Governor

Print Media's Censorship of Women's Protests Against a Foul Mouthed Misogynist Actor for Governor
by Diana E. H. Russell, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita in Sociology at Mills College
Author of 17 books, mostly on sexual violence

Code Pink, a well-known women's protest organization, and WOMEN AGAINST ARNOLD FOR GOVERNOR (WAAG), an ad-hoc Bay Area group, both organized demonstrations on Friday October 3 advocating a "No" vote on the recall of Governor Gray Davis, and an even bigger "NO" vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor. I was one of the organizers of the WAAG demonstration that took place outside the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle at noon, and I also participated in the Code Pink demonstration outside San Francisco City Hall at 5 p.m. WAAG organized another demonstration outside the Oakland Tribune on Monday October 6 -- the day before the election. Many Code Pink women participated in this protest.

We in WAAG decided on the locations of our demonstrations in the expectation that this would ensure that at least the Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune would cover our critiques of the candidacy for Governor of a sexual pervert who gets his jollies by groping, propositioning, sexually harassing, and sexually assaulting women.

It is an unfortunate fact that without media coverage, our voices, our convictions, our attempt to persuade members of the public of the validity of our views, go virtually unheard. While we were exercising our freedom of speech by organizing these events, these two newspapers and all the others in the Bay Area including the Berkeley Daily Planet, exercised their power to decide that our speech was not worth hearing. Even the Los Angeles Times' sensational and well-documented revelations on October 1 about Schwarzenegger's predatory and criminal behavior towards eight women -- just two days earlier -- did not make local women's reactions to these charges warrent coverage in the eyes of Bay area newspapers.

In a patriarchal society, with its male dominated institutions, including the press, it is significantly more difficult for women's events, women's protests, and women's achievements to get equal media coverage. Unless, of course, we take our clothes off! Presumably, this is the reason Code Pink women protested the war in Iraq by arranging their nude bodies to spell "Peace," and why women in the animal rights group Peta strip to protest the wearing of fur coats and the like.

Buried on page 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle was a poor photograph of the Code Pink demonstration with two 5-line columns of text below the heading "Women protest against Schwarzenegger." The unnamed reporter mistakenly identified both demonstrations on October 3 as having been organized by WAAG. The name Code Pink was never mentioned. After correctly noting that our demonstrations were against Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor, the reporter completed the following meager text:

"Allegations of sexual harassment have rocked his campaign, while past references to women as "chicks' and his treatment of Arianna Huffington at a debate have drawn criticism from women."

That was it! This is what WAAG's press release was reduced to. No reporter even stepped out of the Chronicle's building to interview us, or to cover the lively Code Pink demonstration.

Reporters from the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle did interview members of the WAAG-initiated protest in Oakland on October 4. However, neither paper covered this event. The Tribune's reporter explained that publishing an article that is critical of one candidate is against the paper's policy on election day. So what stopped them from publishing a slightly different kind of article about us on the following day? Despite several telephone calls, the Chronicle reporter refused to explain the fate of his article.

To counteract this censorchip, I'd like to say a few words about one of our protests (space precludes more than one) that were censored by local newspapers but well-covered by TV news -- the exuberant and colorful group of about sixty Code Pink women, several dressed in comical pink outfits for their demonstration outside City Hall on October 3. On my arrival a few minutes past 5 p.m., one of the Code Pink women was already in the midst of a short passionate, information-filled speech about Arnold's predatory attitudes and behavior toward women to a large responsive mixed-gender crowd gathered in the street. TV cameras were much in evidence as well as an assortment of hand-painted posters with slogans like, "SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS A CRIME," "STOP THE BUSH OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA," "TERMINATE ARNOLD! SEXUAL ASSAULT IS NOT "PLAYFUL," "TERMINATE SEXISM!"

The speeches of several women and a couple of men were interspersed with humorous anti-Arnold chants ("No Groper for Governor," "Flush Arnold, Not Women!") and short episodes of guerrilla theater. One individual wore a huge Arnold face-mask, and pranced around trying to slap women's backsides without success. The Code Pink women were encircled by a thick pink band of ribbon on which the words "Grope Free Zone" was repeatedly painted. At one point someone brought out a pink slip which women forced Arnold to wear. Several of the women wore T-shirts with two pink hand prints on their breasts accompanied by the words such as, "ARNOLD, HANDS OFF CALIFORNIA." Other women had pink handprints pinned onto their butts, which they wagged at the crowd to much laughter. Women and men in the audience as well as Code Pink women who hadn't yet spoken, were encouraged to make impromptu contributions. Despite the seriousness of the women's denouncements of Arnold's misogynistic, predatory attitudes and behavior toward women in their speeches, the Code Pink women believe in using humor to get their messages across to the public.

After admitting that he had behaved "playfully" with women in the past, and apologizing "if" the victims had been offended, Arnold subsequently made frequent denials about further sexual misconduct, and refused to answer which charges were true and which he would claim to be false, until after the election. It is imperative that Arnold be badgered until he carries out his promise. He owes this to every Californian, but especially to the women. After all, some of his criminal acts should have landed him in prison, not in the Governor's seat!