Washington Post editors ‘kill’ piece on ‘sexist columnist,’ plan to drop role entirely
The Washington Post plans to end its “gender columnist” position after a writer wrote a piece that was ultimately dismissed by the paper’s editors, Fox News Digital has learned.
Monica Hesse, who made headlines in 2018 for being The Post’s first “sex columnist,” won’t hold the title much longer after writing a column about sex that was “killed” by her editors, two sources told Fox News Digital. It is not clear what Hesse had written in the column and what the editors objected to.
Hesse, currently a columnist for the paper’s Style section, is expected to be reassigned to his opinion section or remain at Style as a reporter, the sources added.
“It’s sad and unnecessary,” one 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 will reclassify Monica Hesse as a “sex columnist” after a piece 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 on the Style team before becoming a regular assignment reporter until breaking out as the paper’s “gender columnist.” In 2023, he was the first Pulitzer Prize finalist for his columns “convey[ing] the anger and fear many Americans feel about losing their right to an 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 denounced Florida’s parental rights law that removed persistent gender stereotypes from the classroom as “homophobic and transphobic bills cloaked in neutral language.”
In one episode, he defended children who drag children’s books, insisting that “Drag queens is not a 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 run for office despite their mental disabilities.
“To attack a sick or elderly person just because they are sick or elderly is beyond the pale in our culture (for now, at least), even for those students with a flexible attitude who often find a way to snake around any obstacles of respectability,” Hesse wrote at the time. “But by blaming the wives, these commentators end up spreading harmful messages to the president and the Senator while denying the charges of self-reliance. The commentators do not see – heaven, no – throwing mud at these poor people. They just shout. women who should know better. It is to be able, and a little sexism, as a cure.
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In the 2024 election cycle, Hesse defended Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for putting tampons in boys’ bathrooms in schools as governor of Minnesota.
“Any guy who just said ‘Wow are you on your period? I hid a pad in the bathroom in my purse in case one of my friends needed it’ — that guy would be king. That guy would be drowning in prom invitations. ,” she wrote on X.
Washington Post billionaire owner Jeff Bezos previously signaled that his paper would focus on the agency while defending his decision to revoke the endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. (SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Post’s move to eliminate its “gender columnist” position could be seen as a point of view at the center as the liberal paper prepares for 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 a few days before the election, has been referred to making changes in defense of the endorsement decision.
“Many people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is ignoring the truth, and those who fight the truth lose,” Bezos wrote in October. “Truth is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuous decline in credibility (and, therefore, decline in influence), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work hard to control what we can control in order to increase our credibility.”
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