Regardless of party affiliation, women saw the coverage of both Clinton and Palin as “too negative” and without adequate substance…In what could be characterized as two extremes, Clinton was labeled as “anti-male and a she-devil,” while Palin was assigned the role of “a ditz and an airhead.”
Carolyn M. Byerly, Associate Professor at Howard University, questioned if the press was “meeting its social responsibility” to provide coverage of issues and events that affect women’s status. She emphasized, “You can’t underestimate the invisibility of women.”
Telling the audience, “I don’t fear being black or being female,” she identified herself as being willing and able to “tell the truth to power.”
When it was opened up to a group discussion, there was agreement that a lack of consciousness about gender stereotypes was pervasive, which led to the question, “If you don’t recognize it, how do you address it?” Lake believed that it must be “named and pointed out systemically,” adding that reporters “pay no price for being sexist.”
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
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