Editors in Michigan face an interesting community engagement challenge and opportunity: How do you curate and join the community discussion when it centers around the word “vagina” and its synonyms?
When a big local story becomes a big national story, with equal measures of humor and outrage, that’s a huge engagement opportunity. But when it involves a word that newspaper editors tend to use with care, if at all, you engage (see, even that word can be read wrong in this context) carefully.
If you missed the background, Michigan Rep. Lisa Brown, a Democrat, used the V-word (no, I’m not going there; she said “vagina”) Wednesday on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives, in a debate on a bill to restrict access to abortions. Her statement (which you can hear in context in the video below):
Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no.’
Brown was rebuked by House Republicans and was not allowed to speak in a Thursday debate on an unrelated issue. Charlie Crumm of the Oakland Press reports that Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, said Brown’s remark had “crossed the line.”
Beyond the gender politics and free-speech issues, to many, Brown carefully stayed on the polite side of the line:
Huh. I always thought “vagina” and “penis” were the polite terms. What does the Michigan GOP prefer? bit.ly/M9nBWv
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) June 15, 2012
This is a local story for the Oakland Press, which covers Brown’s home county, and a state story for other Digital First newsrooms. I asked my Michigan colleagues how they were handling it. Karen Workman, community engagement editor at the Oakland Press, provided this response (lightly edited, combining multiple emails):
Internally, we have no issues using the word vagina.
Editor Glenn Gilbert said: “We’re playing this straight and letting the public take the lead.”
For instance, see how the Facebook discussion on our brand page has touched on whether this is a freedom of speech issue and the broader issue of abortions, since that’s the legislation that she was speaking on.
Also, because of the redrawing of our political districts here, Brown is seeking a different office this fall — Oakland County clerk. We’re asking folks how this may impact her campaign:
@LisaBrown39 (#MI Rep who said #vagina) is running for #OaklandCounty clerk. Will this impact her campaign? Tell us: on.fb.me/K7Dg6J
— The Oakland Press (@TheOaklandPress) June 15, 2012
As for personal social profiles vs. brand, I’m trying to be more lighthearted on my personal page. This comment as an example: “Online Editor Stephen Frye always asks me when he gets in every morning, ‘What’s happening, Karen?’ Today, before he could even get the words out, I just looked at him and said: ‘Vagina, vagina, vagina.’
Light-hearted posting to my FB page has gotten more traction than the comment on our branded FB page.
This is also our top story for the ‘News at Noon’ broadcast today.
Tweets:
YOU TELL US: Was @LisaBrown39‘s use of #vagina in poor taste? Was comment worth banning her from speaking? on.fb.me/K7Dg6J
— The Oakland Press (@TheOaklandPress) June 15, 2012
#MI Rep @LisaBrown39 tells @crummc that men have fought, physically, on house floor & not been banned, but she was for saying #vagina — The Oakland Press (@TheOaklandPress) June 15, 2012
Is ‘vagina’ a bad word? #WestBloomfield State Rep. Lisa Brown censured from #abortion debate for using it: bit.ly/KGCCyE
— The Oakland Press (@TheOaklandPress) June 15, 2012
Karen also Storified reaction to the controversy.
In our Digital First newsroom in Mt. Pleasant, Crumm’s story is played on the home page. The Morning Sun posted the story on Facebook with a fairly straight “what are your thoughts” invitation to discuss. Editor Rick Mills and Engagement Editor Lisa Yanick-Jonaitis have discussed the issue more frankly on their Facebook pages.
Lisa posted a link to blogger Jessica Lee Jernigan, who wrote an open letter to Bolger, offering some synonyms for vagina. It’s a hilarious list, and a well-written post but any editor of a family newspaper is going to think twice about quoting or linking to a list that includes “Mrs. Kitty,” “Tunnel of Love” and “Nature’s Tufted Treasure.” It might present a curation opportunity: Link to it with a disclaimer that you’re going to get some clever but mature commentary. The resulting discussion on Lisa’s Facebook page is more colorful than you might want on your news site (one thoughtful comment used the c-word synonym), but given the nature of the issue, I think it’s an appropriate way for a journalist to engage.
Jeff Payne, editor of our Voice Newspapers in suburban Detroit, added:
We posted a link to Politico’s story just to get something up and within minutes already had a local reader who is a frequent commenter post a link to Jase Bolger’s Facebook page with this message: “Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger doesn’t like the word vagina when referring to anatomy. Hit his inbox and let him hear the word all day. I’m Phil Nice and I approve this message.”
This stuff is gold! We’ll see where it goes. We are going to reach out to our local reps, all of whom are Republicans, for reaction.
The controversy morphed, as you might expect, into a creative and humorous, but crude, hashtag on Twitter last night, #VaginaMovieLines. Creative tweeps substituted “vagina” for famous movie lines or just used the line itself, giving it an entirely different meaning with the hashtag. My contributions:
Is this heaven? No, it’s vagina. #VaginaMovieLines
— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) June 15, 2012
Is this vagina? No, it’s Iowa. #VaginaMovieLines
— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) June 15, 2012
“I believe in the soul, the cock, the vagina, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber …” #vaginamovielines
— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) June 15, 2012
And I retweeted some other good ones:
Wait a minute Doc, are you telling me you built a time machine out of a vagina? #VaginaMovieLines
— Cecelia Hanley (@youlookthesame) June 15, 2012
#VaginaMovieLines I’ll get you my pretty, and your little- wow, that’s actually extremely vulgar
— Harrison O’Nyons (@HONyons) June 15, 2012
Here’s another good one from a Digital First colleague:
You see George, you’ve really had a wonderful vagina. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away? #VaginaMovieLines
— Buffy Andrews (@Buffyandrews) June 15, 2012
Check the hashtag for more discussion for more. It’s slowing down, but still going.
I’m interested in your thoughts on how newsrooms should engage with such an issue:
- Can you be more permissive with language or humor on your website than in your newspaper, or should the standards be the same?
- Can you be more permissive in branded social media than on the website or in the newspaper?
- Can staff members be more permissive in personal social media accounts than on branded platforms? (For instance, I used the word “cock” above in a famous line from Bull Durham. Would that cross a line for a member of your staff, or is that OK?)
- Do you have any creative ideas for engaging over this issue?
A controversy over freedom of expression is a great opportunity for news organizations. We stand for freedom of expression. We express ourselves quite carefully in the newspaper. Can and should we express more freely on digital platforms?
An update to The Oakland Press
The discussion on our brand FB page continued to grow throughout the day, and will likely continue growing too. There’s a good diversity of viewpoints on a lot of issues surrounding the story.
It now has more comments — and quality too — than the more light-hearted posts on my own page.
Also, here’s a link to our News at Noon show today: http://bit.ly/OPnews61512
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Thanks for the update, Karen, and for your contributions.
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I’m glad it’s a hashtag word. Here’s a recent entry:
#vagina
17m Jennifer Granholm Jennifer Granholm @JenGranholm
Vagina. There, I said it. And gentlemen, if you can’t say it, you sure as heck shouldn’t be regulating it. #Michigan #Vagina
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Steve: You wrote, “But when it involves a word that newspaper editors tend to use with care, if at all, you engage (see, even that word can be read wrong in this context) carefully.” WTF?! It’s the polite, anatomical word for that body part. If she’d used any slang term for vagina, then OK, perhaps I can buy that news companies need to be careful for the sake of the impressionable kiddies who might be reading. But for any news organization that also publishes ads for Viagra, et al, it’s hypocrisy and just plain stupid to freak out about using the v-word. Should they be careful about using “breast cancer” because the right-wing wackos will get upset?
To directly answer your question, I have long thought that web standards can be looser on language and matters of taste than the print edition. (Just put a disclaimer on a link if clicking it will lead to something “objectionable.”) As your post notes, most online journalists are not being prudes about this.
But a larger issue, it seems to me, is that editors being “cautious” about using a word like vagina is cow-towing to an extreme, tiny-minority view. Because a tiny minority of an American newspaper or news site’s readers are devout Muslim men, should it not publish photos of women wearing bikinis at the beach?
Even asking the question of “should we be sensitive about using the word vagina?” in coverage of a story like this smacks of abandoning common sense and paying unwarranted attention to the fringe. (It’s comparable to the he-said/she-said form of “journalism” that many of us decry.)
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Steve, the newsrooms I worked in were equal-opportunity careful, with pretty high thresholds for use of the words “vagina” or “penis,” though we used them both. I have written and edited a lot of stories about sexual abuse and other matters where anatomy was relevant. And yes, I can say emphatically that newspapers use those terms with care. I also was the top editor who got the calls when we used anatomical details in stories. I didn’t shrink from using those terms but didn’t use them lightly either. I wouldn’t call the people who called the fringe, though. They were readers, just the same as the people who agreed with my calls.
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Perhaps the better question that should have been asked is, “How should news outlets handle getting the story wrong and repeatedly spreading misinformation?”
Headlines, tweets, Facebook posts, news leads — all of these things created by journalists who are supposed to be dedicated to reporting the truth, were inaccurate.
To set the record straight, Rep. Lisa Brown was not gaveled down nor sanctioned because she said the word vagina. She also was not sanctioned because of her gender, her religion or even the topic of the bill she was debating. She was sanctioned because her comments on Wednesday were interpreted by several members of House Republican leadership, both male and female, to be comparing passage of pro-life legislation to the rape of women due to the use of the phrase, “no means no,” which is commonly used when discussing rape prevention. That was deemed to be crossing the line and disrupting the decorum of the House of Representatives. That’s why she was gaveled down as soon as she said it and was not recognized to speak on the House floor for one day, which was Thursday.
Ari B. Adler
Press Secretary
Speaker of the House Jase Bolger
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Thanks for your response, Mr. Adler. I know you have a job to do, but I hope you realize what a stretch that is, and that gaveling the “no means no” statement was pretty ridiculous, too. As Charlie Crumm reported, male representatives have physically fought in the House without crossing this your imaginary line. You’re always welcome to comment on this blog. I don’t gavel down relevant comments. But I do call bullshit.
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Well put.
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Steve Buttry, I love your call of bullshit On Adler’s response. I second that call, and I raise with this question: if those members of the House Republican leadership were indeed only offended by “no means no,” then why were republicans quoted as saying her statement was “offensive,” “vulgar,” and that they wouldn’t use that word in front of “mixed company?” (article with quotes here: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120615/POLITICS02/206150373/Michigan-reps-silenced-use-v-words-?odyssey=tab)
To me, it seems the objection is to the word vagina. Clearly the words “no” and “means” are not in any way up for interpretation as vulgar.
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Of course it was about “vagina”, but it wasn’t about the abstract dictionary definition. She was talking about the Speaker’s interest in HER vagina, followed by “no means no,” which does refer specifically to rape. It was personal, and I can see how that would be seen as a line crossed. That said, how can this not be personal? The frame of Rep. Brown’s overall comments was to point out how religious freedoms cut both ways in the abortion debate. It’s a legitimate point, and grounded in her personal religious tradition, but it is hardly personal. Her closing remarks, on the other hand, abruptly turn to make the point that this isn’t abstract, this isn’t theological, or if it is, it’s about the most personal kind of theology, where one’s individual body is itself in relation to God. We don’t like to talk about that kind of personal relationship in a legislative session. It’s not cool. But it is necessary when it creates a blind spot where rights and personal freedoms are being ignored. Speaker Bolger was just plain wrong… it’s easy to see where he went wrong, and even sympathize a bit. But he’s still wrong.
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elbow, vagina, what’s the difference? part of the human body, everybody has one
grow up america
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Unfortunate that Mr. Adler didn’t return for a follow-up. Your response was a hoot, Steve. Love it.
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