The power of journalism: Sexism speaks out

So recently there has been much talk over street harassment, mainly in regards to how women are constantly being heckled, harassed and preyed upon by men.  Hollaback!’s recent video featuring actress Shoshana B.Roberts highlights the tiresome, misogynistic harassment women have to endure everyday on the streets. Perhaps more surprisingly, has been the overwhelming coverage of this issue by well-known newspapers.

Women such as Laura Bates, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and Lean Green have also all campaigned to raise awareness of how street harassment is effecting women around the world on a day-to-day basis.  Bates launched the Everyday Sexism Project in April 2012 after deciding that everyday sexism needed to be addressed.  She also now writes a regular blog on sexism that is featured via The Guardian.  Fazlalizadeh has created a public street art campaign after becoming sick of men commenting on her body and telling her to smile, and Leah Green turned the tables on sexual harassment after producing a video of herself undercover, making inappropriate comments towards men.

Hollaback!'s video, along with responses from campaigns, has generated a lot of feedback.  This particular issue has also prompted many female journalists to share personal accounts on this matter, helping to highlight just how unnaceeptable street harassment is.  Bryony Beynon, Louise Callaghan, Rosie Swash and Jessica Valenti are just a few of the women who have dedicated articles solely to this issue.  Their significant input, along with many others, has really shown just how important journalism is, and can be.  With newspapers such as The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph all reporting on the effects of street harassment, it has given sexism a well-deserved (and long-overdue) amount of stature.  Content that is reported and shared via such newspapers is often far more respected and read than say, blogs or magazines.

An increase in articles addressing sexism is also something to be celebrated; it shows a growing demand for such issues to be raised, listened to and dealt with.  In the past, where sexism and feminism was perhaps not taken as seriously, it now demands to be heard.  Women will not be silenced and they owe something to the power of journalism for giving them an even bigger voice.

Ballsy journalism at its best

Journalism has balls and that’s why I like it.  Whether it’s scandalous, brutally honest, or so hard-hitting you feel physically violated, it has a shameless audacity which you can only admire.

Growing up, I was constantly reminded of the fact that the world of journalism was ridiculously hard to infiltrate, especially as a woman.  However, this all changed when I stumbled across the book Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs, a book containing extracts of ‘the best journalism by women over the past 100 years.' A book which was to soon become my bible.

Reading through the various articles, I discovered women with balls, and big ones at that.  Women such as Djuna Barnes, who in 1914 endured force feeding to express some of the anguish experienced by women during the suffragette movement.  Not only did she take it upon herself to suffer for her art, she also provided a voice for the women of that time who had too often been silenced.  Judy Syfers also makes poignant criticisms about feminism with her article Why I want a Wife, by cleverly using the satirical device of role reversal to highlight inequality in the 1970s.  This article was published in the very first issue of feminist magazine Ms. Magazine which would have marked a time of feminist revolt.

Although this book touches on feminist themes, for me it redefines out-dated stereotypes of bra-burning and man-hating, and instead just celebrates women.  These are women who are part of history, they have both recorded and contributed to changing times.  This was something I found to be extremely empowering.  Joreen Freeman’s, The BITCH Manifesto and Martha Gellhorn’s Dachau are incredibly liberating both in content and context; Freeman’s manifesto is so feisty and ruthless (by the end of the article you find yourself resisting the urge to punch your fist in the air and shout “you go girl!”), and Gellhorn’s in the sense she is a woman giving an account of a prisoner of war camp in the midst of WWII.  These are women shown fearlessly pursuing their passions, women considered pioneers in demonstrating the limitless possibilities for women in journalism.

The article which has perhaps stayed with me the most is Gitta Sereny’s article On the Murder of James Bulger.  The way in which she reports the case of the two young boys is utterly compelling; the honesty of her words are incredibly haunting, to the point where I still often find the hair on the back of my arms prick up.  This is journalism that has inspired me, stayed with me and driven me.  It is journalism which has picked me back up when I'm having a terrible time and encouraged me to carry on because I am a strong woman.

Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs fills me with a sense of pride and gives me confidence; it reassures me that if I want something badly enough, I should go and get it.  It makes me feel proud to be a woman because the women in this book, together with their stories, are just so inspiring.  I aspire to be like these women and to write great articles like them, articles that say far more than what is just written on the page.