Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: ESPN Commentary About Alabama Player’s Girlfriend Unnecessary

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By Lauren Duhon, Baton Rouge, La., Stop Street Harassment Correspondent

Image from Katherine Webb’s Twitter Account

As the nation watched the Bowl Championship Series National Championship game last night between the University of Notre Dame and University of Alabama, I’m sure fans only expected to watch a football game between the top two teams in the nation. What they also saw, however, was a continuous string of remarksby ESPN commentators about Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend Katherine Webb.

During the first quarter of the game, commentator Brent Musburger made remarks about Webb, who is also Miss Alabama, like she was a trophy. “You quarterbacks get all of the good looking women,” he said, as he urged young boys watching to play football in order to date attractive women.

Throughout the game, the camera did close up shots of Webb, bringing more and more attention to the Auburn University alumna.

I watched the game with some of my friends who contributed to the commentary while practically drooling every time she appeared on the screen. When I got angry and asked why they thought that was okay, they answered, “Because she is hot” numerous times.

I couldn’t understand their behavior. The unnecessary comments and explicit names they called her continued until the end of the game (ending in a victory for Alabama).

Then the sexist comments moved online. Webb’s Twitter account went viral in a matter of hours and gained nearly 170,000 followers and there were many creepy tweets directed at her.

Webb hasn’t made a comment about the coverage, but today ESPN released a statement:

“We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.”

Despite the apology, this isn’t the first time Musburger has made inappropriate comments during a game, nor do I think it will be the last time that a sports commentator does so, especially since few people have spoken out against his behavior. On the contrary, I’ve read multiple comments on websites like Bleacher Report from people saying they love him for his antics.

So I am speaking out: no one should be gawked at on national television without their permission, including by ESPN commentators. No one should have to virtually be catcalled by teenage boys and middle-aged men online without their consent.

Our society needs to stop justifying these actions. They help shape a society in which many men think it’s okay to say disrespectful things to women on the streets, on television, and online without much consequence. If I were Webb, I would come out with a statement to discourage these men, because I wouldn’t want to be pinned as anyone’s prize.

Lauren Duhon is a student journalist from LSU in Baton Rouge, La.

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Street harassment and running – ESPN article

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I’m on vacation without a laptop and trying to blog from a smart phone! So this will be short and light on embedded links.

ESPNW published an article today about street harassment and running and features some of my experiences (though a few facts were mixed up). It was in large part my harassment experiences while running that led me to start my activism work.

Harassment while running or exercising outside is sadly common, especially for women. When I surveyed over 800 women for my book, nearly one in four said they exercised at a gym instead of outside to avoid harassers on at least a monthly basis. This is not okay. We should have the right to exercise wherever we want without experiencing harassment!!

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When your harasser is a customer or client

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After the Rose Bowl, football player Rey Maualug went up behind Erin Andrews, a sideline reporter for the ESPN College Football Saturday telecast, and did a sexual sort of dance – without touching her – before walking on past.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ds-Mrp0wl4]

Reading comments in the blogosphere, it is clear that (like lots of other kinds of harassment) many people saw nothing wrong with this behavior. I disagree because she obviously didn’t know it was happening and he wasn’t about to inform her, thus it was in no way a mutual sort of celebration, but one he enforced on her without her permission or awareness.

As both individuals are known to each other, I wouldn’t exactly classify his actions as street harassment or public harassment, which I tend to define as harassment between strangers in public, but I don’t know that it quite qualifies as workplace sexual harassment either.

This example illustrates a very pervasive kind of harassment that many women deal with in their jobs — harassment by customers or clients (and in this case, the people being interviewed or reported on for a story). What can someone do about a sexually harassing customer s/he is supposed to be serving without jeopardizing her/his job?

I worked in a few retail jobs as a teenager and I had my fair share of getting “hit on” by male customers (most of whom were years to decades older than me).  What could I do but giggle nervously and just hope they would go away soon? The customer is always right, right?

I just did a quick online search for any information on sexual harassment by customers, and among the few webpages I found included this: “Q: Does sexual harassment law apply to harassment by customers? A:Yes, as long as the employer knows about the offensive behavior and has a chance to fix the problem. Customer harassment is a lot like co-worker harassment. Until you speak up, the employer may not have enough reason to suspect that the company’s client is harassing you and making your job miserable.”

But how many employers are in the position to regulate customers? Unless someone is threatening or stalking an employee, in which case I could see an employer banning that person from the area, what would an employer do? Tell the customer to stop “flirting with” or harassing its employees? Will they risk losing a customer when they can probably easily find another hourly worker who won’t complain?

Have you experienced sexual harassment from customers, clients & non-coworkers/supervisors while on the job? Do you know about legal remedies for dealing with it or is it in the same realm as street harassment and is something we’re all supposed to “live with”?

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