“chase” betray his supposedly objective stance on the events of that day. The reporter also fails to support his claim that Queen’s is a breeding ground for radical feminists, or to define what he means by radical, aterm often bandied about carelessly by journalists in the

‘mainstream press without any knowledge of the theoretical and political implications of radical feminism.

It is not difficult to find similar evi- dence of sexist reporting in print and broad- cast media on a daily basis. Sports reporters are among the worst offenders. Sports Il- lustrated described two-time Olympic

Katarina Witt as “so fresh-faced, so blue- eyed, so. ruby- lipped, so 12-car- pile-up gorgeous, she makes a lousy enemy of capitalism.” And ABC-TV said of nine-time New York marathon winner: “She cooks, she sews, and washes clothes, just like most wives do.”

Politicians are, of course, not exempt from sexist treatment in the media. When Dr. Carmen Lawrence became the first woman premier of Australia in 1990, a male reporter from the Australian, wrote that Dr. Law- rence “hasn’t the beauty of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.” His comments were accompanied by a photograph of Dr. Lawrence in a kitchen surrounded by pots and pans and a caption that read, “Dr. Lawrence can stand the heat...inspecting the kitchen of an Aboriginal centre.” Not only do his comments and pho- tograph encourage stereotypical images of women, but the reporter also judges the pre- mier by her beauty, not her academic or political work. If the same standard applied to men, Brian Mulroney would doubtless suffernextto a young and dapper, albeit aless trim, Bill Clinton.

Some journalists claim that the sole tions to these problems lie in giving women a place of their own in newspapers. Journal- ists such as Ellen Goodman from the Wash-

Although they make up more than half of the popu- gold-medal winner lation, women are virtually absent from the front pages of our nation’s —

newspapers.

ington Post Writers Group and Collen Dishon, associate editor at the Chicago Tribune, are calling for the return of the ““Woman’s Section.” Woman’s sections were popularized in the 1960’s and dealt with motherhood, children, food, home, and family; but they disappeared as a result of feminist efforts to integrate newpapers.

-Dishon has established a weekly Womanews section at the Chicago Trib- une, because, according to a Tribune sur- vey, female target groups wanted in- formation in one place and felt that the paper as a whole wasn’t speaking to them. The respondents felt that they did not have the time to look through the paper for stories of particular interest to them. :

“Women’s pages” relegate women

back intoa familiar ghetto, one from which |

they have only recently escaped. Womien have worked far too hard to gain a place, no matter how small or tenuous, in the media to let go of it easily. If they give up this place, women will be giving up one of their most potent avenues of education and change. Breast cancer or violence against women are not issues that affect women in isolation. Banishment to the “‘women’ pages” would diminish the im- portance of a story and lull men into think- ing that they can afford to ignore issues that may not seem to affect them directly.

Female journalists, indeed all femi- nists inside or outside the media, should push instead for more equitable coverage on the front pages of newspapers. We should fight for our place in the news- rooms of this country. We should insist on the validity of our stories. Only when we see our images and our stories written by our hands will look on the media with trust. by Teresa Pires

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