"The wife of such and such": Stop presenting women through their husbands
Alexandra Savina
On Saturday, Channel One showed the next release of the program. "Ice Age" - a show in which celebrities perform on the ice in a pair with famous figure skaters. There would be no more talk about the program if it were not for the release of the figure skater Tatiana Navka and the actor Andrei Burkovsky. A couple in suits of concentration camp prisoners showed a number inspired by the film "Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni. This caused an ambiguous reaction: users of social networks still continue to argue about whether it is permissible to speak on the subject of the Holocaust in an entertainment TV show. The story even reached the American and European publications, which wrote about it with about the same headlines: "The Holocaust on Ice" caused the resentment of the wife of a subordinate of Putin "or" The wife of Putin's press secretary appeared on television with a number dedicated to the Holocaust.
In this discussion, one more question is revealed: Tatiana Navka, a figure skater and owner of Olympic gold, is called exclusively “Putin's press secretary’s wife” - this even makes the feminist edition of Jezebel condemning sexism in the media. This could be explained by the fact that the authors are trying to emphasize the political context of the news, if the Russian-language press regularly did not present Navka as Peskov's wife - regardless of whether it concerns her business, speeches or leisure.
All this speaks of the tradition rooted in the world: the press still continues to treat women through their "belonging" to a man - even if we are talking about a couple of celebrities, in which both have achieved great success. In this case, the scope and type of activity, as well as which partners are more successful, do not play a role. FKA twigs, for example, are regularly called the girl or bride of Robert Pattinson, and even Hillary Clinton managed to get rid of the label "former first lady" just a few years ago. Of course, there are exceptions: no one will represent Angelina Jolie exclusively as Brad Pitt’s ex-wife - but so far this attitude, unfortunately, does not apply to everyone.
There is still a lot of sexism in the media: according to the UN, in only one of the four cases does a woman become the heroine of the news. It is important not only how much is said about women, but also how it is done: sexist stereotypes are still preserved in sports reviews and in advertising. And if the problem areas in these areas are beginning to pay attention, the tradition to treat a woman solely through a man is still strong. This applies not only to stars: women continue to be described primarily as wives and mothers, even if it does not matter for the news story - completely ignoring their affairs outside the family and traditional roles. There is no need to speak about full equality - at least, while the phrase “Putin’s press secretary” in the title is still considered more clickable, attractive and catchy than the Olympic champion.
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