Another Predator in the Headlines

Guess what! 

A male politician who is currently running for an office of great authority was recently accused by several women of sexual harassment, assault and abuse. Did that shock you and grab your attention? Or did it look like every other political scandal in the headlines these days?

Former president Bill Clinton was impeached after he received allegations of sexual abuse, and now seeing politicians and public figures receive these same accusations is sort of commonplace. These men are somehow not our culture’s vote for the root cause of rape culture.

Instead, we blame women for what they’re wearing, doing, going, saying or expressing on their face. Whether she was ‘asking for it’ or ‘playing hard to get’, being manipulative or being submissive, being too bossy or not standing up for herself, somehow violence against women has always been women’s problem to solve.

The Reality

About 92.1% of sexual abuse perpetrators are men according to a 2018 study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. That does not mean that women are never involved in instigating and lying about their abuse, but that is not the subject of this blog.

Since the #MeToo movement in 2017 news media has made it clear that powerful men abusing their power over women is not uncommon. Several politicians’ dreams are crushed by victims who are brave enough to face the scrutiny of the media. Their entire digital image is transformed by their attempt to protect other people in the politician’s path as they are mercilessly accused of lying in order to attain that overwhelmingly negative attention.

Matt Gaetz, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Diddy, Dan Schneider— the perpetrators are easy to name.

Can you name one of each of their victims?

Studies find that fewer than 10% of all reported sexual harassment cases are false accusations.

After President Donald Trump set a precedent of deny, deny, deny for the almost 30 women who have come forward accusing him of sexual assault since the 1970s, representatives facing sexual assault cases have been... not too worried about it.

There are too many men who might be predators and have been accused of vile acts for my comfort.

Stay Informed

You can track all cases against U.S. representatives through the govtrack.us website including how each case is resolved.

Although cases of politicians being accused of harassment are depressingly common, most news outlets are forcing the issue into the spotlight.

For example, PBS very recently published an article on the 147 state legislators that have faced sexual harassment accusations since 2017. Reflective articles like these are important in changing the culture of our political offices that condones sexual violence against women.

Media Recommendations

Reese Witherspoon’s “The Morning Show” was a direct response to the #MeToo movement. The recent craze has been docuseries “Quiet on Set” which explores a series of several sexual harassment cases during the 1990s in Nickelodeon productions that were covered up at the time. Additionally, the limited Netflix series “Baby Reindeer” covers abuse and its consequences from a male perspective exclusively. Lastly, season 2 of “Sex Ed” includes a plot line about surviving harassment and explores how women are taught to minimize our experiences.

How to Eat Without Growing Bigger: You Can’t

 

The Cycle of Unhealthy Eating

“Toxic diet culture” is an infinite craze that morphs and hides itself for new generations under the guise of unchangeable market beauty standards. According to the National Institution of Health, more than 2 out of every 5 adults have obesity, but how can these two facts coexist? If everyone feels the need to diet, then why is obesity still such a huge problem in America?

Many Americans have a difficult time consuming healthy food on a regular basis because they are more expensive, take time to prepare and— let’s be honest— they usually don’t taste as good. Fast food is cheap and convenient, and often what people turn to. Healthy fast-food options are far and few between, and also more expensive. Furthermore, if you don’t have time to cook, you probably don’t have time to work out.

At this point of eating non-nutritious foods and not working out, toxic diet culture shames people for not already being thin (not healthy, thin), and encourages restrictive habits. This often leads a cycle of anorexia and binge eating that is ultimately unhealthy and prevents sustainable habits. Sustainable eating and exercising habits are consistent and easy to maintain without resulting in episodes of “breaking the diet.”

                  Recently, the outbreak of prescriptive appetite suppressants has led many to believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with health culture in America.

Diet Culture in the Media

                  The early 2000s media, including the social media platform Tumblr, is notorious for overemphasizing diet culture. Movies and TV shows featured only skinny women as main characters and made jokes about only eating small amounts. For example, in The Devil Wears Prada Emily Blunt’s character says, “Well, I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m about to faint I eat a cube of cheese.”

                  Additionally, reality shows such as America’s Next Top Model and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team featured young women of perfectly healthy body weights shamed for being too overweight to be successful. I want to overemphasize that these girls were very normal weights.

Tyra Banks called this woman plus sized… huh?

After many studies revealed the dangers of social media on the mental health of teenage girls, a case which often leads to eating disorders, body positivity has increased as a general idea, but not enough.

In the rise of influencers, many creators have taken on the role of posting honest content to encourage young girls to love their bodies. Creator Spencer Barbosa has made an especially big wave in the body positivity community with a page devoted to embracing her mid-size body, eating without shame and honesty about her own experiences with body dysmorphia. Additionally, Olympic athlete Ilona Maher has spoken out against the unhealthy standards for women’s bodies in the media.

However, next to these fabulously honest influencers, are hundreds of women that devote their time to FaceTune, Photoshop and filters. Their doctored posts are giving women unrealistic expectations for themselves that foster and produce low self worth. Despite that overwhelming wall of body shaming and impossibly skinny pictures, the world is improving its view of body positivity after the negative effects of the internet.

The most recent media “health” craze comes from advertisements pushing appetite suppressants as a universal solution. Historically these serious medications were reserved for prescriptive needs often for diabetic patients. Now, ads like this Hims and Hers Super Bowl ad are pushing appetite suppressants as a solution to the American obesity epidemic as opposed to improving American access to nutritious food.

Media Recommendation

There are several narratives that will discuss body dysmorphia as part of a larger plot, but it is still considered a dirty topic to discuss.

The book Flawless by Elise Hu is a literary non-fiction that investigates the cosmetic surgery culture in Korea.

The movie Dumplin’ is a beautiful depiction of how weight can affect personal self worth as well as how others see you.

How Does Journalism Harm Homeless Humans?

    

It’s trying not to… usually

    In 2020 the AP Style guide adjusted its sensitivity recommendations to use the phrases “unhoused” or “people experiencing homelessness.”  The guide, and many other outlets, usually advocate for asking a source how they would like to be referred to. While many readers may think that this is unnecessary pandering to the unhoused community, the change is an intentional step in people first language.

Unfortunately, labels such as “homeless” are highly stigmatized in our culture. There are many stereotypes that hurt this community. It is the schema, created by the media, that leads people to cross the street and avoid eye contact under the assumption that an unhoused individual is dangerous.

For Example,

In November of 2024 FOX 5 reported a story called “Growing homeless encampment causes problems for apartments by UNLV.” This story followed a chronic camp of unhoused individuals, and  their affect on local apartments. While most of the story was tasteful and phrased well the individuals in the encampment were portrayed as dangerous faceless beings. The reporters neglected to include quotes from people in the encampment, but did include video of them from afar. This is fairly dehumanizing.

In a follow-up story, “Neighbors, apartments by UNLV remain frustrated with crime from homeless camps” the reporter  continues to avoid interviewing the unhoused individuals. The story reports that burglary and theft are down.

Neither story discusses any violent crime from any of the unhoused individuals, but they both alluded to the camps as dangerous. The reporter discussed a need to call police and “clean up” the area.  In a more positive light, the story did orient the solution towards placing individuals in shelters and the funding and availability of those shelters.  The stories on not as horrific as many in past years have been, but not speaking to or mentioning an attempt to speak to the people being accused is a major oversight.

Assumptions Lead to Bias

According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, about 1.25 million American “experienced sheltered homelessness at some point in 2020.” Often, people drift in and out of being homeless, and do not fit our preconception of what a houseless person looks like. The USCH also clarifies that “Not having a home does not make someone a criminal,” and notes that “the infrequency of violent crimes committed by people experiencing homelessness,” leads to more media attention.

What we should instead examine is how often we report on crimes against the homeless population. Do these increasingly vulnerable human beings feel safe reporting crimes against them to the police? That is an investigation I would much rather read about.

All human beings have a right to their identity, and language is a powerful conduit for how that identity is portrayed. For the same reason that we, as journalists, respect sources’ pronouns, it is important to address the diversity of living situations.