WaPo Editorial Page Goes Neanderthal For Second Time In A Week

**FILE** In this Feb. 27, 2008 file photo, The Washington Post sign is seen on its building in Washington. The Washington Post says it booked a second-quarter loss, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, after taking a charge to cov... **FILE** In this Feb. 27, 2008 file photo, The Washington Post sign is seen on its building in Washington. The Washington Post says it booked a second-quarter loss, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, after taking a charge to cover buyouts at its flagship newspaper, corporate office and Newsweek magazine. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, file) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

On Tuesday, the Washington Post published a piece by two academics arguing that women would be safer from sexual assaults if they themselves were married or had married fathers.

The Post originally published the piece in its “PostEverything” section with the headline, “One way to end violence against women? Stop taking lovers and get married” and the sub-headline, “The data show that #yesallwomen would be safer hitched to their baby daddies.”

In their article, W. Bradford Wilcox and Robin Fretwell Wilson, assert that marriage can lead to reduced sexual violence.

“This social media outpouring makes it clear that some men pose a real threat to the physical and psychic welfare of women and girls. But obscured in the public conversation about the violence against women is the fact that some other men are more likely to protect women, directly and indirectly, from the threat of male violence: married biological fathers,” they wrote (emphasis theirs).

Wilcox and Wilson present the data on sexual abuse and families, noting that girls are more likely to be abused if they don’t live in a home with a married father and that women who are married aren’t victimized by intimate partners as often.

“For girls, the research tells us that marriage provides a measure of stability and commitment to the adults’ relationship, that married biological fathers are more likely to be attentive and engaged with their children because they expect the relationship to be enduring,” they concluded.

“But marriage also seems to cause men to behave better. That’s because men tend to settle down after they marry, to be more attentive to the expectations of friends and kin, to be more faithful, and to be more committed to their partners—factors that minimize the risk of violence,” they continued, analyzing the effects of marriage on women.

Predictably, the piece drew a lot of criticism once it was published, and the Washington Post quickly tried to try to tone down the headline.

The new headline and sub-headline on the piece read: “One way to end violence against women? Married dads. The data show that #yesallwomen would be safer with fewer boyfriends around their kids.”

While the Post chose to change the way it framed the piece, the article, which tells women that marriage will solve their problems, is still up on its website.

PostEverything editor Adam Kushner said he changed the headline since the original one “distracted” from the data discussed in the piece.

The Washington Post caused a stir just a few days ago with another controversial piece on sexual assault. On Friday, the newspaper published a column by conservative commentator George Will, in which he wrote that all of the focus on rape by universities has made “victimhood a coveted status.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: