Social media is a gift and a curse, all wrapped up in fascinating headlines and endorphin-pumping engagements.
In the years since the new communication platforms were first unveiled, the world has become far more interconnected. We’re rediscovering long lost friendships, keeping tabs on old flames, and interacting with people we’d never normally cross paths with. Unfortunately, we also use the access social media provides to taunt, terrorize, and troll those we disagree with, leading to instances like one recently shared across TikTok.
The video-sharing app is home to millions of viral moments, but the one shared by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is particularly eye-opening. It features a newscaster’s flawless clap back to a viewer’s attempt to body shame her, in a stellar reminder that the people we see on our screens are human. When we lash out at them, it’s real people we’re hurting, not characters.
Which all made Leslie Horton of Global News’ response the better, when she paused her report on traffic conditions to address an email she’d received. The entirely unkind email from a viewer read “Congratulations on your pregnancy. If you’re going to wear old bus driver pants, you have to expect emails like this.”
I have absolute heaps to say about that email, but I could never deliver a clap back of quite so pristine proportions as the one Horton shelled out live on the air. Addressing the email sender directly, Horton starts with a dry “thanks for that” before explaining that she’s “not pregnant,” since she “actually lost [her] uterus to cancer last year.”
“This is what women of my age look like. So if it is offensive to you, that is unfortunate,” she said, before polishing off with a key reminder: “Think about the emails that you send.”
Horton’s address of the email is perfect. I have no notes. She’s classy as all get-out, she’s calm and collected, and she still manages to body slam that crummy commenter into the ground. By calling it out publicly she shames them more than they ever managed to shame her, and she gets the chance to address the spineless and soul-sucking responses so many journalists grapple with on the daily.
I’ve experienced it myself on innumerable occasions — so many, in fact, that I’m rather numb to the haters these days. Once you’ve had enough people threaten your life, wish rape, death, or torture upon you, or even just screech about your work to the high heavens, it all becomes background noise. But maybe that’s not the way to look at it — maybe I should have taken a page out of Horton’s book years ago, and handled my detractors head-on.
The thing that really sticks in my brain, after watching Horton’s perfect video several times over, is the insane entitlement displayed by the email sender. This person thinks they have a right to speak on her body — in fact, they seem to think they have a right to dictate what her body looks like. This absolute doorknob seems to think they are entitled to a woman that suits their preferences on their favored traffic programming, and they’re so settled into this mindset that they feel comfortable sending a whole email about it.
That’s a problem. We have no right to dictate how other people dress, act, or anything else, regardless of their job. Just because someone appears on your screen does not give you a right to an opinion on their lives. Just close the laptop, walk away, and maybe touch some grass.
Published: Jan 22, 2025 11:31 am