Biz as yooj
That whole Don Lemon thing? CNN talking head telling millions that women become worthless in their 40s? Pfft. Not a problem.
If you turned on CNN on Wednesday morning curious to see how Don Lemon would address his mini sexism scandal after his mini sabbatical and his “formal training,” the answer is that he wouldn’t address it, at least not on air.
A few moments before his show began, the news anchor tweeted that he appreciated “the opportunity to be back” and, to his colleagues and viewers, wrote, “I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better.” Once “CNN This Morning” started, though, it was business as usual. Co-host Kaitlan Collins reported from Poland while Lemon and Poppy Harlow were back at their table, shuffling papers.
How old is Kaitlan Collins? How old is Poppy Harlow? Does Lemon think they’re both “past their prime”?
He was absent from the air Monday and Tuesday, and his return Wednesday came after CNN CEO Chris Licht promised via internal memo that Lemon had “agreed to participate in formal training, as well as continuing to listen and learn.”
Why does he need “formal training” at his age (he’s 56) to know that men don’t get to announce that women are worthless past age 40? Why does he need formal training to grasp that a woman running for political office shouldn’t be judged on whether or not Don Lemon thinks she’s fuckable. Why doesn’t he already know that???
His error was not borderline, as if he’d enthusiastically commented that Haley “looked great for her age.” His error was unforced and repeated. The noteworthy thing isn’t that Lemon believed that women, like steaks, have sell-by dates. The noteworthy thing is that he believed his opinions were so universal as to be unremarkable. Something he could say on air. He did not anticipate blowback.
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Here is what bothers me about Lemon, and I’m sorry you had to read this whole thing for me to figure it out: Good journalists are curious about the world around them. They are interested in societal changes. In what is fair, what is accurate, what is just and in how understanding those concepts can change as we all evolve. Good journalists pay attention to things. It’s the bare minimum of the profession.
Corporate formal training tends to be good at helping employees keep their mouths shut before they say bad things. It’s less good at helping employees learn about the societal forces — centuries’ worth of casual misogyny — that infiltrated their brains to begin with.
This is what I’m saying. How the hell did he not know that women running for office should not be subject to “Nah not her she’s way too old and gross” from tv talking heads?
Don Lemon didn’t pay attention. He didn’t pay attention to the fact that his dismissive old-women tropes were no longer acceptable, that they would reflect badly on himself and would harm his colleagues. It definitely makes me question how great he is on women’s issues. It kinda makes me question how great he is at his job.
Not me. It makes me think he’s crap at his job.
On the face of it, a conclusion that is most agreeable; as Jane Austen might say.
You mean address the issue in earnest? Don would have to give a damn what women in his audience think first. Maybe it’s a math equation for him — ignore the problem and let it flush through the news cycle, offend X percentage of viewers, and cut losses. That’s how it has played out so far. If he’s done anything beyond what his employers have required it’s not apparent. Keep your head down for a while Don, it’s not an admirable strategy, but it’s a common one.
Hmmmm “most agreeable” sounds more Mrs Elton than Jane Austen to me. She would have a character say it, but she wouldn’t say it herself as narrator.
I think one reason things like this happen is that in many (most?) contexts, male contexts, it is still acceptable. This is a common talking point among the MRAs and Incels, and I hear it in casual conversation all the time. It’s just that most men who say these things don’t have such an enormous public platform, and don’t get blowback because it’s not heard by those who care. The problem isn’t Lemon, it’s misogyny in general, not that I have to tell anyone on this site that. In his own circle, it’s probably dismissed as ‘locker room talk’, just as Trump dismissed his pussy grabbing comments as ‘locker room talk’.
I hear similar comments at work; I’ve never turned them in to HR, because I have learned the only one punished for that is the one submitting the complaint. I do my best to point it out to the speaker; in some cases, they were unaware they were being sexist (and sometimes I believe them). That’s the problem. A lot of men are used to this casual chat:
I usually suspect they are quite aware it is sexist; if they weren’t aware of it, they would not refrain from saying it outside the ‘locker room’ or the bar.
I think they are sexist goons whether they are aware of it or not, nor do they care. “Locker room talk” is for swaggering adolescents and morons. I doubt ‘formal training’ or ‘sensitivity training’ does anything other than try to persuade the offenders to keep it hidden, and I don’t think said goons do that willingly (maybe if they think it’s costing them financially, or damaging their precious egos), but mostly because it’s assigned by employers or courts of law. The real problem is rarely admitted to or dealt with. Swaggering adolescents and morons are only influenced by such Pied Pipers as Andrew Tate, Trump, and other notorious abusers.
twiliter, just what I was trying to say! The problem is, when these things come out, a lot of people dismiss it as an isolated incident, nothing to worry about as long as you “fix” the offender – which only means he won’t say things in public, not that he will treat women better in general.
Sort of like trans. “Oh, that’s just an isolated incident! It doesn’t apply to all trans!”
No one is saying it applies to all men (or all trans). We’re saying the fact that it is out there, and with more men than we are aware, is a problem. Some men are able to resist the general mood of macho misogyny but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t address the problem.
It’s not isolated; it’s not an incident. It’s a pattern, and women know it. Men with a much lower profile will do this without consequences in many cases because women know the consequences of speaking out.
I agree ikn, I think there’s a lot of sexism and misogyny that’s passed off as ‘the way things are’ compared to say, institutional racism, which gets a lot of attention and condemnation (which it needs), but only the blatant and publically visible offenses of misogyny get called out, like Lemon’s comment, or Tate’s behavior, which are only the tip of the iceberg. That’s how it seems to me anyway.