52 MEN 52 WEEKS/ 44 YENAL BİLGİCİ
Shut Up, Men; Could You?
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
First of all, to be honest, I should start by saying that I don't believe in the idea of men's "confrontation". I don't think that "confrontation" can amend the insincerity and egoism of men who cause all the fuss, who think they have the right to make policies concerning women, who exclude women even from the panel discussions on the subject of "woman" and instead talk among themselves.
Isn't it unfair that the aggressor himself overwhelms the faint voice of the aggrieved with his loud cries of "me too, me too"?
Not everyone may agree with this opinion of course but I suggest that instead of talking all the time men should shut up. I suggest that they stop and think, and give support...
I will try to explain my reasons from the viewpoint of journalism, which is my profession. Because I think the journalism professed in this country reproduces, alongside many other problems, gender inequality in its own decision making mechanisms and thus prevents the exposure of "male" violence.
I would like you to read this piece with that perspective.
***
Let me begin with a fresh information: I have recently watched the first episode of the TV series Bodyguard, one of the most popular series this year. As I sat before the screen, I already knew that it was a story about a "female" interior minister and her "male" bodyguard. It was indeed...
The story flew by. In every scene exposing yet another surprise outside its main storyline... Here I would like to talk about those surprises. Don't worry, there will be no "spoilers".
The series opens with the scene of a suicide bomber on a train en route to London... Our "male" police officer realizes what's happening and intervenes.
Firstly: the suicide bomber on the train is a woman. A woman who has been forced into it by her husband...
Our police officer finds and tells the train conductor about the situation. The conductor is a woman...
Special forces carry out an operation on the train. The special forces team is headed by a woman.
A sniper is set to shoot the suicide bomber. The finger hooked on the trigger belongs to a woman.
The bomb disposal squad arrives. The officer who disposes the bomb sweating blood is again a woman.
The heroic police officer in the leading role gets a promotion for his success. His chief who promotes him is again a woman.
Our police officer's new task is to be the bodyguard of the Interior Minister. As I have mentioned at the beginning the minister is a woman.
The Interior Minister is not the only high-ranking woman either. The counter-terrorism chief who chases terrorists round the clock and carries out operations is also a woman...
***
Woman or man, does it matter? A job is a job; plus, everyone does these jobs, so what, right? Well, it's not like that at all.
Personally this is the first time I saw a woman sniper or a woman special forces chief... If I really looked and searched for it I could find many, singular examples of women cast in such roles, some of them in the name of "political correctness", but I think seeing so many women in operational and "active" roles at once is a first not only for me but for everyone.
After watching the series, I wondered if people talked about this and evidently in Britain there was much discussion about it.
In fact, some viewers (mostly men) whined about it. They thought casting women in these positions was unconvincing.
A mere contrast to the fact that both their own country and the number one economy of Europe, which they are currently trying to exit, are governed by women... (By the way, let's not forget that BBC, the broadcaster of the series, was recently shaken by a gender pay gap scandal, revealing the discrimination against its women employees who have been doing the same job with their male counterparts.)
And now let's come to the point where the rubber meets the road: Throughout the series, if it was men who were cast in all these roles that I mentioned, if it was men who held those positions, would I be surprised in the slightest? No.
But why?
Why am I not surprised when jobs that can be done by women and men alike (that is almost all jobs) are always done by a man?
I am writing in the first person but I know that I am not at all alone in this "lack of surprise". We deem it normal.
Then I will switch to the first-person plural: Why aren't we surprised by this "normal"? We, the educated, cultured intellectuals who have attained a certain standing? Why doesn't it surprise us?
***
Since they want a "confrontation", I will skip the statesmen, the police, TV series, etc. and talk about what I really know about, that is, the newspapers.
Here is a simple, straightforward question for you: why are there no women in the press of this country, in the top management of the newspapers, in the decision-making mechanisms?
I have worked in many newspapers of the mainstream media. And, more or less, I also know about the ones I haven't worked for. I had friends even in the newspapers that I never stepped foot in. (Not anymore; many of my friends are now unemployed.)
This is what I have seen, heard and known in all of them: There are hardly any women journalists in the decision-making mechanisms and in the newsrooms of the newspapers. Maybe one woman to ten men. Or maybe two. In some of them, you cannot even reach that ratio. If there is no woman in a newsroom, then the ratio of men goes to infinity.
There have been one or two women editors-in-chief; they are depicted like legends of antiquity, as if they were mythological heroines. And if you search hard enough, you may come across traces of women department chiefs in a few newspapers.
That's it.
But why?
There are top-notch women reporters.
There are women interviewers whom newspapers bank on for high circulation.
There are woman editors who do incredible works with their speed, accuracy, foresight and point of view.
In a word, there are at least as many women as men who are good at these jobs. Anyways, this is not a male or female profession. Journalism is certainly and completely genderless.
Then, where are these women, do they evaporate into thin air at some point, or are they lost in the abysses of the plazas? Why cannot they rise to higher ranks?
Does the office of a newspaper director rank higher than the presidency or the interior ministry of a country? Is it a more challenging job than that of the bomb disposal specialist or the police chief? Why are we, the men, not surprised that women do not get promoted in the newspapers? Why don't we find this odd?
Why is it that men decide about the selection and the presentation of the news that concern the entire society men and women alike (and sometimes primarily the women), why is it that men decide how and by whom these news will be drafted and how much coverage they will be given with which tone and language, in short, why is it that men decide about the entire range of operations in the pressroom?
Or are we, the men, already the reason behind this?
***
Now let's have a look at what this has led to.
It has many effects, yet I will cite the most striking one. Who decides on the scale of coverage to be given to news on male violence and the number of days these news will be pursued is of crucial import. The preferences of the newspapers published by "men" and that of the newspapers with a better women-men balance will be different.
However sincere they might be, I don't think that the male newspaper directors are as concerned about or mindful of this subject as the women journalists.
This is evinced by the fact that, barring the widely discussed cases that shock the society, male violence merely makes third-page news.
I am certain that with women decision makers this ratio would be very different.
And there is more.
The lack of women in decision-making and executive positions further augments the gender inequality on the national level. And the absence of a woman executive in a newspaper, as you may agree, destroys the balance in that newspaper.
Both inequalities muzzle the women's voice. Presently what we need most is voices. Their own voices. And not only in the mainstream media of course.
I already said that I worked in and am familiar with the mainstream media. Then let me ask about the places that I don't know about to the people who are familiar with them.
Are the left-wing newspapers any different?
Are the right-wing newspapers any different?
Are the intellectual newspapers any different?
Are the tabloids any different?
Are the online newspapers, publishing platforms any different?
Are the trade unions, professional organizations any different?
Where are the women executives of newspapers?
Why are they nowhere to be found?
***
Now, I am coming back to the point I raised at the beginning. That is, why I don't believe in this confrontation thing... We the men, who occupy all these positions, who cause and ignore all this injustice, who don't move not even a finger to discontinue this order of things, must shut up. As the men who are surprised at women being in all the key positions in a TV series, let's shut up.
Why should we shut up, you ask? Because we have not said a word to this day. Were all these men in the decision-making levels completely unaware of these problems until this day? I say this day, but nothing has changed today either.
We, myself included, have read mountains of books, watched years worth of movies, witnessed and heard innumerous grievances on these issues.
Yet, to this day, in the newspapers, TV channels, universities where we work or anywhere really we have not voiced, questioned, or worried about the inequality between men and women. For some reason we have deemed it normal. Moreover, this state of affairs has suited our book. We have not left our shells, our safe heavens not even as much as a BBC TV series diverged from the norm, the routine. A woman sniper, a woman news desk chief, a woman newspaper executive, come on, is it possible?
We were not surprised for god's sake, supposedly it is our job to be curious, but we were not even surprised.
Flabbergasted, we reported on women train conductors, women taxi drivers, but we were not taken aback by our own situation.
Let's not sit around and make confessions and whatnot. Let's just let the women speak.
Let's give a leg up when necessary, let's try not to overwhelm their voices, let's support their struggle without stepping on their feet.
But, let's step back and let the women speak.
Let's turn down our noises.
Let their voices grow.
I think the biggest support is to shut up now! (YB/ŞA/APA/EK/IG)
Images: Kemal Gökhan Gürses