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Journalism of Courage
In a major goof up, The Washington Post Express used a male symbol for their front cover of an issue that centred on women’s rights march. The cover story is about thousands of women who are planning a protest march in Washington, D.C. the day after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on January 20. During inauguration weekend, it is estimated that around 200,000 people might join the march in the capital city, which will serve as an anti-Trump protest that began on Facebook.
For the women’s march, WPost’s lifestyle magazine Express used the “male” symbol as opposed to the “female” one and as soon as the publication tweeted out the cover’s picture it did not go unnoticed. Twitterati immediately slammed the publication even though they apologised.
The publication accepted its mistake and tweeted, “We made a mistake on our cover this morning and we’re very embarrassed. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol.” They also posted the cover photo again rectifying the design and changing it with a female symbol.
However, it was quite late and people on social media were unforgiving. They exploded with criticism and blame, and pulled up the publication for ‘sexism’. While many wondered how the cover passed multiple editors and no one noticed the error, a user said it is a “perfect example of male-centrism”. People criticised the magazine for even stereotyping and using the pink colour for the background. A user also suggested that may be the publication should hire more women to avert such mistakes in future.
Here’s how people reacted to the wrong symbol on the cover.
https://twitter.com/samthielman/status/817022669564551168
https://twitter.com/rococopacetic/status/817028010788421633
https://twitter.com/card_sharp72/status/817031867149025280
https://twitter.com/gilesmorgan/status/817318305983823873
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/817033328498974721
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