Zoe’s World: Sexism Is Alive And Well Among Headline Writers

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I CONSIDER myself to be ‘in the know’ when it comes to popular culture.

Millennials are generally are quite in tune with what is going on in the lives of various celebrities and could probably list what songs are in the Billboard Top 100 at the moment.

It all depends what you are into. Everyone has different interests and different opinions. For example, some can tell you what happened on every soap on every night for the past ten years; whereas that would not exactly be my forté.

Wherever your interests lie, you have probably heard of ‘clickbait’. Which basically refers to the headline or title that certain publishers put on their pieces in order to get people to read or at least click on their article.

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This is just a part of the industry at this stage, but some headlines have a certain theme to them and it is flipping a lot of people off. Myself included.

If you thought that sexism was so talked about and so prevalent in today’s society that it would be on the taboo list for publishers, oh you were so wrong. It seems to be the number one way to get people to click.

For example, if a female celeb shows a bit more skin (something that is completely acceptable and normal in today’s world), she is not doing it because she wants to. Of course not.

Instead of reading “Look how amazing Perry (using Little Mix star as an example) looks in this bomb dress”, it instead reads ‘WOW! Perry strips down to show Zayn EXACTLY what he’s missing’. Oi.

I know that as you, the classy and intelligent people who are reading this, don’t even need a lecture in that particular chapter of life. That whole ‘not everything that a woman does is for the pleasure of someone else; maybe she just wants to look good because she wants to look good’ argument should be so familiar to you, that you don’t even need me to bore you with it.

Therefore, you see that this headline is twisted to a complete sexist headline to gain views, and is a ridiculous way to do so, right?

Do male celebrities get these kind of attention? No, of course not. If Zac Efron strips down and struts around shirtless, the headline reads “OMG Zac has never looked better” or “Zac has us feeling ALL the feels” (the millennial lingo is clearly necessary here..). This is the pattern that can be seen across the inter webs and splashed across many a cover.

Being an equalist and all (and god forbid, a feminist too), I can’t call this anything else but unfair. Completely and utterly unfair. I’m not even going to go into the fact that people actually do go ahead and click on these articles for these titles, because that’s a whole other story.

Most recently, the ‘Taylor Swift Serial Dater’ comments have come back up onto my feed. With her recent split from former beau Calvin Harris, and  new boyfriend Tom Hiddleston; Miss Swift has found herself in the firing line once again with some very sexist accusations.

You know the usual, ‘Look at Taylor Swift holding hands with her new album’ and being called a slut and a whore; and we’re keeping it clean here. I could guide you down the merry path of explaining that she has dated a perfectly reasonable number of men in her long career, but I’m guessing that argument may not sink in.

It’s a terrifying moment when Taylor Swift gets more heat over dating people than Johnny Depp gets about (allegedly) abusing his wife.

Why do men not receive the same kind of scrutiny and abuse? Why is the clickbait twisted and aimed to degrade women?

Have a little think about that and let me know.

Follow Zoe O’Connor on Twitter @zobo2402 and check out her YouTube channel here