Foul. Via Hometown Invasion Tour @ Flickr.
You’ve probably already heard about ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews. I’d never heard of her before, but I know who she is now.
She’s a Floridian. She’s a sports reporter. She’s attractive. She’s a woman. And because of those horrible trespasses, she’s a victim, not only of a repulsive sexual predator, but of millions of people who are logging on to find the illicit video of her going about her business in her hotel room, where she had every reason to expect privacy, nude. As one often does prior to getting dressed.
After the fucking perv got his own jollies off exploiting her, he posted his pixels to the web for others to ogle (And it’s ogle, not oggle, or oogle. Look it up.*). And ogle they have.
Despite the protests of Andrews and her lawyer, there have been some rumbles that the whole thing is a set-up, a publicity stunt for Andrews. While that is possible, I don’t know how appearing naked standing by an ironing board will help a woman who already has a lucrative career and is a generally acknowledged knock-out.
The coverage I’ve seen on network news has been somewhat respectful–no clips from the video, no lacivious photos of Andrews–but online sources, even for those networks, are (unsurprisingly) less tasteful. Like this WaPo article, entitled “You Know You Want To Watch That Video.” No. No, I don’t. That video is a crime, and watching it compounds the crime. Watching it is almost as bad as filming it, because by watching it, you’re saying “it’s okay to peep on women.” “Women’s bodies are mine for the taking.”
And then there’s this truly infuriating story from ABC (the “family” network, right?): Did Andrews’ Sex Appeal “Encourage” Nude Vid?, about another female sports journalist’s comments that Andrews maybe-sorta-mighta brought it on herself, for “being out there” and, y’know, pretty, thereby “playing to the frat house.”
Same as it ever fucking was. She asked for it. She shouldn’t have X, Y, or Z. Whaddaya expect from athletes? It’s not like anyone actually touched her. She puts forth a sexy image on the job, why would she object to this? What? It’s a compliment that millions of guys wanna see her naked. She’s overreacting. You’re overreacting.
I’m not much of a sports fan, anyway, but this event, to say nothing of the bullshit defenses being thrown up by Andrews’ “fans,” makes me wanna take my ball and go home.
*A language pet peeve.
I could post a long angry screed about this but i can’t find the energy sadly except to say that the coverage of this has been appalling by and large and I support ESPN’s banning of NYPost reporters for running stills of the pics.
I worked with Lisa Olsen at the New York Daily News for a while so I am all too aware of how delightfully sports fans can treat sports writers when they are female. And sports stars too – when I was a 19 year old sports intern I had to conduct an interview in the locker room of an NBA team a certain player whipped out his cock and stuck it on my notebook rather than answer a question. Unfortunately for him I didn’t consider basketball a particularly interesting sport due to being English and didn’t care if I never covered it again so I just looked at him up and down and said ‘sweetie i’m English I’ve seen far bigger and a lot better’. He apologised pretty promptly although I still reported it to the club’s media rep.
ps my pet sports language peeve – winningest – it’s not a word people.
I just threw up in my mouth a little. It’s 2009 and we are still getting “she was asking for it” and “boys will be boys” and such crap??? I walk around naked all the time at my house. Perhaps I should cease this practice. Also, since we’re sharing, my sports language pet peeve is “Let’s get out there and give 110%.” Science nerds no likey.
I’m glad you posted something about this. The BF’s family are all huge UF fans and Andrews went there, so they basically followed her career pretty closely.
The whole thing pisses me off of course. I just came from Gawker where they had a clip of Bill O’Reilly actually showing A CLIP OF THE VIDEO on his show while he’s backpeddling and saying things like “This is horrible” in his usual smarmy way.
It figures that she can’t be taken seriously in her field because she’s a woman. No matter what she does or accomplishes, she’ll always be ‘ogled’ and seen as an object by certain pigs that watch sports (not all). Why can’t she just have a career and not be bothered?!
I hate these stupid articles that are saying things like “Is her good girl image what encouraged this video?” Yeah, how dare she not pose for Playboy and Maxim, her body is only here for our consumption!
How dare she try to have a legitimate career without using her body to titillate the menz!
Okay I realize I’m probably repeating myself so I’ll stop myself here! Grrr!
What has me concerned, truly concerned, about all this, is that if the scumbag who did this was willing to go this far, how much further is he willing to go? If I were her, I’d be frightened now, because someone was able to find out where she was staying, rig it so he could obtain these pictures, and then broadcast them on the Internet. That shows forethought, planning, and obsession, and has stalker written all over it.
this is sick, sick, sick.
I’m so glad you wrote about this.
I just get angry and start to sputter when I try to create some convincing, articulate argument as to how many piece of this situation are so, so wrong.
And then I just want to say, “Eff anyone who thinks anyone deserves this.”
emilyanne: I’m so sorry that dick happened to you, but you did handle (uh, is there better word?) it very well.
JessMess: I haven’t seen the comments about her “good girl image,” but I love that Andrews is getting it from both sides. She brought it on herself by being bad (too sexy); she brought it on herself by being a good girl (she didn’t deliver the goods).
Newt: I thought about that, too. I read somewhere that the hunch is a fellow ESPN employee is the perp, since he would know where she is when and hence be able to plan, but in any case: completely freaky.
As someone whose ambition during high school was to be a sports journalist (specifically, to be the play-by-play announcer for the Yankees), it always freaked me out how certain female sports reporters were practically fetishized by male fans. A perfect example of this would be certain comments on Deadspin. emilyanne, I remember hearing your story before and just going slack-jawed.
“The coverage I’ve seen on network news has been somewhat respectful–no clips from the video, no lacivious photos of Andrews–but online sources, even for those networks, are (unsurprisingly) less tasteful.”
Fox News showed still photos at eight o’clock in the morning the other day (with those ladyparts that are too indecent to show on TV pixelated, naturally). I work in a large office building that has TVs set on Fox News ALL THE TIME in the lobby, and those pictures were what greeted me as I walked into work.
All the rape apologists really should just drop the pretenses now, since it’s pretty obvious that even when women are staying in own homes away from male eyes(or hotel rooms, as it were)like they tell us we should, we’re not safe nor do our bodies belong to us.
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I have to agree with Erica Hill (on AC360) who said, “If you are thinking of tracking it down, many of the video links are viruses which is maybe what you deserve if you’re trying to find that.”
Bill O’Reilly is a pervert with the emotional capacity of a pothole and the maturity of a 3 year old.
I hope to hell they catch whoever did this. It may seem like it’s only voyeurism of a particularly nasty sort, but I think it’s more like rape. He-and I have no doubt at all that it was a he-violated this woman just as surely as if he’d done it physically. He just used a camera instead of his no doubt malfuntional penis.
One thing I will say in defense of many of her male fans, they seem as outraged as many of us do over a lot of the comments about how Andrews was “asking for it.” I think it’s the first time I’ve seen so many men actually come out and yell, “How can you blame her for this?! That guy’s just a creep!” At least, they’ve been coming out in far greater numbers than I think I’ve ever seen before…