtly cover class in its analysis of missing victims, reporters used indicators such as occupations, homeownership and neighborhood descriptions to help viewers and readers determine their social standing.” The upshot, said the authors, “is a clear bias that favors young, attractive white women, almost to the exclusion of black women.”

This issue of Media Report to Women containing these disturbing findings went to press at almost the same time that bodies were discovered in alleged killer Anthony Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home. Will the shocking discovery in Cleveland finally be a wakeup call to police who allocate resources to solving these cases and to the journalists who cover them?

Apocalyptic Flicks: Manly Men, Helpless Women

2009-11-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

Well done: The Washington Post's Monica Hesse's deconstruction of movies about the end of the world (Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009) reveals themes and characters that depict women as useless in the face of threats. In these films -- not just recent releases such as "2012" but throughout the whole genre -- Hesse says, "Unfortunately, there are no women at the end of the world. There are men, there are children, and there are helpless damsels who beg to be rescued. But there are no women. Sorry, women." Hesse says this is true of "every apocalyptic movie ever," with the possible exceptions of Linda Hamilton's character in the "Terminator" movies, and Tina Turner's character in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Most of these movies, along with video games such as "Grand Theft Auto" and others consumed by male audiences, feed a cultural theme of feminine weakness that works to the detriment of women and girls.

Still Searching for Women at the Top

2009-11-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

Marie Wilson, author and founder of The White House Project, writes about a new study of women and leadership in today's Washington Post http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2009/11/our-leadership-crisis-where-are-the-women.html

She bemoans the persistent frustration women experience in vaulting themselves into the top ranks of organizations, especially corporations, but also non-profits, where women are the vast majority of employees but only a fraction of executives. Wilson also notes gender disparities in leadership of a number of professions, including journalism. For a more detailed picture of women in media careers, check out our "Industry Statistics" page at www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm

Clash of the Titans? Not Exactly

2009-11-20T16:02:00.000-05:00

Oprah Winfrey – one-woman media powerhouse – hosted nouveau book author Sarah Palin in a show that aired Nov. 16, two days before Winfrey shocked her audience with the news that “The Oprah Winfrey Show” would go dark in 2011 after 25 years. News of what is bound to be a long good-bye for Winfrey likely dampened whatever bounce Palin might have gotten out of her appearance on the show, during which Winfrey was cordial, even empathetic. Not all of the interview saw airtime, however. The Christian Science Monitor has a summary of what it considers some of the better moments left on the cutting room floor at
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/16/sarah-palin-on-oprah-winfrey-show-five-best-outtakes/, with video on Winfrey’s web site at http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20091111-tows-sarah-palin-videos