On February 23, 2011, CNN posted a video on cnn.com, which happens to be my homepage and is the main source of my news. The video immediately caught my attention, because the title of the story was “High School Wrestler Won’t Fight a Girl”. In the video, a male African American CNN Newscaster has a conversation via webcam with fifteen-year old Joel Northrup, and his father, who are both from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Joel is a sophomore in high school and is on the wrestling team. In the Iowa State Champion Tournament, Joel made it to the finals and was matched up against a girl named Cassy Herkelmann. Instead of fighting for the title of State Champion, Joel decided to forfeit the match solely because he didn’t want to wrestle a girl. In the interview, Joel offers a few different explanations for his decision, but mainly states that he just didn’t feel that it would be “right” for him to fight a girl. In addition to Joel, CNN also offers some coverage of Cassy, although that coverage is extremely limited. In response to Joel’s decision, Cassy stated that she did not agree with it, and she believes that since she is playing the same sport and doing the same thing as Joel, he should have agreed to wrestle her. I argue that CNN’s coverage of this event was handled very poorly for a number of different reasons, and I also believe that Joel’s decision was based on a retrograde and archaic view of the women, which relates to Susan Douglas’ idea of enlightened sexism.
When I listened to Joel’s reasoning for his decision to give up the possibility of winning the State Championship, I initially noticed that he bases his decision on social constructs, and does not make any distinction between sex and gender. When the newscaster asked Joel why he didn’t feel comfortable wrestling a girl, Joel responded “Wrestling is a combat sport and at times it gets violent, and you get put in moves and holds that are compromising. I just don’t believe it’s right that a boy and a girl should, in this manner, wrestle”. He clarifies that his decision was due to two factors: not wanting to interact so closely with a girl, and also not wanting to potentially harm a girl by slamming her down on the wrestling mat. The issue that I have with these statements is that Joel clearly feels uncomfortable wrestling a girl because he does not want to touch her in ways that could be interpreted as sexual. However, Joel completely assumes that Cassy is a straight female who is interested in men. Anne Fausto-Sterling would certainly take issue with Joel’s argument, because he fails to see the difference between sex and gender. Joel needs to realize that gender is just a social construction. If he refuses to wrestle Cassy, this makes me question what his reaction would be to wrestling a boy who identifies as gay.
Another issue that I have with Joel’s decision is that he claims that it was in part a religious decision. Joel’s father explains that there is a “biblical principle of treating women with respect and dignity, and not looking at them as objects to be defeated on the wrestling mat”. I believe both Joel and his father are what Susan Douglas would call enlightened sexists. While these men believe that Joel’s decision to forfeit his wrestling match with Cassy was made out of respect for women, the decision involves retrograde feminist ideas (Douglas). If Joel really wanted to respect women, I believe that he should have participated in the wrestling match against Cassy. In today’s day and age, women want to be treated as equals. Although chivalry is sometimes thought of as romantic and gentlemanly, Joel’s decision made Cassy feel like she was being treated poorly based on her gender.
Although Joel’s decision was shocking to me, I think that CNN’s coverage of the event was even more astounding, for a number of different reasons. First, I thoroughly disliked the way that Cassy’s side of the story was handled. Joel explained that he decided not to wrestle Cassy, and at the mention of her name the CNN newscaster cued a video of Cassy’s reaction to the event (see video at 2:30). She explains that although she is a girl wrestler, she wants people to treat her the same way that boys are treated in the sport. She expressed disappointment at Joel’s decision and seemed hurt that she has been treated differently, solely because she is a girl. Cassy spoke for exactly thirteen seconds out of the almost six minute long CNN video. Not only did she appear on screen for such a short amount of time, but she was also the only female perspective that we saw in the entire video. Cassy is a girl participating in wrestling, a sport that is very male dominated. She is breaking female stereotypes by wrestling boys. I think that her story had so much unrealized potential, and CNN is to blame. I wish that Cassy had more screen time, and I especially wish that the CNN newscaster offered a different reaction to the interview.
In response to Joel’s decision, the newscaster congratulates Joel and his father on the boy’s decision to not wrestle the girl. Furthermore, he even tells them that many people across the nation have applauded his decision. The interview comes to an end with the newscaster’s final comment to Joel’s father: “Congratulations on your son, he seems like a good man”. CNN handled this story so poorly, because they ended up supporting Joel’s decision, even though they were fully aware that Cassy was upset by the decision. This exemplifies Susan Douglas’s idea that the media perpetuates enlightened sexism. Clearly, Joel’s decision was sexist. However, the media puts a positive spin on this story and through congratulating Joel, CNN sends the message that “this is what women want”…they want to be treated in retrograde sexist ways. Of course, as we know from reading Douglas, this is the essence of enlightened feminism.
CNN had the opportunity to advocate for women’s rights and equality, but the newscaster’s positive response to the event did the exact opposite. In class, we have talked at length about how change in society needs to be a “top-down” process, in the sense that change will occur in society if it is initiated by a powerful source. CNN, being a well-respected and highly read news source, had the chance to start societal change, but instead chose to promote enlightened sexism. Perhaps it would have been more effective if CNN used a female newscaster for this story, because she would have offered a female perspective on the event. However, I am positive that CNN’s choice to use a male newscaster was completely intentional, because it would have been extremely difficult for a female newscaster to effectively and convincingly congratulate Joel on his sexist decision.
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