The Washington Post is considering eliminating its “gender columnist” position after the author wrote an article that was ultimately scrapped by the paper’s editors, Fox News Digital has learned.
Monica Hesse, who made headlines in 2018 when she became the Post’s first-ever “gender columnist,” won’t keep that title for long after writing a gender column that was “killed” by her editors , two sources told Fox News Digital. It is unclear what Hesse wrote in the column and what the editors objected to.
Hesse, currently a columnist in the paper’s Style section, is expected to be reassigned to either the Opinions section or remain in Style as a reporter, the sources added.
“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.
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The Washington Post is set to reassign Monica Hesse as the paper’s “gender columnist” after an article she wrote was killed by 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 Features’ general assignment reporter before becoming the paper’s “gender columnist.” In 2023, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her columns “expressing the anger and fear many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
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His sexist comments have also raised eyebrows among conservative critics over the years. In 2022, Hesse accused Florida’s parental rights legislation removing progressive gender ideology from the classroom as being “homophobic and transphobic bills cloaked in neutral language.”
In another post, she defended drag queens reading books to children, insisting that “drag queens are not the ones sexualizing drag story time.”
Monica Hesse, a gender columnist at the Washington Post, has a habit 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 run for office despite their mental disabilities.
“Attacking someone who is sick or elderly simply because they are sick or elderly is unacceptable in our culture (at least for now), even for experts whose flexible morals usually find a way around the barricades of decency. ” Hesse wrote at the time. “But by blaming the wives, these commenters manage to spread damaging messages against the president and senator while having plausible deniability against accusations of ableism. The commenters are not throwing mud at these poor men – my goodness , no – they’re just scolding women who should know better. It’s ableism, with a little sexism thrown in as a treat.
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During the 2024 election cycle, Hesse defended Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for putting tampons in boys’ bathrooms in schools while governor of Minnesota.
“Any boy who would casually say, ‘Oh, are you on your period? I hid a notepad from the bathroom in my backpack in case one of my friends needed it’ – that boy would be the king of studs. This boy would be drowning in prom invitations,” she wrote on X.
Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos previously signaled that his paper would pivot to the center while defending his decision to roll back support for Vice President Kamala Harris. (SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Post’s decision to eliminate its “gender columnist” position could be seen as an ideological pivot toward the center as the liberal newspaper adjusts to the return of President-elect Donald Trump.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Post who rescinded his paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the election, hinted at reforms in an op-ed defending the endorsement decision.
“Most people think the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t realize this is paying little attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose,” Bezos wrote in October. “Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing loss of credibility (and, therefore, our decline in impact), but a victim mentality won’t help. Complaining won’t help. is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.
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