The Final (Sexist) Straw

I don’t know if I’ve been so angry so early in the morning before. Last month I received a pitch from a long-time credit union industry person who is now a public relations “professional.” I put professional in quotes because how she pitched this particular story was the opposite of professional, and just gross. Please keep the word “she” in mind here.

We get pitches for stories from public relations professionals every single day. Many of them are flagged for follow-up ideas and stories later on down the road, and many of them simply do not apply to our industry or would be of little to no interest to our readers.

I struggled with sharing the actual email with you because the language that was used could have been taken a couple of ways. One way you could have taken the meaning would have been if you were raised in the 1930s and it was an innocent enough phrase at that time. The other way to take it is if you live in today’s world and know it’s simply not appropriate and plainly sexist.

The pitch announced a new vice president of (I’m not going to say) at an organization and this new vice president just happened to be a woman.

Knowing this public relations person well enough, I felt like I knew what they were really trying to say: Hey, run this announcement with this sexy headshot of this person and your readers will drool. The email ended with, “Let me know if you have any questions!”

Yeah, I have several questions. What in the hell are you doing pitching out a new hire like she’s on some kind of sex menu? Does your client know this is how you are pitching to the media? And finally, WTF?

The email included a typical headshot of this person who was just promoted. And let me be very, very clear about this – we never have and never will run a photo of someone because we think it would get more eyeballs on the story and potentially turn on our readers. We are not in the business of sexing up what we publish. Feeling excited about coming up with a clever headline for a story is as sexy as it gets at CU Times. If we wanted abs, breasts or what we believed were beautiful people to only be featured in our publication, it would be called CU Times After Dark, a subscription-only magazine that’s delivered inside a plain brown paper wrap to your office (your credit card would be billed discreetly as “This Is Not a Sex-Themed Publication”).

I’m not going to name the person who pitched this to CU Times, nor am I going to name the client. Once I calm down about this, I am going to call this person and explain to them that they can forever not contact CU Times if this is who they are and how they work.

I’ve had it with this behavior from men and women in this industry. I’VE HAD IT! Enough of your old-school behavior. Enough with these types of demeaning ways of thinking, even if the person is just trying to possibly “keep things light” or whatever the excuse is.

Maybe it was all in good fun? Maybe. Maybe this person was just trying to be funny? Maybe. Maybe this person was drunk from the night before when she sent this email? Maybe. Maybe this person has been around too long and needs to go? Maybe. Maybe this person also calls mentally handicapped people the “R” word and homosexuals the “F” word? I don’t know and I don’t care as long as they don’t involve me or my team and keep it to themselves.

I was so disgusted by this person and her email. And, you know what? I don’t think I’m overreacting or being hysterical about it.

This email pitch, to me, felt like I was getting a creepy, unwanted shoulder massage from someone at GAC. Get away from me you crazy, gross person!

The wording of this particular pitch stood out because it reminded me just how backwards this industry can be if left alone even for a few minutes. I have so many friends and respected colleagues in this credit union space that have been subject to so much disgusting behavior over the years that many of them have resigned themselves to the “I’m used to it” mentality. Come on. We must do better as a group. If not, then we are just a bunch of pigs who fortunately cannot attend conferences and must apparently … work from home as pigs?

I have to guess that sexist behavior and complaints are way down this year due to the coronavirus. If so, thank you COVID-19 for giving so many people a reprieve from the disgustos out there.

I’m not necessarily lumping in this person with all of the sexist jerks out there in our industry; this email just really hit a nerve. I am more disappointed that an email pitch like this could go out to many of the media contacts around the credit union space and that this person thought it was a completely fine way to get their story published.

To be transparent, CU Times did run the announcement because 1.) We felt this new hire deserved to be recognized for her accomplishment because it was newsworthy and 2.) We felt like it would be unfair to punish her for an ignorant public relations person.

Years ago I experienced the most toxic and sexist work environment I’ve ever personally witnessed and it made me reevaluate where my career was heading. It’s legitimately what led me into the credit union space. An industry with principles? That exists? Damn, I’m in!

I honestly do get protective of the credit union universe and recognize how much is wrong and right with it all.

Sexism, however placed or worded, just has no place here, anywhere, in this time or any other time moving forward. I understand that sexism has been around for, uh, forever. And I get glimpses that we have and are evolving as humans, as a society and as an industry. And then I feel deflated and angry when things like this happen.

I have a relative who truly believes our country and the world was at its best in the 1950s. You know, when women were expected to stay at home with the children and segregation was the law of the land? There’s no reasoning with this relative who’s stuck in decades gone by, but there is reasoning to do here in our space, in our credit union world.

Most of those I know in this space are progressive thinkers with ideas and hearts to make us better and be better for everyone. For the rest of you who are pigs, sexists, chauvinists, homophobics, racists, anti-Semites, or prejudiced or disparaging against any other human in any way – get out of my email and out of my way. I’ve had it with you.

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.