Forward, backwards for women
By ending the silence about abuse, survivors are not just making a headway in breaking the hold of the abuser and coming to grips with the trauma they may have suppressed; they also warn others to be on their guard against the various ways predators select and target their victims.
When three beauty contestants exposed the sexual harassment they allegedly suffered as delegates to the international Miss Earth contest held last Nov. 3 in Pasay City, they turned the incidents into prominent platforms for calling out violence against women and exposing the inadequate safeguards to protect women and promote their dignity as persons.
The whistleblowers—Emma Mae Sheedy of Guam, Jaime Yvonne VandenBerg of Canada, and Abbey-Anne Gyles-Brown of England— turned to social media to report how a sponsor offered to intercede so they could advance over the competition. In return, he expected sexual favors from them.
Sheedy said a corporate sponsor “disgusted” her and other contestants through inappropriate touching, solicitations of sexual favors, and imposition of “multiple” demands that made them “uncomfortable” and apprehensive about their safety.
Complaints about the harassment only resulted in the team managers “laughing” and advising the complaining contestants “to be nice,” posted VandenBerg on Instagram. She said it took “almost two weeks of sexual harassment” before their concerns were responded to by Lorraine Schuck, founder and executive vice president of the company producing the Miss Earth pageant.
In a statement published by media on Saturday, Nov. 10, Carousel Productions Inc. said it does not condone “offensive” or “indecent” behavior towards the Miss Earth delegates; it expressed disappointment that instead of working with the organizers, the three delegates complained on social media.
VandenBerg left the country after withdrawing from the contest. She expressed fears for her safety.
Beauty contests, while very popular in the country, are criticized as being sexist in representing the candidates, often women. The Miss Earth candidates’ complaints of sexual harassment by a corporate sponsor and the failure of organizers to ensure the safety and security of the contestants expose the risks and pitfalls befalling women entering this type of events.
On Instagram, Sheedy posted that their posts about the abuse drew out pageant delegates of the past who had the same experiences. She said she wanted to put a stop to the participation of the sponsor for being a “problem for years.”
For the attention they drew on the vulnerabilities of female contestants in pageants and the accountability of organisers to protect the contestants from sexual opportunists, Sheedy, VandenBerg, and Gyles-Brow showed courage and selflessness.
Unfortunately, another incident also shows how violence against women can be used to weaponize discourse targeting journalists.
The recent decision of the White House to suspend the credentials of Jim Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, over his act of “putting his hands on a young woman” during a press conference with President Donald Trump reveals the “crudity of political manipulation,” commented Joshua Rothman of “The New Yorker” on Nov. 9.
White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, later released a digitally altered video showing how Acosta seems to be “chopping” at the hand of a White House intern who was trying to get his microphone after the President told Acosta to stop asking questions. The video was traced to the Twitter account of Paul Joseph Watson, a regular contributor of the extreme-right site, Infowars.
This incident unsettles because it shows that a government in its desperation will stop at nothing, including manipulating women and their victimisation, to falsely accuse and take down a critic.