Take 11: Nepali Media's Problematic Male Gaze & Gender Blindspot
Stop calling women politicians cheli beti, nani, kanchhi sundari!
The votes are in, and winners have been announced. Since this time around, a handful of young women are among the winners, Nepali पत्रकार, editor bros are back at it with their clickbaity headlines dripping with sexism.
Last week, amidst a wave of minute-to-minute updates on the vote count, the editor-in-chief of nepalkhabar.com tweeted a story about Sobita Gautam, who is a first-time MP from the newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party. The headline was “हेभिवेटलाई हराएर संसद पुगिन् यी कान्छी सुन्दरी”.
And we, like so many others, shared the tweet, calling out the editor for using such condescending and sexist framing. But, like always our Nepali editor daaju bhaais, refused to engage with any of the criticism and sneakily changed the headline.
This isn’t the first time we have flagged Nepali media’s portrayal of women, particularly women in politics. We’ve talked about this in our podcast over and over again about how Nepali newsrooms, almost all of them led by men, have failed to portray women in politics in a dignified manner. There are very few instances of women being able to assert their agency in how their image is projected to a larger audience through mass media. And as a result, the wider readers, and eventual voters also tend to look at women in politics through the same sexist lens, viewing them as just physical bodies and focusing on how they look or what they wear, or viewing them as less competent, or weaker than their male counterparts, no matter how inept and corrupt the men might be.
In this election cycle, there was only a handful of pieces where women candidates and their election agendas received the kind of space in media that their male counterparts tend to receive so regularly.
Just before the election, Pranaya Rana, who writes the newsletter Off the Record, put the spotlight on the independent candidate Ranju Darshana from Kathmandu and her election agenda. Similarly, women running from different areas in Kathmandu and Lalitpur, like Sobita Gautam, Toshima Karki, and Manushi Yami Bhattarai managed to get some press in the run-up to the election in media outlets. And thankfully these stories didn’t go the usual route of questioning and dismissing their political aspirations.
Unfortunately, such coverage is only a drop in the vast ocean, where male politicians and their every move are considered front-page and full-page worthy stories. Just a few days before the election, Kantipur daily, which is probably the most influential Nepali newspaper, dedicated two full pages to KP Sharma Oli (interview) and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, who by the way penned an entire op-ed asking for votes, again.
When will our editor bros get over their gender blindspot, and stop showering male politicians with unwavering attention and importance, even when they haven’t done anything substantial? For instance, deciding who are the more ‘चर्चित’ candidates, and what race should be closely watched over others. All eyes were on the male politicians, and there have been very few stories trying to focus on why is it that Nepal’s political class fails to accommodate the aspirations of women in politics.
Nepali reporters covering politics, who are overwhelmingly male, always project their bias when writing about women in politics, especially around election coverage.
Just a few months ago, when parties began fielding their candidates for the polls, this is how one male reporter, questioned prominent UML leader Shankar Pokharel about his opponent.
Wondering how the same male reporter chose to write about Rekha Sharma’s recent win over the ‘heavyweight’ leader!
Such coverage isn’t limited to Nepal and Nepali media. Women in politics around the world face a similar ordeal.
According to International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), women in politics face biased, sexist, and discriminatory media treatment. When reporters cover women leaders, they often use terms that emphasize women's traditional roles and focus on their appearance. They perpetuate stereotypes of women politicians as weak, indecisive, and emotional.
We saw that earlier this year when Ram Kumari Jhankri left office on an emotional note. None of the news stories and videos could go beyond her teary goodbye, and talk about her work in the office, and what it meant for the cabinet to have one less female minister.
According to a study by the Inter-parliamentary Union on violence against women MPs, 27.3 percent of the participating women MPs said that traditional media had shared highly contemptuous or sexually charged images or comments about them. Meanwhile, when asked about photos or comments disseminated through social media, the percentage rose to 41.8 percent.
We saw that happen last August when a dance video of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin became public and the unnecessary backlash that followed.
Globally, women in politics, particularly women of color, experience overwhelming levels of abuse and gendered disinformation campaigns, which traditional and social media often fuel and perpetuate.
Studies have shown that women are often discouraged and dissuaded from getting involved in politics because of gendered media reporting, with the purpose of discrediting, delegitimizing, and silencing women politicians.
And when such reporting has been the norm in newsrooms for the longest time, it should thus come as no surprise that such attitudes also reflect amongst people on social media.
In Nepal, there is a need for the media to develop good practices, raise awareness and gather experience and knowledge on ways to ensure that the portrayal of women politicians is fair and impartial. Maybe getting more women on their team to consistently cover politics would be a good start.
Reading list:
चुनावी मैदानमा महिला उम्मेदवारलाई कति सहज? संगीता कुँवर, ekagaj.com
Who shall we vote for? Off the Record
Ranju Darshana & Sobita Gautam on Galaxy 4K TV
मैले जितेमा जनता र जनप्रतिनिधिबीच दूरी हुनेछैन, ekagaj.com
प्रत्यक्षमा महिला : सँधै उपेक्षित, Naya Patrika
Women in Politics and the Media, IDEA
Women’s Leadership and Participation, UN Women