Why Ines Sainz Wasn't Asking For It

As you've no doubt heard by now, Mexican TV reporter Ines Sainz was catcalled last week in the New York Jets locker room while she was working on a story. As is all too common when attractive women deviate from their desired roles as society's blow-up dolls, the former Miss Spain was immediately blamed for the incident despite Tweeting "I die of embarrassment" (in Spanish) and telling a rather dismissive, hostile Joy Behar on CNN that she did nothing to provoke the players.

To be fair, Sainz doesn't seem anxious to label herself as a victim, though she admits that she did not hear everything being said in the locker room. But that didn't stop Behar from treating her like a victim or Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory from claiming Sainz has "only a loose grasp of English" despite Sainz's ability to defend herself against Behar's leading questions.

Jets owner Woody Johnson has since apologized to Sainz and the NFL is investigating the incident. Sainz has stated at that she accepts the apology, and the Association for Women in Sports Media has offered to hold an educational anti-harassment workshop for Jets players — though oddly, the AWSM website went offline Monday morning.

All sorts of obnoxious questions have been tossed around in this debate, from both men and women: Why can't Sainz cover up like the modest gal all female sports reporters should be? Should there be a locker room dress code? Is it Sainz's fault for being too sexy? Even the Associated Press got into the blame game by asking on Twitter "Was [Sainz] 'asking for' catcalls from players?"

I can't be any more clear about how the media fails here: asking a question framed in a particular way, using specific language, is not just doing research or just gathering information. Anyone working for a reputable news organization should (and probably does) know that. Hiding behind your job is not an excuse for sexist, victim-blaming behavior, as Joy Behar has already demonstrated. Sainz may not have been upset by what happened to her, but the media's portrayal of her, along with the sensationalism that accompanies seemingly every story about the incident, has arguably made the situation far worse — more than anything Sainz could have or has done.

I've got some questions of my own, if we're playing the "in the name of research" game. Why are women's clothing choices subject to ridicule no matter what they choose? (Let's not forget how women like Hillary Clinton are mocked for their "frumpy" choices. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.) Why must harassment and assault survivors always prove they did nothing to "provoke" their assailants? Why is the media, by and large, so completely incapable of parsing these simple issues and reporting in a fair, equitable way about crimes against women? Why do we put up with it when their misogynist framing skews the entire debate?

There are legal protections in place for women in all sorts of scenarios: on the job, at home, and even in certain privately owned public places, sexual harassment and assault is illegal. Why do we accept that women are inconsistently protected by the law, mocked by the media when they stand up for their rights, and what are we going to do change that?

Photo Credit: CindianaJones