Women’s Rights

As part of this study, and since, some alarming examples of gross bias against women’s right s have emerged in the media and entertainment industries. The same industries that are supposed to be breaking the bias, are some of the greatest perpetrators of bias. One example, amongst many, is a television show host in Cote d’Ivoire in August 2021 that interviewed a rapist who proceeded to visually dramatise in unnecessarily explicit detail with a manikin doll how he raped women, to the merriment of a live audience and television crew. What was meant to be a denunciation of rape became a defence of it, with no consequences for the television channel other than an enforced apology by the presenter. Following a public outcry, and sustained pressure from women’s organizations in Cote d’Ivoire, the rapist was finally convicted but sentenced only to one year with parole and as such, served no jail time.

The impact of such shows is to entirely undermine what we’re trying to achieve, which is the change of bias and viewpoints towards women. The show was meant to forward women’s advocacy but actually trivialised rape and women’s rights and endorsed the normalising of abuse through degrading humour. There is an entire process which leads to the production of a television show, and this demonstrates how ingrained the culture of abuse of women is. Not one person in the chain of command saw fit to stop it before it was allowed to air.

Although there is progress in women’s rights, it sometimes feels like each step forward is met by ten steps back. And the voices that have millions of ears and eyes, have to check their ingrained biases with even greater scrutiny.

I am not free from biases, and I choose to acknowledge that I have blind spots and check myself. I invite you to do the same and pay attention to how your own biases might be rampant in the media you and your community consume. When you do, check them too.

That is how we do our part in breaking the bias.