Too woman, too Black for South African Media

A couple of weeks ago, South Africa’s national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation announced that it would be retrenching staff across its departments. The news was met with internal and public outcry as a video of one of the broadcaster’s celebrated anchors, Chriselda Lewis, went viral. 

But the national broadcaster has long been embattled. Before the redundancy letters made headlines in November 2020, the broadcaster came under public scrutiny when, in 2018, a commission of enquiry revealed that senior management and Human Resources had colluded to protect sexual predators within the organisation.

These revelations simply pointed to long withstanding sexist, misogynistic attitudes endemic to the media industry and the country as a whole. 

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Growing up as a girl in South Africa, I always knew to shrink myself, hide my body and be hyper-aware of my existence relative to, and as a response to male existence.

I recently began to think about how I carried that into my life as an adult and as a media practitioner. And how the anxious socialisation of my childhood continues to be mirrored in the behaviour of others around me.

From my conversations with other women, I found that most of us have carried this hyper-awareness from a very young age. After all, it was the only way we learnt to protect ourselves from the sexual harassment we were subjected to since we were far too young to articulate the discomfort of it all.

As an African woman living in a country that is socially dismembered from the rest of the continent, I’ve come to realise that there are two domineering factors that cut into my experience: race and gender.

Gender

South Africa, like most nations across the world, is a country of patriarchal and sexist norms. The indoctrination starts at a young age.

Not only do girls grow up hearing that the justifications for the expectations placed on them are because they are girls but they also hear, day in and day out, that girls are less than. 

When boys are told they are behaving like girls, it’s never viewed as a positive thing. On both ends, children are taught that attributes associated with femininity are bad, weak, and unworthy of respect. 

Now, as an adult female working in the media where I am expected to go out on the streets, interview people, shoot videos and photos, the same as my male counterparts, the treatment I receive is vastly different from journalists and citizens alike. 

Benevolent sexism timeously seizes the day. People are extra nice to the point of condescension because I am a woman.

From mansplaining to unwanted ‘protection, I’ve had to learn to become numb to these acts of unsolicited ‘kindness’. 

And then there are the more direct forms of harassment.

An example: when shooting protests, the chaos presents an opportunity for anyone who wishes to, to get handsy.

I have been groped in the thick of crowds while trying to capture footage and avoid getting hit by rocks, or shot at by police rubber-bullets.

Even then, with the indiscriminate threat of being physically harmed by flying objects, one man or another will still find the time to ask for my number. 

Race

Race is a direct determining factor of which women journalists get sexually harassed more often, and more brazenly than others.

Feminist theorists have written extensively on the hypersexualisation of black bodies, both male and female, while also noting that the media in itself is complicit in perpetuating these harmful narratives. 

African American Feminist theorist, bell hooks, writes extensively about the representation of black women in pop culture. 

A reflexive example of this is in “Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies” where bell hooks analyses the film, Girl 6, by Spike Lee.

“The lead character, Girl 6, seeks work in the sex industry only after failing to find gainful employment as an actress. Ironically, it is her refusal to let her body be exploited for visual pornographic pleasures that leads her to lose jobs. Blatantly, the film reminds audiences that women’s bodies are subordinated to patriarchal pleasures in ways that are similar in movies and on the streets,” writes bell hooks. 

A number of factors are at play when it comes to the realities of living in a black, female body. Not only are our bodies devalued by our femaleness in a patriarchal world; we are further dehumanised by racist and auto-oppressive ideals as a result of white supremacy and racial subjugation. The latter being particularly relevant in the South African context.

Our lived experience in a white supremacist, patriarchal society is reflected in our visual culture just as much as the visual culture is fed by our lived realities. 

It is an ongoing cycle of objectification on the streets and objectification on our screens. All of this, building on to the early indoctrination of gender values that we are exposed to as children.

The difference between the sexual harassment of black women versus that of women of other races is directly informed by our perceived lack of value as dictated by white supremacist ideology. 

When you have black people at the very bottom of the racial hierarchy and women at the bottom of the gender hierarchy, the two intersecting identities mean hell for Black women.

Society is well aware of which bodies are granted more dignity, which bodies have better access to justice and are more valued. This also means we are aware of which bodies we can violate with impunity.

The sexual harassment of women journalists in the public workspace (field reporting) is just as prevalent in the newsrooms and offices we work in. 

Take, for example, the commission that looked into sexual harassment at the SABC.

The inquiry was organisation-wide and submissions came from all the regions in which the SABC has a presence, except the Western Cape. 

“The Commission aimed to determine the prevalence and extent of the sexual abuse and the role of institutional culture in enabling it, and the reasons why the problem had not sharply come to the fore, despite the SABC having an existing Sexual Harassment Policy,” reads an excerpt from the SABC website. 

In an article on this matter, South African journalist and author, Nkateko Mabasa, notes the “inept and poor handling” of sexual harassment cases by the national broadcaster’s HR department.

Not only were victims of sexual abuse unsuccessful in obtaining justice within the organisation, but since the commission of inquiry did not have subpoena powers, perpetrators refused to appear before the board of commissioners. 

Out of 17 cases lodged by whistleblowers, 11 perpetrators were interviewed by the commission while two others refused to be interviewed. 

Key findings of the commission of inquiry as reported by Mabasa were:

1. Women were failed by their employer, the national broadcaster, and it’s HR departments across the country
2. When some reported cases of harassment and sexual abuse, they were told to get used to it as it had happened to others before them.
3. Mabasa also notes that the commission found that labour unions also failed victims of sexual abuse at the SABC, failing to take any action even in cases where they were handed extensive documentation of sexual abuse. 
4. Whistleblowers and complainants were further victimised for refusing sexual advances and for speaking out. Further bolstering the power of the perpetrator over their victim.

Ultimately what we saw at the SABC is a microcosm of South African society. Victims of sexual harassment were not supported by any of the systems that are supposed to protect them. The organisational culture also mirrors that of a society that does not take gender discrimination seriously, allowing perpetrators to not only get off scot-free but also re-victimise the survivors. 

During this when the broadcaster is planning to retrench scores of employees and freelancers, the precariousness of the job security of women, especially those who lodged complaints, is a legitimate concern.