'Sexism is still alive and well in Canada:' A Newfoundland reporter on FHRITP
It’s been nearly four years since the phrase “f-ck her right in the pussy” became a thing for men across the world to yell at female reporters on live television. Now, after countless journalists and videographers have endured the taunts, a 27-year-old man is finally being charged for using the misogynistic phrase.
Newfoundland TV reporter Heather Gillis was interviewing a St. John’s politician at a landfill on April 24th when man interrupted her segment by (allegedly) yelling, “f-ck her right in the pussy!” Instead of letting him get away with it, Gillis took a picture of the man’s truck, capturing his license plate, and tweeted about the incident, saying she was, “publicly shaming” him for the harassment. Canadians across the country shared the tweet, and police reached out to Gillis urging her to contact them. When she did, the cops identified the man and charged him with causing a disturbance in a public place.
Flare, Chatelaine's sister publication, chatted with the 29-year-old journalist about why she didn’t let her harasser get away — and why it’s important to send a message that this type of behaviour is not OK.
What was your initial reaction when this happened? I was actually humiliated. I was with a politician who I regularly interview, and the term that the man used to describe women’s body parts is obscene. We had finished the interview at that point, and we were both shocked. It took us a second to realize what he had just said. The councillor was like, “You know they have to come back out of the [landfill] right?” So I waited and he came back out, and the guy’s car was stopped. I just took a couple of pictures and tweeted it out.
The police were quick to respond to your tweet. Why do you think they took this incident so seriously? This is not an isolated incident: it’s happened to me, it’s happened to all of the women I work with, it’s happened to women at the other television station in town, and it’s happened to a woman who works at the [local] newspaper. I guess that’s why they started taking it seriously. It continues to happen.
Was this the first time that someone has yelled this at you? No, this is the third time. The last time it happened I was preparing for a live hit, so I was ready, staring at the camera, waiting to be tossed to from our news anchors, and someone yelled it. I couldn’t see who it was, so we couldn’t get a picture of him. The time before that, it was a bunch of teenagers while I was out getting some video for a story I was shooting.
Now that someone has actually been charged, do you think dudes will think twice before yelling this crap? I hope we’ve made an example, because it’s not acceptable to yell this at people. I can’t walk into your office and do that — you would call the police! So why should someone be able to hurl this comment at me from a moving vehicle?
Lack of creativity aside, the expression is misogynistic. Why do you think guys still think it’s a funny thing to do? I really don’t know. Lack of knowledge? Lack of respect? Immature sense of humour? I’m sure we’ve all faced examples of sexism in everyday life that aren’t as obscene and apparent. Sexism is still alive and well in Canada, obviously. This is just one example of it.
What do you hope will happen from you coming out and saying this behaviour isn’t okay? I hope it will stop. I hope people will think twice if they consider yelling it at someone. Or, if you’re with someone who does yell something obscene at a woman, you can say to your friend, “That’s not OK. You shouldn’t yell things like that.” Maybe this will set an example because now someone’s been charged. When this happened to the CityNews reporter, Shauna Hunt, a man lost his job over it. Maybe this can be a lesson for people.
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