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| The ‘scarlet woman’ cliche wheeled out for Carrie Symonds makes me vomit | The ‘scarlet woman’ cliche wheeled out for Carrie Symonds makes me vomit |
| (2 months later) | |
| There is a well-established and strictly obeyed format for writing about a woman who is alleged to have had an affair with a powerful man, one that has barely been updated from the John F Kennedy era. They must be portrayed as predatory but simultaneously idiotic; actions and attributes that would seem in most other circumstances innocent – has a job, has friends – become deeply suspect; photos from her past – ideally on holiday, even more ideally at fancy dress parties – are published. The only part of this schtick that has been updated since the mid-1960s is that instead of tricking the woman’s friends and family into giving them the photos, newspapers now scrape them off her social media, so that the photo accreditation “from Facebook” has become as much of a feature of these stories as references to the woman’s blond hair. | There is a well-established and strictly obeyed format for writing about a woman who is alleged to have had an affair with a powerful man, one that has barely been updated from the John F Kennedy era. They must be portrayed as predatory but simultaneously idiotic; actions and attributes that would seem in most other circumstances innocent – has a job, has friends – become deeply suspect; photos from her past – ideally on holiday, even more ideally at fancy dress parties – are published. The only part of this schtick that has been updated since the mid-1960s is that instead of tricking the woman’s friends and family into giving them the photos, newspapers now scrape them off her social media, so that the photo accreditation “from Facebook” has become as much of a feature of these stories as references to the woman’s blond hair. |
| Much of the coverage of Carrie Symonds, the PR chief who is being cited as the reason for Boris Johnson’s divorce, has ticked off each of these cliches with the kind of speed that makes you wonder if there isn’t so much a format for writing these stories as a bot: “We got another one, boys! Activate the scarlet woman bot!” (And really, the idea that one woman can be blamed for the demise of Johnson’s marriage is like singling out one particular raindrop for flood damage.) | Much of the coverage of Carrie Symonds, the PR chief who is being cited as the reason for Boris Johnson’s divorce, has ticked off each of these cliches with the kind of speed that makes you wonder if there isn’t so much a format for writing these stories as a bot: “We got another one, boys! Activate the scarlet woman bot!” (And really, the idea that one woman can be blamed for the demise of Johnson’s marriage is like singling out one particular raindrop for flood damage.) |
| According to her colleagues, Symonds is a smart, likeable woman who graduated from a top university with a first-class degree. Run this description through the bot, and she becomes a “man’s woman”, “fun”, “flirty”, “gossipy” and “party-loving” (read: has been photographed at a party). Yet she is also “canny”, “feisty” and “ambitious” (read: has a job). Oh boy, ladies: lock up your husbands! | According to her colleagues, Symonds is a smart, likeable woman who graduated from a top university with a first-class degree. Run this description through the bot, and she becomes a “man’s woman”, “fun”, “flirty”, “gossipy” and “party-loving” (read: has been photographed at a party). Yet she is also “canny”, “feisty” and “ambitious” (read: has a job). Oh boy, ladies: lock up your husbands! |
| Sleeping with someone else’s husband may not be ideal, but the idea that the morality of a single woman who sleeps with a married man is at least as suspect as that of the man she is sleeping with is an idea so old and tired it can rightly be described as biblical. The saga of Johnson’s sex life has been almost as long-running as EastEnders and 10 times more depressing, with the women around him becoming flattened into stereotypes: the long-suffering wife, the sexy girlfriend, the furious daughter. | Sleeping with someone else’s husband may not be ideal, but the idea that the morality of a single woman who sleeps with a married man is at least as suspect as that of the man she is sleeping with is an idea so old and tired it can rightly be described as biblical. The saga of Johnson’s sex life has been almost as long-running as EastEnders and 10 times more depressing, with the women around him becoming flattened into stereotypes: the long-suffering wife, the sexy girlfriend, the furious daughter. |
| He’s the star of his own end-of-the-pier show, affecting comedy haplessness while allowing the women in his life to become media roadkill. And yet I feel as bemused reading the coverage of Symonds as I do reading the stories that suggest Johnson’s divorce might get in the way of him making a Tory leadership challenge. Is this really how people think? Still? In 2018? “Oh, I didn’t mind all the race-baiting, his lies during the referendum campaign, that he ran away when he won because he hadn’t a clue what to do and the general long-term self-serving, self-promoting ineptitude – but a divorce? That is just a bridge too far for me.” Honestly, Johnson’s divorce – and alleged affair – are the least objectionable things about him. | He’s the star of his own end-of-the-pier show, affecting comedy haplessness while allowing the women in his life to become media roadkill. And yet I feel as bemused reading the coverage of Symonds as I do reading the stories that suggest Johnson’s divorce might get in the way of him making a Tory leadership challenge. Is this really how people think? Still? In 2018? “Oh, I didn’t mind all the race-baiting, his lies during the referendum campaign, that he ran away when he won because he hadn’t a clue what to do and the general long-term self-serving, self-promoting ineptitude – but a divorce? That is just a bridge too far for me.” Honestly, Johnson’s divorce – and alleged affair – are the least objectionable things about him. |
| Boris Johnson will keep 'throwing rocks' at PM's Brexit plan, allies say | |
| The language the media use about Symonds – and any woman who has an affair with a married man or is deemed in some way unacceptably sexual – is strikingly reminiscent of how women who allege sexual harassment and assault are treated in both the press and the courts. Any evidence that the woman occasionally lives an independent life that involves the drinking of alcohol and wearing something other than a nun’s habit are taken as proof of her immorality and untrustworthiness. | The language the media use about Symonds – and any woman who has an affair with a married man or is deemed in some way unacceptably sexual – is strikingly reminiscent of how women who allege sexual harassment and assault are treated in both the press and the courts. Any evidence that the woman occasionally lives an independent life that involves the drinking of alcohol and wearing something other than a nun’s habit are taken as proof of her immorality and untrustworthiness. |
| As Julie Bindel wrote about the women attacked by serial rapist John Worboys: “Flirting, kissing, being generally intoxicated in the company of a man means nothing other than what it is – but many men use this as an excuse to rape … jurors tend to find in the defendant’s favour when the complainant has so much as taken a sniff of fizzy wine.” The Worboys case was riddled with misogyny, with the female victims being dismissed because of their personal lives while the man was left alone, just as Johnson largely is now (no one’s publishing his Facebook photos). If the media occasionally affects shock at how women are treated in court cases like Worboys’, they could perhaps look at some of the misogynistic tropes they engage in themselves when discussing women’s sex lives. | As Julie Bindel wrote about the women attacked by serial rapist John Worboys: “Flirting, kissing, being generally intoxicated in the company of a man means nothing other than what it is – but many men use this as an excuse to rape … jurors tend to find in the defendant’s favour when the complainant has so much as taken a sniff of fizzy wine.” The Worboys case was riddled with misogyny, with the female victims being dismissed because of their personal lives while the man was left alone, just as Johnson largely is now (no one’s publishing his Facebook photos). If the media occasionally affects shock at how women are treated in court cases like Worboys’, they could perhaps look at some of the misogynistic tropes they engage in themselves when discussing women’s sex lives. |
| Just as a woman’s accusation of rape can be dismissed if she was seen drinking alcohol on the evening in question, so a young woman – who graduated with a first class degree from a top university – will be reduced in the media to the “luscious” and “feisty” totty should she ever be photographed in a bikini on holiday and later become involved in some story that can only nominally be described as being of “public interest”. Honestly, reading this kind of public shaming, this prurient attack on the character of a young woman, this salacious coverage of a non-story makes me want to throw up all over my newsagent. | Just as a woman’s accusation of rape can be dismissed if she was seen drinking alcohol on the evening in question, so a young woman – who graduated with a first class degree from a top university – will be reduced in the media to the “luscious” and “feisty” totty should she ever be photographed in a bikini on holiday and later become involved in some story that can only nominally be described as being of “public interest”. Honestly, reading this kind of public shaming, this prurient attack on the character of a young woman, this salacious coverage of a non-story makes me want to throw up all over my newsagent. |
| • Hadley Freeman is a Guardian columnist | • Hadley Freeman is a Guardian columnist |
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