The Washington Post plans to eliminate its position as a “gender columnist” after its writer wrote a piece that was ultimately dropped by the paper’s editors. Fox News digital has learned.
Monica Hesse, who made headlines in 2018 by becoming The Post’s first-ever “gender columnist,” won’t hold that title much longer after writing a column about gender was “killed” by her editors, two sources tell Fox News Digital. It is unclear what Hesse had written in the column and what the editors objected to.
Hesse, currently a columnist for the newspaper’s Style section, is expected to be moved to the Opinions section or remain at Style as a reporter, the sources said.
“It’s sad and so unnecessary,” a source told Fox News Digital.
Neither Hesse nor The Washington Post responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
WASHINGTON POSTS IN ‘WANNING’ AFTER CARTOONIST QUITS, STAFF SEXODUS
The Washington Post is about to fire Monica Hesse as the paper’s “gender columnist” after a piece she wrote was killed by the editors. (ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images; Dan Zak/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Hesse first joined The Post in 2007 as an intern for the Style team before becoming a Features general assignment reporter until breaking new ground as the paper’s “gender columnist.” In 2023 she was one Pulitzer Prize Finalist for her columns “that convey the anger and fear that many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
2024: FROM THE WASHINGTON POST TO CBS NEWS, IT WAS THE YEAR OF THE LIBERAL EDITORIAL REVOLT
Her gender-based commentary has also raised eyebrows among conservative critics over the years. In 2022, Hesse accused Florida’s parental rights laws removing progressive gender ideology from the class of ‘homophobic and transphobic bills wrapped in neutral language’.
In another pieceshe defended drag queens who read books to children, emphasizing, “Drag queens are not the ones who sexualize the drag story hour.”
Washington Post gender columnist Monica Hesse has a history of raising eyebrows among conservative critics. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In 2023, Hesse accused critics of First Lady Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman of “sexism” for allowing their spouses to seek office despite their mental disabilities.
‘Attacking someone who is sick or elderly simply because he or she is sick or elderly is unmentionable in our culture (at least for now), even for those experts whose flexible morals usually find a way around any barricade of decency. ”, Hesse wrote at the time. “But by blaming the women, these commentators can spread damaging messages against the president and senator while having plausible deniability against accusations of competence. The commentators are not – heavens, no – throwing mud at these poor men. They just curse. the women who should know better. It’s ableism, with a little sexism thrown in for treat.”
During the 2024 election cycle, as governor of Minnesota, Hessen defended Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for placing tampons in boys’ restrooms at schools.
“Any boy who casually said, ‘Oh, you’re on your period? I put a sanitary pad from the bathroom in my backpack in case one of my friends needed it’ – that boy would be the king’s stud. That boy would drown in the prom invitations,” she wrote on X.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post, previously indicated his newspaper would pivot to the center as he defended his decision to overturn Vice President Kamala Harris’ endorsement. (SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The Post’s move to eliminate its “gender columnist” position could be seen as an ideological pivot to the center as the liberal newspaper adjusts to the return of newly elected President Donald Trump.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Post, who quashed his newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the election, hinted at pursuing reforms in an op-ed defending the endorsement decision.
“Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this pays little attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose,” Bezos said. wrote in October. “The reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and ongoing decline in credibility (and therefore our declining impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”
