Seven years ago, in his World Literature and Composition class, English teacher Tyler Garms heard a student jokingly mention Andrew Tate, a social media personality known for promoting misogynistic ideas, like comparing women to property or claiming they “belong” to men.
“I didn’t know who that was, and now, unfortunately, I am familiar with who Andrew Tate is,” Garms said.
With over 11 million followers on X as of March 2026, Tate remains influential, and his rhetoric, Garms said, normalizes harmful ideas about women.
“It just seems so dehumanizing, [the idea] that women exist for men. That, in it of itself, … is [troubling],” Garms said. “If you’re teaching impressionable kids and young adults, boys and men, that they are superior to their girl and women counterparts, then they’re going to act … [and] treat people that way.”
This kind of language extends beyond social media, reaching even the White House.
In the 2016 presidential debate, President Donald Trump defended vulgar comments he made about women in an Access Hollywood recording from 2005 as “locker room talk.” Although he apologized, Garms said the phrase helped set a standard for this kind of behavior.
“So many people were quick to be like, ‘It is just locker room talk. This is just the way men talk to each other,'” Garms said. “I was like, ‘sure, but … what are we learning about ourselves and what are we learning about the way we value each other if this is the way we talk about women in private spaces?'”
This behavior is still prevalent 20 years later. On Feb. 22, while inviting the Olympic gold medal–winning U.S. men’s hockey team to the State of the Union, Trump joked that he would be “impeached” for not inviting the U.S. women’s hockey team, despite their own gold-medal victory.
Such remarks are not confined to private spaces; they have also been directed at women themselves.
Earlier that month, CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins asked Trump a question about Jeffrey Epstein survivors, to which he responded, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.” In November 2025, Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey was told to be “quiet, piggy” while also asking about Epstein documents.
CBS Chicago reporter Marissa Perlman says incidents like these can be frightening for female journalists.
“To be in the industry [during those] moments in time was scary, because it makes it feel like there’s a possibility that other politicians may follow suit and … see it’s OK to treat women like that,” Perlman said.
Perlman says these double standards extend beyond politics. She feels that female reporters often have to push harder than men to be heard, with their tone and demeanor judged more closely than the substance of their questions.
English teacher Heather Sherwin has seen similar patterns in her own career. From her first job as a teenager at Burger King, she realized how gender roles are enforced even in entry-level workplaces. For instance, all the managers were men and she was only allowed to do “female” jobs, such as working the register.
When she began teaching, she was asked if she planned to have children or not during her hiring process, while male colleagues were not.
“I think words have power, period,” Sherwin said. “Especially when you have people who are in a position of power … It gives [other] people permission to behave [or speak] in ways they shouldn’t.”
Sherwin has even seen the way people talk about women shift her own reactions. She recalls a meeting years ago when her female boss started to cry — a human response, yet one that Sherwin worried could be seen as weakness and unfairly shape how others perceived women in leadership roles.
Language has long influenced how women are viewed. Sherwin points out that women in the United States have long faced systemic barriers, even as laws and rights have advanced.
“Historically, women are already behind,” Sherwin said. “When language is used to keep women down and put them in a box, some people might say, ‘Yes, but you have all of these freedoms and laws.’ It doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day, underneath all of that, there’s still this idea that [this language] … oppresses.”
Politics in the U.S. in particular has been framed as a masculine, serious space, and the country’s winner-takes-all system makes it harder for women to gain traction compared with proportional representation systems used in other nations. Over 100 nations use quotas to guarantee women hold a minimum number of parliamentary seats.
According to Pew Research Center, women only make up 28% of voting members in the 119th U.S. Congress (as of 2025). Cultural perceptions about leadership can be one of the reasons for these results.
Sherwin believes this perception ties to the role of the U.S. president as commander-in-chief of the military and the belief women are not “strong enough” or “serious enough” to take on this role.
A KnightMedia survey of 251 students reinforces this, with 78.5% saying female leaders in the U.S. are not taken as seriously as male counterparts.
Patterns of gendered language and systemic bias are studied in the gender unit of sophomore year English classes. Garms says the unit is designed to give students tools to recognize and reflect on these issues.
Over the years, the unit has grown into a broader conversation about gender roles and expectations. Activities vary by class, but often include analyzing articles, media like the “Barbie” movie and excerpts from “A Thousand Splendid Suns.”
“I think for some kids, maybe [the unit] does open up their eyes a little bit to stereotypes they’ve held,” English teacher Elizabeth Joiner said. “I think we all hold stereotypes, so kind of explaining too that it’s normal … but if you’re always learning and willing to hear other perspectives, that’s how you make progress.”
In class, Garms challenges ideas students might not otherwise question. When he hears the word “female” used as a synonym for “woman” or “girl,” he pushes students to think about the difference, explaining that “female” refers to biological classification, while “woman” and “girl” refer to people.
He emphasizes that these conversations aren’t about putting down students, but instead fostering awareness.
“The more intentional we can be in our choices … [and] behavior, generally the happier and better we will be,” Garms said. “I would like to believe that no one is trying to hurt anyone else, but that doesn’t erase hurt when it happens accidentally.”
Garms believes that by addressing language and gender head-on, students are better prepared to recognize bias, both online and in real life.
With recent challenges in mind, Garms, Perlman and Sherwin emphasize that change is possible, but that it requires accountability, awareness and courage.
Perlman especially stresses that standing up in the moment is much more impactful than waiting until the aftermath.
“If young girls constantly see women being criticized for speaking up or being spoken to that way, they absorb that message even if nobody says it directly to them,” Perlman said. “That’s something they see and [think] ‘I shouldn’t speak up.'”
Sherwin believes that the opposite is also true. She points to moments where backlash has forced action, such as when controversial posts or comments were removed after public criticism.
For example, in February, Trump shared a post on X depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle. The post was quickly deleted after backlash. Criticism came not just from Democrats, but also Republicans, who condemned the video as racist, according to PBS News.
“Two things can be true. You can say I believe in these policies this person represents, but I don’t believe in the language that [they] were using,” Sherwin said. “That has to happen and I’m shocked it doesn’t.”
While accountability can feel rare in political spaces, Sherwin and Perlman say progress is still happening in other areas. In March of 2025, Perlman received a Gracie Award in Investigative Feature for her Chicago domestic violence series, which honors programming created by, for and about women.
She said that moments like these show that recognition and change are possible, even if progress feels slow.
“You need a wide range of perspectives in order to reach the best outcome,” Garms said. “The more intentional people can be that have decision-making power or power generally, the more intentional they can be in inviting a diverse range of stakeholders.”
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