This weeks AWA (Afternoons With Alumni), comes from PR Post-Grad Raquel, who recently found herself just plain angry over a teachers insensitivity concerning perpetrators of abuse. Looking for a place to take a stance, Raquel has graciously returned to her HC home to explain how she feels about the ongoing Ghomeshi trial. For those unaware of the accusations placed upon Ghomeshi, you can read more about it here. Thanks goes out to Raquel for her honesty. Here’s what she had to say…
– K.A
The other day I sought out the help of a teacher, seeking life and career advice in addition to some clarification on a past assignment. We were speaking about public relations, the ways in which the decisions people make can have lasting effects on their personal brand and how messing up is just another human certainty. Between talks of internships and the potential of employment-related failure she reassuringly said, “everyone makes mistakes, but you move on…even Jian Ghomeshi will bounce back after all this.”
This of course referring to the ongoing trial for the seven counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking he has been accused of. Her use of the word “mistake” to denote his behavior was particularly troubling to me.
While she meant it innocently, it is that ease of which she was able to mitigate the impacts of his behavior by discounting it as a little blip in his individual path, that has me so upset.
What angers me most about her comment is the deeply rooted patriarchal values entangled in her belief that this guy deserves a second chance at all. She is an educator, someone who instills knowledge and insight into all the young minds she meets. And yet I found that she lacked a certain compassion, depth and understanding when speaking to me that day about something far more pressing than a little ‘slip-up’ at work.
The fact that Ghomeshi will likely walk away from all this, the fact that men can do things like this and still go on to have meaningful careers, relationships and garner respect is sad. Even sadder, the realization that people expect it of them. Yet, it is the reality of our world.
Think about Chris Brown. He assaults Rihanna and the general public rushes to take sides in absolute horror. Cue a plea deal consisting of probation and counseling and the media firestorm that saw Brown’s image tarnished, promptly picks him up out of the ashes and dusts him off. His reputation was marred for precisely five seconds before he went on to release an album two years later that debuted with record-breaking sales. We probably all have a Chris Brown song on our iPod, I know I do.
Collectively, we have a tendency to forget and forgive. Flawless crisis management teams step in and sweep the problem under the rug with strategic, transparent key messaging, razor-sharp objectives and timely tactics able to stitch up the gaping holes in any number of extreme situations.
As a (almost) fresh-off-the-press PR professional I understand the complexity, the value and the work it takes to manage a crisis and effectively dissuade negative impacts to regain back the respect and loyalty the individual, company or product once had. In fact, one of my favourite elements of PR is crisis communications. Think about Toyota, Dole or even celebrities like Britney Spears. All of these ‘brands’ faced their fair share of bumps in the road. As a communicator I believe in the social value or public relations, the power my words have to help and to remedy. But as a woman, I know that my I do not have to compromise my moral threshold just because I have the skills and expertise to aide in someone else’s recovery. Objective communication versus remaining true to what I believe is ethical? I will speak my mind 10 times out of 10.
As a woman I feel like we should be hyper-sensitive to the fact that issues management, in the context of a sexual assault case, is so much more than just a critical situation solvable by some press conferences and court-ordered rehab. The bigger issue is with society, the way women are viewed and the way female experiences are constantly belittled. Even reading some of the live tweets from the court proceedings is deeply unsettling, the way these victims are accosted, made to feel bad for remaining pleasant to someone who had “allegedly” wronged them. Of course the victims went on to treat this guy with respect, they were scared, wronged, fearing for their jobs, their reputations, their safety. So while my teacher was analyzing the concept of Ghomeshi’s personal brand through a distinctly PR lens, she should have taken into account the gravity of the situation, the fact that many people see themselves in the brave victims taking the stand.
There is a reason that in Canada for every 1000 sexual assaults there are 997 assailants who walk free. Perhaps if the shared belief were less, “We all loved him on CBC, he’ll bounce back!” and more, “Sexual assault victim’s experiences are valid, their pain is legitimate and their stories are to be shared and respected despite the notoriety or talent inherent in the accused perpetrator,” then we would all be able to speak about these sensitive topics with more tact and empathy.
– Raquel Farrington