Women's rights activists take on media sexism

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Friday December 30, 2011
The Morning Star

Women's rights campaigners called on the Leveson inquiry today to widen its investigatory scope and include sexism and the sexual objectification of the female body in British media.

End Violence Against Women (EVAW), Equality Now, Object and rape charity Eaves said the inquiry would "not be doing its job properly" if it did not address these issues.

They said numerous government and independent reports into the nature and scale of the problem pointed to "considerable evidence" of the impact of the media on the sexualisation of women and girls.

The coalition highlighted the Sun's page 3, adverts for the porn and sex industries and other "innumerable ways" in which women - and even crimes against women including rape and murder - were "routinely trivialised and sexualised" within the press.

"Leveson is not just charged with looking at phone-hacking but for the entire relationship between the press and the public," said Equality Now director Jacqui Hunt.

"Women make up 50 per cent of that public but too often in the tabloid press are portrayed as sexualised objects or victims who are somehow to blame for the violence committed against them.

"When older women are pushed out of the media, when they are not used as expert commentators, when women are not seen as equal partners - this has a negative effect all the way through society."

The groups say the sexualisation of women is degrading and fosters negative attitudes.

They also argue that reporting of rape often focuses on the victims rather than the culprit.

The charities want compulsory training for journalists on the law over reporting violence against women and "clear sanctions" for journalists who break it.

They have also called for the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to be replaced by an independent press complaints regulatory system.

"At the moment the PCC offers us no justice," said Sarah Green of EVAW.

"Women's organisations have no confidence in it and have stopped using it.

"We need a revamped PCC which has teeth and which women and women's organisations can use."