A camerawoman says she felt “belittled” while filming an interview with the music mogul but said it’s come to be expected.
Two female employees of Canadian broadcaster CBC are at the centre of a workplace sexism scandal after Snoop Dogg made a string of inappropriate comments on screen.
The 43-year-old music mogul was on-set in Truro, Nova Scotia, filming for the 10th season of Trailer Park Boys when reporter Elizabeth McMillan asked how the hospitality had been.
“The hospitality has been awesome, baby,” he replied. “I like your camera girl, too. She's thick. Damn."
Without a moment’s hesitation, he continues; “I wasn't even looking down. Now I'm forced to look down at the camera. Look at there, look at there. Look at the shit on that critter."
Off-screen, an eruption of male laughter is heard while reporter McMillan stammers to respond.
“Creepy and awkward”
Videographer Stephanie Clattenburg – the woman on the receiving end of Snoop Dogg’s comments – says she feels the rapper deliberately tried to humiliate her.
“There was a bit of a power-play there,” she said. “I think he wanted to embarrass me and he did – I turned beet red.”
Comments Clattenburg made after the incident draw attention to the behaviour many women are forced to tolerate in order to get their jobs done.
“What was I going to do? Put the camera down?” she asks. “If I put the camera down every time someone said something misogynistic about a woman, I wouldn’t have a lot of footage.”
“There are sexism comments made to me – because I am in a more male-dominated role – pretty much every day that I work,” she continues.
Corporate connotations
While Snoop Dogg is far from your average CEO, the exchange highlights how many women feel powerless standing up to a senior member of staff when sexism comments are made.
“My reporter and I are two women, two young women, physically smaller – he’s a celebrity, he’s physically taller, he’s a man,” said Clattenburg.
