SHE’S A 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, NOT A ‘LESBIAN’, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE

Published: January 24, 2012 at 8:58am

Where are the editors, subeditors and writing/thinking coaches – on an endless picnic?

One Maltastar/Malta Today is quite enough.

Headlines from The Times/timesofmalta.com

Sunday, January 22, 2012
by Claudia Calleja
THUGS ATTACK LESBIAN, 16, ON A BENCH

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
by Claudia Calleja
BROTHERS TO BE CHARGED OVER ASSAULT ON LESBIANS

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
CHURCH COMMISSION CONDEMNS ATTACK ON LESBIANS

This comes straight from the School of Writing and Thinking which gives us headlines like:

LIBYAN CHARGED WITH THEFT
HOUSEWIFE STABBED
PENSIONER FALLS OFF LADDER
ARAB MUGS JOGGER
AFRICAN IMMIGRANT HIT BY BUS
ELDERLY MAN, 68, RUN OVER

The heading should have been:

GIRL, 16, ASSAULTED IN HAMRUN SQUARE

And then the story:

A 16-year-old girl, whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy, was assaulted in XX Square, Hamrun last night by two young men who said they objected to public demonstrations of her homosexuality.

& C & C

My goodness, we’re hitting rock-bottom here.




30 Comments Comment

  1. Kenneth Cassar says:

    Finally. Thanks for pointing it out.

  2. Jozef says:

    The Times article was worded like a UK red-top’s. Only the use of the word ‘yobs’ was missing.

    • Mitqlu Deheb says:

      The Times already IS a red top. What we now have is a chav edition catering for the semi-literate monkeys who riddle its online comments board.

  3. Giovanni says:

    The Times yesterday changed original heading it seems that ex Malta Today employees are at their best at the moment.

    From:

    Updated – Malta needs sound governance as economic storm looms, IMF warns

    To:

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120123/local/malta-requires-sound-governance-as-economic-storm-looms-imf.403597

    Even the web address shows original title.

    [Daphne – ‘Forgranted’: one word a la Maltija, as in ‘bleckbull pub’.]

  4. I am me says:

    I actually called The Times and gave them a mouthful on this!

    Imisshom jisthu….

  5. mattie says:

    Same applies to what is said on television when racism is discussed.

    “Mela dak ghax iswed ….” Iswed?? The reference “iswed” (black) for skin colour should be removed once and for all.

    Can’t they say “persuna ta’ karnaggjon iswed” (a dark-skinned person), instead?

    [Daphne – You cannot be serious. The word in English is ‘black’. ‘A person of dark complexion’ is…what, exactly? Equivalent to a persuna nieqsa mid-dawl? The word in English is ‘blind’. White. Black.]

  6. Chris Mangion says:

    finally, the first decent article on this site :-)

  7. Grezz says:

    They’re probably all trying to sound blase’, like Manwel Mallia and his association with MLP’s LGBT section.

  8. John Borg Barthet says:

    I completely agree.

  9. David II says:

    I have mixed feelings on this. It makes me cringe too, but at the same time, the word ‘lesbians’ in the headline hammers the point home to the very ‘literal’ majority of Maltese society that the crime was a homophobic attack.

    [Daphne – No, it doesn’t. It dehumanises the girls by having them defined by their sexuality, and makes them more vulnerable to homophobia.]

  10. Georg Sapiano says:

    Well raised, Daf.

  11. silvio says:

    I always thought you found nothing wrong with someone being lesbian or homosexual,as a matter of fact you called me homophobiic, whenever I write on this subject.

    So tell me, why do you object to this girl being called lesbian,if in fact she is?

    [Daphne – I object most strenuously to people being defined or defining themselves by their sexuality.]

    I am a man, you are a woman and she is a Lesbian.

    It’s her choice, and this choice has a name, Lesbian.

    [Daphne – Silvio, here’s a biology lesson. ‘Man’ and ‘woman’ are the two genders. ‘Lesbian’ is a form of sexuality. Sexuality is not a choice. It is a biological fact, like gender.]

    • Emma says:

      Silvio, man I think you missed the point ENTIRELY with this post.

      Daphne – I wholeheartedly agree.

      • silvio says:

        No I didn’t.
        Why shoukld a lesbian be offended by being called so?
        Answer.
        Because she knows that she is something that most people despise,and most consider as unnatural.

    • Kenneth Cassar says:

      @ Silvio:

      “I am a man, you are a woman and she is a Lesbian”.

      Congratulations. You have just obtained an “F” in biology.

    • Sexuality CAN be a choice for some. But it is still a private thing that is nobody else’s business.

  12. G says:

    I agree this is a big problem with The Times, most especially because it is so widely read and so should realise that it is doubly in a position of responsibility.

    Its editorial staff have to choose their words carefully and stop embedding value judgments in their headlines.

    I think the problem is that most commenters only read the headline and then rush to comment, so they try to make the headlines as sensational as possible.

    The worst instance of this practice is ‘migrant’ because it inflames prejudices by implying the fact the person involved in the story was not born here is somehow relevant to whatever happened to them.

    I sometimes wonder if someone shouldn’t take up a public collection to raise funds to send the staff of The Times on a basic journalism course.

    That said, without The Times these boys would have walked free, so I can’t be too annoyed with their usual shoddy journalism on this occasion.

  13. bookworm says:

    When I saw the headline, I was shocked and had to read it twice to make sure I was at the right website.

  14. Clifford says:

    Gurnalisti tal-qamel. Ma jafux jaghmlu rapport.

  15. Zachary Stewart says:

    I don’t know…

    “Objected to public demonstrations of her homosexuality” seems a bit sanitized to me, as if they filed a formal complaint. That wording seems to validate the attack.

    [Daphne – No, Zachary, it doesn’t. British English is wholly different to American English and relies on understatement, not overstatement.]

    Obviously, the headline was constructed in a way to maximize clicks: “lesbian” is a big part of this story and why it is of interest. As a blogger, certainly you know plenty about this art as well. although I take your point.

    Still, however crudely-constructed the headline, if it is shining a spotlight on anti-gay violence in Malta, it is a good thing.

    • Zachary Stewart says:

      “British English is wholly different to American English and relies on understatement, not overstatement.”

      Yes, I believe Orwell had a few things to say about that. Personally, I take my style cues from Strunk & White. Clarity should be above all other considerations.

      [Daphne – Strunk & White deal with an entirely different sort of style, Zachary. And so did Orwell. An example of British English: “Well, that didn’t go too badly, did it?” Translation into American, for your benefit: “That was fantastic!”]

      • Zachary Stewart says:

        Lol. It says a lot about one’s cultural dispositions, doesn’t it? Here’s a translation into Maltese English for your benefit: “Thank God, at least I’m not dead, ta?”

  16. Matthew Vella says:

    She was attacked because of the fact that she was a lesbian and that is incredibly important to highlight, there’s nothing wrong with referring to her as a lesbian.

    [Daphne – Next time you get thumped for being a jerk, Matthew, how about a headline that reads: Prick attacked by morons.]

    Homophobia is something that really needs to be tackled, there are specific laws that protect individuals from violence based on race and religious belief but not sexual orientation! Its absurd, and its a public discussion that needs to be made.

    • Matthew Vella says:

      Erm, except being a lesbian isn’t a negative thing unlike being a prick. If I was attacked because I was Jewish I would have no problem with a headline saying Jewish man attacked. Lesbian is simply another way of saying a gay woman, you would only think its crude for her to be referred to as a lesbian if you felt lesbian carries negative connotations.

      [Daphne – I do not think ‘lesbian’ is crude. I am merely pointing out that she is a young woman, not a ‘lesbian’.]

  17. gordon says:

    int ilek li wasalt rock-bottom imma daphne ax ma nafx kif tista taqa’ wisq aktar fil-baxx.

    mil-fan dejjem tieghek

  18. Frank Muscat says:

    True, your are hitting rock-bottom in your “blog”. You complain about style you do not have yourself?

  19. claude sciberras says:

    I’m not an expert so just asking to understand better. A lesbian is a woman who is homosexual. To my knowledge it is not derogatory and homosexuals themselves use the term.

    So by using it in a headline you are hitting two birds with one stone, you are saying that she is a woman and that she is homosexual and that the attack was linked to her homosexuality – which in fact it was.

    This is different from the Arab mugs jogger title which gives no information on the mugger, we don’t know if it is a man or woman and Arab is a very generic term.

    When you answered Matthew Vella, it made your point a bit clearer however referring to a person as prick is derogatory.

    I’m saying this because i feel that sometimes we go overboard. in the comments above for example, someone is suggesting calling a black person a person of dark complexion (which would be an arab not a black person) so what would you call a white person a person of pale complexion?

    Same goes for disabled persons. Once we would refer to them as handicapped.

    I’m sure there are very good reasons but the word you use ends up having the same meaning in the end so its useless changing terminology you just need to fight stereotypes.

    Maybe title should read “Homophobic attack in Hamrun”.

  20. Antoine Farrugia says:

    Daphne,
    I don’t relish the way you comment about people you disagree with…
    However, I applaud you for this posting.
    Well said: you wrote like a woman and a mother, ‘cos after all ‘Amy’ is a real kid, with a whole life ahead of her.
    This is the side of you that I would like to see more of in your blog!

  21. Jon says:

    Journalists take note.

Leave a Comment