Lara Logan links

[the_future_modernes]

i addressed the issue of the sexual assault of CBS reporter Lara Logan in my journal, but not here, for some reason. Let me correct that oversight.

First, here's what I said on Feb 16th: The rape of CBS Reporter Lara Logan TRIGGER WARNINGS for discussion of victim blaming and the usual assorted bullshit.


and here's the link that jogged my memory: A Different Angle to Women Reporting on Conflict:Beyond Lara Logan

As a nonwhite women journalist, I recognise that I occupied a strange space when covering international stories. Without ever being told so explicitly by my employers, I knew that my "value" was lower than that of my white female colleagues. And while things have changed in the past decade with increasing number of nonwhite women reporters working for mainstream media, many of the experiences and issues I mention here have not drastically changed as long as one works for a western media outlet. In frankest of terms, this means that I always recognised that I made less of a story than my American or European colleagues would (For those who question it, compare the media inches granted to Logan vs the temporary detentions of Sonia Verma the Indo-Canadian reporter or Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros in Egypt). This knowledge informed the risks I took as well as the professional decisions I made.

At the same time, I and other nonwhite reporters can access people and places that many "western" journalists can not, regardless of gender. And that is an advantage that few media outlets can ignore, especially as the power balance shifts away from the traditionally western centres of power.

Perhaps, to reference Toni Morrison, it is the privilege of whiteness (or lack thereof). I confess that I have used it to my advantage, as have many other women journalists from Latin America, Africa, Asia. I also have to admit that it has worked to my disadvantage, although more at institutional rather than human/individual levels.MORE

Comments

[buria_q]

you know, i had some issues with the post. i criticized mandy van deven for a post on kolkata and street harassment for implying that only white women get harassed and hypersexualized on the street in kolkata; it particularly rankled considering the awful shit that happened to me this summer. there may be some eldridge cleaver-type shit going on with some moc creeps, but i feel posts of this nature just don't ring true.

[the_future_modernes]

thanks for bringing that up.

[buria_q]

also, this colorlines piece also refutes this idea that brown women are deemed less "sexy" and therefore at less risk of sexual violence.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/in_support_of_women_journalists.html

“I Had to Accept That I Could Be Sexually Assaulted on the Job”

[the_future_modernes]

Really appreciate the link.