Waking The Media by Una Mullally

For ages, I’ve been thinking about some kind of initiative to improve the working lives of women in the media industry. I have spent my career listening to women talk about the sexism they face, writing about gender and media, and having endless conversations about the same. Speaking to my friend, Jim Carroll, formerly of the Irish Times and now of RTE, he gave me - as he always does - invaluable advice: “focus on the micro. Do the small thing, and the big thing will come after that.” My “small” thing, after ruminating on elaborate and longterm plans, became Waking The Media, a forum I hosted at Project Arts Centre in November with my friend Suzie Bennett. I wanted women in the media industry to talk about their experiences publicly, and to develop solutions that we can present to media companies to demonstrate to them how they can make their organisations more hospitable environments for women. I am very much inspired by Waking The Feminists, and also by Grace Dyas’s fearlessness in calling out inappropriate and unaccountable power structures.

My experiences of sexism in the Irish media industry are multiple, ranging from the ambient patronising that colours many women’s careers, to gender-based abuse online, to offhand hurtful comments, to developing the tools to deal with environments that are often typified as “boy’s clubs” or “macho”. I want to stop using those terms, because that terminology masks what we’re really talking about: working environments in an industry that often marginalises women, does not afford them the same opportunities as their male peers, and condones atmospheres that are hostile towards women.

Here, I want to talk about one example of the ugliness that is a consequence of how women journalists are told to “put up” with that culture. Earlier this year, I was asked to appear on the Late Late Show to “debate” political correctness. My position on the term “political correctness” is that of Sarah Schulman’s, that it is “the classic supremacy response to demands of accountability”. It’s no coincidence that Michael Colgan cited political correctness when he was given unchallenged space in the Sunday Independent to defend his disgraceful behaviour as artistic director of The Gate Theatre.

When I was informed the other guest would be the Irish Independent columnist Ian O’Doherty, I told the Late Late Show privately that I had no interest in “debating” Ian, as he had a record of slagging me off, and that any interaction with him would end up in personal insults and confrontation. My prediction became acutely accurate when Ian took to Twitter to insult and abuse me, calling me a “fucking weak pissy little shrew” and saying “She bitched out. Demented bint.” Ian positioned me as pulling out of an item on a chat show when I had in fact repeatedly flagged to the Late Late Show that pursuing a “debate” between myself and Ian would end badly. His reaction and insults were so outrageous, I genuinely thought he had gone too far, that he could potentially lose his job, and that no television programme or radio show in their right mind would invite the guy on to discuss anything. Ian was subsequently booked on the Late Late Show again. I spoke with the producer of the Late Late Show John McMahon, with Ryan Tubridy, and with Channel Controller Adrian Lynch, who apologised for how the situation was handled. Ian has never apologised to me. The incident was typified as a “spat”, when it was actually a one-sided gendered attack on my professional and personal character.

 I have the utmost respect for the Late Late Show team, who are working in a high pressure environment and frequently face (often unfair) criticism. But shows like the Late Late Show - and they are not alone in this - continued to give Ian a platform, and thus endorsed misogynistic behaviour that is completely unacceptable. What message does that send? What does that say to me? What does that say to any woman journalist? What I think it says is that women in the media who are professional, smart, capable, and hardworking are “lesser than” when faced with bullying, disgusting behaviour from their male peers. It says to me that their male peer will be elevated, given a platform, and the fact that they spout sexist, misogynistic insults doesn’t matter, and that their female peers just have to put up with it. These kinds of things are not isolated incidents. For example, what message does it send to the industry when a presenter such as George Hook is given a new show on Newstalk screws up on air in the most horrible, sexist manner, and a presenter who was courageous enough to criticise him, Dil Wickremasinghe, loses hers?

I’m citing this personal example because it occurs in a context. The Irish media industry is not immune to sexism, yet I see very little real will, not to mention action, from those in power in the industry to properly examine and address it. I’m pretty sure that nearly every single female journalist has a story about sexism, misogyny, harassment or worse in their professional career. I’ve certainly heard a lot of them.

As the Weinstein Effect continues, several arts organisations in Ireland have taken proactive steps to condemn harassment from the outset, along with coming up with actions to prevent it happening in the future. Yet it is the media industry that is reporting on all of this and commenting on stories of sexism and harassment elsewhere. Where are the statements from media companies in Ireland? Why aren’t the channel controllers, station managers, and editors coming out and condemning harassment and workplaces that are hostile towards women, never mind instigating real action such as gathering their female colleagues to come up with solutions to tackle this culture? Maybe they don’t think it’s an issue for them. Or maybe they think that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

At Waking The Media where over 80 women (and some men) gathered to discuss their experiences in the media industry and come up with ideas to affect positive change, we brought those conversations we have in pubs, or in our houses, or on WhatsApp, into a public setting. We scratched the surface. The atmosphere was tense. I think there were a lot of things that weren’t being said. The next gathering will be in January. I don’t know where Waking The Media is going, but I know that not talking about these issues won’t change anything. I am interested in an honest and open conversation, and I am interested in solutions. I want media companies and the NUJ and women in power and men in power to come on board. We have to start addressing this issue seriously.

When we talk about the negative experiences of women in the media and other industries, we often hear discussions about inappropriate behaviour being on a scale, or how some people are worried about behaviour that isn’t deemed terrible being conflated with behaviour that is deemed terrible. I have some empathy for these concerns, but I also think it’s worth pointing out that while individuals can decide what inappropriate behaviour they want to exert, and make that “scalable”, for the victim, there isn’t an equivalent scalable reaction. What might be deemed as inconsequential to one person (being groped, or hit on when they don’t want to be, or hearing demeaning remarks, or whatever) can be very much of consequence to someone else. I also genuinely don’t believe that many people are “conflating” behaviours. We know the difference between a cat call and a physical sexual assault. I think people talking about “conflating” behaviours may not actually want to hear about any of them, or are attempting to impose a hierarchy of abuse which appears to reveal a belief that some level of discomfort for women in the workplace is actually the norm, or that some “lesser” behaviours are not that bad. It’s all bad. Yes, some is criminal and some is just creepy, but nobody should have to put up with any of it.

Instead of things being on scales or being conflated, I think they are multifaceted behaviours and situations that are interconnected. Some are personal, some are structural, but there is for sure an abundance of things that women have to navigate and fight against in the workplace. There are also legacy issues that have not been addressed. These issues are often described as a “culture” that can be consigned to the past, but what that “culture” actually is, is a form of institutional gendered abuse suffered by women that should be investigated and redressed. Gabriel Byrne, speaking on Sean O'Rourke’s programme on RTE Radio 1 recently, detailed some of the terrible sexual harassment he knew of in RTE in the 1970s. Was this ever investigated? Surely if it is being brought to light now, it should be?

Across the media industry there are incidents of sexual assault, harassment, bullying, sexist remarks, promotions that feel closed off to women, hiring practices that seem to magically favour guys, men holding the most powerful roles in media, the lack of women in particular departments or schedules, the gendered abuse that women get online and in comment sections, the male-dominated meetings. There are the work practices that insidiously discriminate against women, such as unsociable hours and demands that become very difficult for women when they have children, given that most women continue to shoulder the burden of raising children and of domestic work. There is the ambient sexism of off-hand remarks or the feeling that you’re not being listened to or treated with the same respect that your male peers are in the industry. There is the pushback from highlighting these things. There is the content of media itself, which can often be sexist.

If we are going to have a media industry where women can fulfil their ambitions and not have their careers diluted by their gender, then we need to speak honestly and openly about women’s experiences, and people need to listen to them. We also need to talk about the mental anguish that this gender-related stress causes. I often wonder how much brainpower I could free up if I didn’t have to think about this stuff and if I could just get on with writing.

I don’t want to be one of those women who “makes it” and then pulls the ladder up behind her, before going on about how her gender never had a negative impact on her progression. That would be easy to do, and it would also be extraordinary egotistical. I sometimes listen to women saying that kind of stuff (although I think it’s fair to say that narrative is fading), and wonder if they really think they’re so great that their singular, remarkable talent was impervious to the entire history of patriarchy and discrimination against women in the workplace? I also understand the impetus of spinning that narrative, because it is a narrative that gives one superb agency. It is upsetting and messy to admit and confront the levels of discrimination against women that occur in this industry, but we have to be honest about it.

My experience is not based on a single newspaper or broadcaster. It is not based specifically on the Irish Times, or the Guardian, or the Sunday Tribune, or the Dubliner, or the Event Guide, or any of the other publications I have written for, or TG4, or TV3, or RTE. It is a collective accumulation of my experiences coloured also by my observations of things that have not directly affected me, along with the conversations I’ve had with other women who work in media.

When people ask me “how do you deal with all the abuse you get?”, they’re talking about gendered abuse, and it’s a question I imagine my male colleagues are rarely asked. I always respond by saying that I don’t care, that I’ve developed such a thick skin that I am impervious to it. And in a way, I have. I have developed the emotional tools to be able to deal with it, to ignore it, and to respond with sassiness and humour. But why should I have to? And what about those young women journalists who can’t do that? The reality is, it does hurt. What Ian O’Doherty did was so hurtful. His Twitter meltdown happened when I was in a restaurant with my girlfriend for her birthday. Our evening was ruined. I’ve lost count of the number of days that have been wrecked by someone being a complete asshole to me just because I’m a woman. What was more hurtful, however, was to see how Ian was allowed continue as normal. While many of my colleagues in media lambasted him online, that was the end of his professional consequences from my perspective. As far as I know, just one person in the industry actually brought it into a media forum, Nadine O’Regan, when she wrote about it in the Sunday Business Post. I am endlessly grateful to Nadine for writing about it, because she called it out in public and made it real. This happened.

I am no shrinking violet and I can keep up with the best of them. I criticise other journalists when I think they get something wrong. I believe my personal and professional resilience isn’t up for debate. I started out in music journalism when I was 16, but 18 years later, I’m having the same conversations with women in the media industry, who are expressing the same grievances, and coming up against the same walls. The reality is, when I say I laugh off abuse, or just get on with things, part of me isn’t being fully honest. It isn’t easy. It is hard, and it’s draining. What is also exhausting is the attitude of some male peers who think I’m “banging a drum”, as if I want to spend my career having these circular conversations. Let’s stop debating feminism or gender as if equality needs to be contested, and start making the industry better for journalists coming after us. If you’re uncomfortable with what I’m saying, examine the root of your response. This isn’t just about women either. Our industry is unrepresentative of many people across race, ethnicity, class, disability, sexuality, gender identity and so on. The criticism “mainstream media” is being met with is often hysterical, but there are very valid concerns regarding the demographics and perspectives within our industry not being reflective of our audiences, which is one of the reasons we’re actually losing audiences.

Either we face this head on, and work to find solutions, and help each other create an industry where the women after me won’t have to put up with the kind of things the women now and the women before me have had to deal with, or we are doing everyone a disservice. If we don’t get ahead of this now, then as an industry, we are going to fall even further behind, and we also don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to criticising other industries for treating women poorly.

It is not acceptable to me to continue to spend my career talking and writing about this issue. I have a lot more to offer. I have similar conversations with women in the media thirty years older than me and ten years younger than me. Things aren’t changing fast enough because talking isn’t enough. We need action. The issue is structural, and needs to be addressed at that level. What I think we need to do as an industry, is have an open and honest discussion about women’s experiences, their concerns, their criticisms, and also their ideas and solutions. We need to create the space for media companies to feel able and equipped to make industry-wide changes that give women equal opportunities and equal representation, so the best person really does get the job, and the most talented presenter gets the show, and the most quality journalist gets the gig. We need to create an industry that is free from discrimination and harassment. All of this will be good for business. No one will lose, and everyone - the workforce, the prospective workforce, the viewers, listeners and readers - will gain.

 If you want to help me achieve this, or if you have a story or solution you want to share, email wakingthemedia@gmail.com