Pregnant TV journalist Body-Shamed On Social Media, Forced To Resign

By Cami Ezenwa

– Pregnant TV journalist –

A television (TV) journalist has shared on how she was body-shamed on social media while she was pregnant, eventually forcing her to resign her job because of the associated stigma.

Pictures of her pregnancy was circulated on social media and when she could not cope with the hounding she threw in the towel.

“The experience was traumatising because I was participating in a television show and all the attention online became about my appearance and weight gain.

“As someone in the public eye, you are already self-conscious, then that coupled with the body changes that come with being pregnant, it is all too much.”

– Pregnant TV journalist -2

The woman, said her self-esteem was severely damaged, with significant career impacts, and it led to her decision to quit her job.

“There was no apology…that could help me recover from that. I knew I had to leave, so I turned in my resignation before my child was born,” the victim, Kenyan, but whose full identity is being kept back to avoid further backlashes, added.

The study with input of Nigerian female journalists, also cites Gladys Rodríguez Navarro, a Mexican freelance journalist who also had a similar experience, in which she was targeted with fake Facebook profiles for her critical political reporting since 2015.

“They make memes, they make fun of my physique because I’m overweight,” said Navarro in the recently released report.

Titled The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists, it was udertaken by the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) with support from UNESCO, and was released on Tuesday.

– Pregnant TV journalist -3

Nigerian journalists, including executive member of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWO), were also featured in the study.

In it, US columnist and author, Lindy West, narrated how that she had been prolifically body-shamed, and some men blandly telling her they would “…gladly rape me if I weren’t so fat”

On the impact of the intimidating remarks that came via tweets, she said it was such one could look at and be like, ‘Oh, that’s just some idiot trying to scare you.’ But taken cumulatively — and even in combination with more innocuous tweets, just people insulting you or trying to hurt your feelings or trying to waste your time — it’s very, very, very emotionally draining”.

Eventually, West quit Twitter in response to the online violence she experienced.

According to the study, the most commonly reported online threat came in the form of abuse laced with hateful language, such as was experienced by Lilian Okonkwo-Ogabu, journalist and Chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ).

– Pregnant TV journalist -4

It bared how women journalists in highly patriarchal contexts are often targeted in ways in which their gender, and sexist perceptions of their secondary social status, are emphasized.

Also, South Africa’s Qaanitah Hunter left her job as investigative political reporter at the Sunday Times after being the “target of press statements from political parties, and rape threats: you won’t find similar harassment of males in terms of rape and body shaming”, she said in responding to the study.

“When I first came under attack online in 2016 after Rodrigo Duterte was elected the President of the Philippines, the deluge of hate was overwhelming.

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“I was a CNN war correspondent for two decades, but nothing in the field prepared me for the orchestrated, misogynistic attacks on me and our women-led news outlet, Rappler”, Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UNESCO/Guillermo Cano, World Press Freedom Prize Laureate had said in the foreword.