Hell hath no fury like a woman
happy, scorned or otherwise.
-- the Avetts (with some help from the Bard)
In case you missed it, today Christine Lagarde was named head of the International Monetary Fund, taking over the post vacated by Dominique Strass-Kahn. I heard this news on the radio while sitting in infuriatingly bad traffic this afternoon because most of Charlottesville had suddenly forgotten how to drive.
Conditions that impair the abilities of Charlottesville drivers:
1. Rain.
2. Snow: in the air, on the ground, or in the forecast.
3. The hours between 4 and 6 pm.
I hit two out of three today, so despite a lack of apparent accidents or traffic signal outages, my drive home was more of a crawl. So I was already a little irritated when I heard the reporter on All Things Considered conclude the news item about Christine Lagarde by mentioning that her predecessor had been forced to resign following a sex scandal.
Oh. No. She. DIDN'T.
"That is NOT a sex scandal," I yelled at the stop light. "It is a felony."
I parked on my street, marched in the front door, and set my things down in a huff. In a moment, my laptop was open, browser directed to npr.org.
And then, my phone rang. A dear friend in New York was on the line, obviously upset. (No, she hadn't heard the NPR story.) During the 5 minute walk from the subway to her Park Slope apartment, she had been sexually harassed by two men who evidently considered her midthigh length shorts an invitation to make lewd remarks. M. told them off and these fine specimens of the male sex called her a f****** b****. By the end of her story, my friend was simultaneously crying and minimizing her "white girl problem."
In what sort of upside down world does M., who dresses modestly by New York standards, deserve a verbal lashing if she's not willing to put up with obscene comments from strange men? In what sort of world do men feel comfortable openly ogling a woman on the street? Perhaps the same world where a sexual assault is euphemized as a sex scandal on national news.
After we hung up, I finished lodging my complaint with All Things Considered. (Don't anyone mention the Unhappy Hipsters.com post. I needed to do something productive with all the anger.) I doubt I'm the only listener to do so, and sincerely hope the program apologizes on air tomorrow.
On June 28 at approximately 5:30 pm, a report on the new head of the IMF stated that the IMF's previous head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign over a sex scandal. Quite to the contrary, DSK had to step down because he had been charged with multiple felonies in a case of sexual assault.
Anthony Weiner resigned because of a sex scandal.
Jonathan Edwards's affair was a sex scandal.
President Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was a sex scandal.
DSK lost his position because he is accused of a CRIME. To report otherwise minimizes the gravity of the crime. Does NPR consider this crime somehow to be less serious because it was sexual in nature? This is disrespectful to the victim, inaccurate, and contributes to a culture in which women fear not being taken seriously if they report such attacks. I expect better from NPR.Sincerely,Natalie Race
Preach it, sister! That's appalling. Good for you to call them out. (And C'ville drivers are equally appalling.)
ReplyDeleteAmen. So glad you wrote in your remarks and set um straight.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was listening to that broadcast but did not hear the reference. And that's disappointing in its own right if for no other reason than I apparently don't pay much attention.
ReplyDeleteBut what's more disappointing to me is that I'm sure that if I had heard it, I don't think I would've reacted with the same outrage. And that says quite a lot about me, most definitely. But it also says something bigger about the problem of 'sex scandals' in general. Or felony crime for that matter. It seems scandal and crime have become so commonplace in our news reporting that they're completely unrecognizable as the sin that they are.
So Natalie, thanks for being sensitive to the things many of us have unfortunately been numbed to.
What about innocent until proven guilty? Hard to say he stepped down from the IMF for committing a crime until he is found guilty.
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, my email to NPR specifically said he stepped down from the IMF because he was charged with a crime. The rest of my post on this blog could perhaps have been more specific, but my complaint against the news report was accurate. NPR would be entirely right in saying DSK stepped down from the IMF after being charged with--or even accused of-- sexual assault. I didn't expect them to report that it was because he had committted a crime.
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