Washington Post Express Panned For Using ‘Male’ Symbol on Cover About Women’s March
The Women’s March on Washington is anticipated to be the biggest protest against the inauguration of Donald Trump. It has grown from a simple Facebook event page to a legitimate protest that numerous advocacy groups have latched on to. Women around the country are signing up to take buses to the nation’s capital for the purpose of protesting on January 21 and coverage of the event grows every day. In short, it’s going to be a big deal.
Naturally, Washington Post‘s Express wanted to cover what is shaping up to be a noteworthy cultural event. Unfortunately for them, the big women’s march got branded with the wrong symbol on the cover, which is sort of ironic, given that so many of the protesters are gearing up to fight against Trump being elected in spite of the woman he was running against was seemingly more qualified. Women aren’t thrilled that even when reporting on a march about women, the Express somehow made it about men.
Listen, everybody makes mistakes. But perhaps this is a sign that @WaPoExpress needs to hire more women in the art dept. ♀ pic.twitter.com/GDHYN5xuy7
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 5, 2017
@JessicaValenti @WaPoExpress omg. That is a legendary fail.
— Jocelyn Saragona (@lafemmesaragona) January 5, 2017
@JessicaValenti @WaPoExpress maybe its meant to be satirical? Being a woman in a man’s world type of thing? Probably not.
— WitchyKilljoy (@JJovana) January 5, 2017
WTF? This is the symbol for men. https://t.co/eUai2AzRNo
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 5, 2017
@JessicaValenti @WaPoExpress at least it’s still pink so our lady brains can comprehend it’s for us ?
— Joanna (@jkathleen5) January 5, 2017
Today’a we make’a a mess o’ the cover pic.twitter.com/jnYjvcx1Nu
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) January 5, 2017
how many women do you think @WaPoExpress has on its edit team?
— sara david (@SaraQDavid) January 5, 2017
Wrong symbol, dipshits. https://t.co/iS46s8oGjr
— Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) January 5, 2017
I think… I think that’s the wrong symbol? https://t.co/CXaywcbzYQ
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 5, 2017
@WaPoExpress Appears to be unconscious bias here
— Jillian (@nwlilac) January 5, 2017
The patriarchy was unusually subtle today. https://t.co/f3P9qvXadp
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) January 5, 2017
@WaPoExpress sooooo we’re just gonna glaze over the fact the male symbol is being used for the Women’s March? ?
— this some bullshit (@KabbaV) January 5, 2017
congrats to the Washington Post’s Express magazine for using the male symbol for cover art about a women’s movement. https://t.co/CuXwOFR90O
— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) January 5, 2017
@WaPoExpress Oh, the irony of your cover! Google the symbols for men and women and compare… #oops
— Lori W. (@LoriBuff) January 5, 2017
I don’t know what you’re all complaining about. They made it pink, which as we all know is the most important symbolic marker of womanhood https://t.co/oFdsOnwkoo
— Becca Reilly-Cooper (@boodleoops) January 5, 2017
.@kcunning They had no shares/likes b4 this. They did it deliberately to get attention. They said FU to women to get free publicity
— Holli (@sheppers68) January 5, 2017
This country definitely does not have weird, deep & intractable issues re women, even when it tries to be cool about them. Nope. Not at all. https://t.co/lSYshnYCvm
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) January 5, 2017
Banner month for the Washington Post. https://t.co/BvI1Hm1J6O
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 5, 2017
Is this real life: https://t.co/lSYshnYCvm
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) January 5, 2017
why women need to be on your design and marketing teams — so mistakes like THE MALE SYMBOL being used for THE WOMEN’S MARCH don’t happen https://t.co/eqW1CUrnh9
— Kat (@KattyCorner) January 5, 2017
@laurenduca In Trump’s America, even women’s marches are for men’s rights!
— Sarcastic Brad (@bkmcconnell) January 5, 2017
WaPo noticed the backlash and retracted the tweet promoting the cover. They then replaced it with a new one:
This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake. pic.twitter.com/MKKOkHPV8T
— Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017
That obviously doesn’t fix it in the print edition, but the redone tweet got a lot of “thank you” responses. Leading feminist thinker urged her followers to be forgiving, too:
Don’t give @WaPoExpress too hard of a time; everyone fucks up. (Even feminists: Remember this cover?) pic.twitter.com/oe4gQknhtL
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 5, 2017
In case you can’t spot the error there, Ms. Magazine, of all places, misspelled “feminism” on that vintage cover.
Everyone makes mistakes, but making them in the Twitter era is just a little bit more dramatic.
[image: screengrab]
