The world was set ablaze by the swaying of a prime minister, while here the silver hair of a newscaster hit the headlines. In a world of equality, these (non-)stories would never have made headlines. Nor would they have made their way to the editorial. Why insist then? Because the virulence of the criticisms addressed to the first and the contemptuous reception reserved for the second are the reflection of a persistent evil: the control of women’s bodies. Especially those with public office.
Some atavistic reflexes go through the most trivial details. They are no less deplorable. Star host Anderson Cooper’s snowy hair made his signature where Lisa LaFlamme’s steely gray hair irked her boss at CTV to the point of intervening. Fired by Bell Media shortly after this heartbreaking episode in complicated circumstances – stories of journalistic interference and personality clashes have circulated without being confirmed – the journalist will no longer be visible on the screen, where she shone for 35 years. . Exit Lisa LaFlamme, at 58.
This sexism turns out to be spiced with an ageism which plays out, oh surprise, in both directions, as illustrated recently by a report on online violence showing that it is especially against young women that social networks are doing the hardest. By dancing, Sanna Marin, in her thirties, radiant, free and influential – the Finnish Prime Minister asked for her country’s accession to NATO against the will of the Russian despot – gave eloquent proof of this.
Audiences aren’t used to worrying about what their makers are doing on a dance floor after dark. We have even seen the very beloved Jack Layton take pride in the title of ” party animal “. And we only loved it more.Any reasonable person thus recognizes the need to decompress, even when one is head of state. As long as the work is done, and it is in the case of M.me Marine. Of her, however, it was demanded that she prove that she had not needed drugs to unleash her madman in a party. Since then, the pro-Russian trolls continue to make their honey of these videos of a private party that has nothing to do with those of the raging “Partygate” of Boris Johnson or a stoned Rob Ford. The problem is that they are not the only ones who want to teach him a lesson. We have already blamed M.me Marin of going to festivals too much, playing models and being out when she had been identified as a contact case of COVID-19 (which she did not know).
Having gone into a spin, this new “affair” has raised a strong wind of solidarity, with women from all over the planet posting photos of themselves dancing. Similarly, media heavyweights have spoken out in support of Mr.me The flame.
This solidarity, alas, is not enough when it comes to blocking a vindictiveness, sometimes insidious, sometimes frontal, whose virulence can exceed understanding.A report by the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence estimated last year that women in the joint cabinet of Mme Marin are the subject of so many coordinated attacks on social media that their scale is a “threat to democracy”.
From this angle, it is hard to see how we could be content to look down on these (non-)news which, slyly, feed a double standard that is always bitter. As long as such nonsense is hyped up, it will have to be denounced by calling a spade a spade.