So recently, not one, but two local TV hosts went and said stuff we deem to be offensive again: one host actually blamed a girl who got gang-raped because she went out to drink with someone she met online, while another host actually made double entendre jokes about someone they were interviewing who was once a prostitute. We don’t need to name them: you know who they are.

But what is it about these hosts that their only brush with relevance lately seems to be the latest time they put their foot in their mouth while on camera? And why does it often have to happen at the expense of a woman?

The host has some outdated beliefs he thinks are worth airing

Apparently, in an age where babies (babies!!!) get sexually assaulted, some people are still backwards-thinking enough to believe that the reason rape happens is because of what a woman is wearing.

We know better because this is called victim-blaming: when instead of getting angry at the rapist for raping, we get angry at the victim for “letting herself get raped,” as if that was her plan all along. Let’s face it: rapists rape. It doesn’t matter if the victim is drunk, sober, scantily clad, or wearing a burkha. The onus should be on the rapist, and not the victim, because it should be obvious that people can only be so vigilant before they turn paranoid.

The host thinks someone’s deepest shame is worth making fun of

Alternatively, the host might just not think very highly of the person they’re talking to. After all, why would you have to respect a woman who worked for years and years just to be able to get herself out of being prostituted, then proceed to earn a decent living for her family afterwards? Surely, making fun of her is warranted, because she opened up her heart to you about her past!

The host is oblivious that people might not be agreeable to what they have to say

The host will almost never apologize nor back down, because he always believes that he had a right to say what he had to say, and everyone else is just “misinterpreting him.”

What he forgets is that his exercise of free speech doesn’t spare him from the consequences of said free speech, whether it be a sanction from the KBP, his home network, or just the loss of a few longtime fans. Eh, what does he care, right? He’s rich!

The host won’t ever have the same expectations of men

When a man gets robbed, this host won’t ask the man if he was flashing his phone or his watch before he got mugged. If a man talks about being a gigolo who got himself out of poverty for his children, that host would probably even congratulate him. It’s very glaring that a double standard is in play for these people, but that’s exactly why they’re misogynistic and they get away with it: we simply don’t look at a rape survivor the same way we look at a mugging victim, nor do we look at a prostituted woman the same way we look at a male gigolo.

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