“I’m a little ashamed, looking back, not to have spoken loud enough. “ Often, when telling her story, Virginie Plaut criticizes herself. Maybe she has “Over-interpreted” of the words and gestures of his male colleagues. Maybe she was “Too stuck” to laugh at their connoted jokes, “Too susceptible”, or “Too sissy”. “We start to doubt”, apologizes the young woman who, ten years ago already, ceased to be journalist in the sport because she could not support any more the sexism which she underwent there.
Today, at 38, she retraces what she went through with her face uncovered, without hiding the name of the editorial staff (BFM-TV and RMC Sport) that she ended up leaving. His testimony is, among others, on the website of Women Sports Journalists. This collective was born at the end of 2020 in the intimacy of a group of six women: Mejdaline Mhiri (editor-in-chief of the quarterly Sporting) and Laurie Delhostal (ex-Canal +), co-presidents, Chrystelle Bonnet (The team), Sarra Djeghnoune (student), Tiffany Henne (independent, ex-RMC) and Sarah Saadi-Garcia (freelance).
It is through a tribune published by The world, “Let’s occupy the field”, which he officially launched on March 21. The date had not been chosen at random: that afternoon, Canal + was broadcasting I’m not a bitch, I’m a journalist, the documentary by Marie Portolano and Guillaume Priou which denounces sexism in the world of sports journalism.
14% women
Of all the repercussions that the film has had (at the sports service of Canal +, Radio France, RMC, etc.), the advent of this group is undoubtedly the most constructive. In just a few days, more than 150 women joined; about two-thirds attended the first two plenary meetings last week. Objective number one: to count oneself, to have a basis of comparison. At the Union of Sports Journalists in France (UJSF), whose figures are not exhaustive, there are “5,830 sports journalists holding a press card, of which 14% are women”. In comparison, according to the Observatory of press professions, the profession as a whole has 52.5% men and 47.5% women.
Even before Marie Portolano’s documentary, it is the testimony of Clémentine Sarlat who, at the beginning of April 2020, plays the detonators. However, when she traces back to The team the sexism and moral harassment of which she was the victim, a few years earlier, within the sports department of France Televisions, this rugby and athletics specialist cannot imagine the consequences that will follow.
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