Who’s to blame for sexual harassment in Westminster? The powerful people who abuse their position and power, or those on the receiving end? Neither, according to political commentator Michael White, former political editor and assistant editor of The Guardian, where he worked for 30 years. Speaking on Radio 4’s Media Show at the weekend, White described female political journalists as ‘predators’ who target ‘poor old, ugly backbenchers’ in order to get stories. He made these remarks as part of a conversation about claims of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour which have engulfed our politics in the last week.
White continued: ‘We live in a highly sexualised society and the power doesn’t all lie on one side. Clever attractive women looking for stories, they can play the power game to poor old ugly backbenchers with bad breath’. When asked to clarify what he meant and whether he was victim-blaming he said ‘I didn’t say “fault”, I said they were predators’.
In response, The Telegraph’s Senior Political Editor, Kate McCann, took White to task on Twitter.
White continued ‘we live in a highly sexualised society and the power doesn’t all lie on one side’. He then went on to insist on Twitter that he was merely countering ‘media hysteria’ about sexual harassment before falling back on the argument about 'tough women’ being able to handle japes and banter, implying that anyone speaking out was overly sensitive. There’s a word for this: gaslighting. Gaslighting is when you’re awful and insulting but then deny you’ve been awful and insulting in order to confuse someone to the point of humiliation, confusion and self-doubt.
Speaking to The Debrief, McCann explained that White doesn’t speak for the majority of political journalists. ‘In the lobby, there really isn't a clash of attitudes or not one I've experienced’ she said, ‘because of the way we work so closely together there's a strong sense of camaraderie between reporters and being a young woman has never come into that. In fact, I'd say most male journalists want more women to join and go out of their way to make that happen. Plus, there are a lot of people in their late 20s and 30s who've been brought up understanding that those kinds of attitudes shouldn't exist anymore, which helps. It's a bit worse in politics more generally but I suspect that has something to do with the age of men who hold senior positions’.
That said, she thinks the fact that White’s comments prompted so much kickback last week is a ‘good example of the divide which still exists [in our society] and sadly he's not alone. His response to women (and men) challenging his views on how female lobby reporters are "predators" is revealing - he still can't see why it's an issue. In fact, he tried to belittle me by branding the response "hysteria", which in itself is revealing. The slew of subsequent articles bemoaning women who can't take a joke and even suggesting those who talked about their own experiences of sexual harassment might be seeking professional gain was frankly depressing’.
There is a sense that women are damned if they do complain and damned if they don’t. Speak up and risk being demeaned by the Daily Mail, as academic and writer Kate Maltby found out last week, because there is still a pervasive perception of women as lascivious beings who use their charms to get ahead. McCann says this is damaging. ‘Everyone working in journalism will make use of what they can to win trust and get the story but there is a line. Every woman I know knows that using your sexuality in such a way would do more harm than good. It's hard enough to be taken seriously as a female journalist, you're often judged for what you wear and you frequently find yourself undermined by those in positions of power. To use your body or the suggestion of a relationship, however fleeting, would only serve to undermine and damage that fragile and hard-fought credibility further still’.
My career began in Westminster, at Parliament. Throughout my early twenties, I was an intern, freelance researcher for various MPs. From there I became a political broadcast journalist and worked at the BBC before becoming the Deputy Editor of this website – which speaks to young women about issues like sexism and sexual harassment.
It’s no accident that I’m here, it is not a coincidence. The first time I encountered harassment, I was junior and young I feared what people what think of me. The second time, I reported it, having learned that silence is just as corrosive as sexism and quickly realised that saying something had influenced people’s perception of me as much as my silence had previously done. Throughout my working life – at Parliament and at the BBC – I endured sexism. This has ranged from jokes about my boobs, made in front of senior members of staff at 11 am, to comments about how attractive I was. These were dressed up as compliments but, ultimately, intended to sexualise me when I was trying to work. Insults such as ‘stop thinking with your clitoris’ made by male colleagues who didn’t like my feedback were unnecessary. As were more serious unwanted sexual advances.
What’s troubling is that I know my experiences pale in comparison to other people’s in Westminster and beyond. After a years-long campaign of emotional abuse and sexual harassment staged by her married boss, a friend gave up the fight and left her otherwise great job in fashion. Harvey Weinstein, MPs and Ministers, Hollywood, Westminster – these are the extreme tips of a huge cultural iceberg. What we are currently seeing unfold is an epic cultural clash between women (and a few men) who are not prepared to accept the sexist status quo any longer and older men (and a few women) who dismiss anyone speaking up about this as overly sensitive and snowflakey. Deploying the ‘hysterical woman’ trope, as White has done, is aggressively anachronistic and only serves to undermine women. These attitudes have no place in 2017.
Westminster is unique in many ways and it needs to set a standard for the rest of our country, but it is not the only workplace where women still have to think two steps ahead of men in more powerful positions than them. McCann says ‘I hope we'll see a shift in the way women are viewed in the workplace and help people understand that while flirting with someone isn't banned, using your power to put someone in a position they don't want to be in is wrong and it has to stop. Most people understand that but some need to stop conflating the two in a bid to belittle women who pluck up the courage to speak out. Women can have a laugh just like men and we're certainly not hysterical, but we want to be respected just like our male colleagues and we shouldn't stop talking about it until we are’.
At 29, I can safely say that sexism and sexual harassment have shaped my career and even informed the choices I’ve made about where I work and who I chose to work with. As I’ve written before, it’s also affected how I choose to dress and present myself. I can only hope this current painful clash of worldviews means that no young woman in the future will have to spend her formative years in work having to do the same. We need a complete culture change, not just in Westminster. But if it's going to start anywhere, surely there's no better place than the heart of our democracy.
You might also be interested in:
Me Too. Obviously. But I Won't Be Sharing My Story. Here's Why.
Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.