In 1995 Private Cheryl James was found dead at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey with a gunshot wound to her head. She was just eighteen years old. A coroner later ruled that the wound was ‘self-inflicted’, and described the atmosphere at the barracks as ‘sexualized’. Reporting on the inquest, The Sun published an article entitled ‘ “Suicide” Army girl locked in for romp’, in which it described how: ‘Deepcut soldier Cheryl James was locked in a room and chased by a sergeant trying to “have his way” with her.’ This headline is part of a much wider problem of Carry On-style, titillating depictions of sexual violence.
When a US teacher was in court accused of raping an underage student in 2017, US news outlets reported on the case with headlines like: ‘Married middle school teacher, 27, arrested for sex romps with her underage boy student’. In another case, a newspaper covered a story about rape and human trafficking under a sensationalist headline about a ‘sex slave’, placing the story on pages 4 and 5 next to a picture of a topless woman on page 3. When singer Kesha made an accusation of sexual abuse against a producer, American talk-show host Wendy Williams discussed the case on her show, saying: ‘If everybody complained because somebody allegedly sexually abused them . . . then contracts would be broken all the time.’
After Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by dozens of women, The Times ran an article by Giles Coren that reduced the issue to PC gone mad, lamenting the fact that putting kisses at the end of emails could now ‘end my glorious career’.
In December 2015, Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of multiple counts of rape, sexual battery and other charges. A police officer, Holtzclaw had preyed on thirteen black, mostly low-income women, deliberately targeting those with criminal records or a history of drug use or sex work. But this didn’t stop sports outlet SB Nation from publishing a 12,000-word apologia for Holtzclaw some two months after he had been found guilty. The article was titled ‘Who is Daniel Holtzclaw?’ The subheading answered not ‘Rapist’, but ‘Linebacker’. The piece, peppered with self-aggrandizing quotes from Holtzclaw himself, painted him as a tragic figure who lost everything, describing him as ‘quiet and reserved’, a ‘workhorse’ with a ‘keen sense of humour’. Despite Holtzclaw’s conviction, the profile followed in a long tradition of similar media coverage, deliberately encouraging reader sympathy for the perpetrators of sexual violence and entirely glossing over the impact on victims. Part of the problem is the overwhelmingly white, male lens of front-page reporters – an internal report into the Holtzclaw debacle by SB Nation revealed its editorial staff to be 89 per cent male and 87 per cent white. Women write just over one-fifth of UK front-page newspaper articles and 84 per cent of those articles are about male subjects or experts. And when women do make the news, it is more likely to be because of their appearance or love lives than their achievements and opinions. So it is little surprise that our media continues to perpetuate sexist stereotypes, to belittle and blame victims of discrimination and to depict sexual violence irresponsibly.
When it comes to feminism, the media, which could play such a positive role in advancing gender equality, too often deliberately stands in its way. Women who try to create change are branded ‘feminazis’ in front-page headlines, feminist campaigners are mocked as humourless harpies and television ‘debates’ are set up to provide a national platform for known misogynists in the name of ‘balance’.
Such treatment of misogyny risks sending the message that it is subjective and defensible, making the uphill battle for equality feel just a little bit steeper.