November 13, 2007
Hi everyone,
First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who has inquired about me and the show in the wake of the strike. As you may know, The WGA is indeed on strike and as a result, the writing of the show has stopped. We hope that the strike will be resolved in an amicable, reasonable, and expeditious fashion so that we can get back to writing great episodes of One Tree Hill, but until then, I want you all to know that we have 12 excellent episodes of the show completed – all the way through episode 100. As always, thanks for helping us get this far. It means more than you know. Now, that brings us to this…
When we hired Kevin Federline to play “Jason” in a few episodes of One Tree Hill, a press release went out. It was not generated by me. Not long afterward, I received a letter from a woman named Laura Thrall. She is the CEO of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. She read in a tabloid that Jason would be fronting a band called “No Means Yes”. This was news to me, as we never named Jason’s band. As a result, it doesn’t appear on the show. At all. Ever. It’s not even a part of Jason’s storyline. It was simply an erroneous name that appeared in a press release about a fictional band that doesn’t exist. Following me so far? The letter that Ms. Thrall sent to me was subtly threatening in its language. But I took a look at her website and figured her heart was in the right place. She represents an organization that seems to do a lot of good work – and certainly that can be said of the YWCA on a national level. Now please understand, I get A LOT of letters when people are unhappy. I get letters from people that want to see Haley and Dan together. I got letters from the Philippines when Lucas got his tattoo in “some back alley in the Philippines.” I get letters from a guy who HATES my show and yet, always asks for autographs from the cast when he signs off. So when I received this one, threatening language and all, I dismissed it. Because I knew that while Ms. Thrall was misguided, her heart was in the right place. And that was the end of it. Until today.
Today I was informed that the Chicago Sun Times plans to run an article about how One Tree Hill supports sexual assault. Do you believe that? One Tree Hill! The show I’ve protected for five years now. The show that has taken pains to preach grace and kindness and nobility. Apparently, a woman named ESTHER CEPEDA has jumped on the bandwagon following this post under the ADVOCACY and ACTION tabs on the YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO website:
“As part of the national YWCA A Week Without Violence campaign, and along with YWCA USA, YWCA Lake County, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, and YWCA Greater Los Angeles, I strongly object to your network’s program One Tree Hill because of the irresponsible nod your show gives to rape. This summer, your network announced that Kevin Federline was to guest star in a few episodes as the front man of a band called ‘No Means Yes’.
In September, we politely petitioned you to change the band’s name and you were unresponsive to our request; we are asking again – change the name of the band on One Tree Hill because no never means yes!
This is the real context of ‘No Means Yes’ for young women in OTH’s target demographic:
- In a survey of more than 6,000 students at 32 colleges and universities across the country, it was found that 1 in 4 women had been victims of rape or attempted rape;
- 84% knew their attacker;
- 57% of the attacks happened on dates;
- only 5% reported their attack to police;
- 38% of the college women who reported having been raped were 14-16 years old at the time.
In the real world, what does it mean when ‘no means yes’? It means that someone has forced, coerced or manipulated an unwilling victim into sexual activity. The writers’ intent may have been humorously sleazy, but when someone believes and acts on ‘No Means Yes’ they have committed a sex crime – and Mark Schwahn’s hit show will wink at, condone, and spread that message to young people all over the country once it airs. It tells the rapist his act of violence is ok and it tells the victim of it that she has no right to say No.
We hope your network, and the producers of One Tree Hill, realizes that no never means yes and changes the name of the band to something that does not promote violence against women.”
There is so much that bothers me about all of this. Where were the letters of COMMENDATION when we did episodes on tolerance? When we did a benefit album and storyline to support Breast Cancer Awareness? When I named Brooke’s clothing line “Clothes Over Bro’s”? When we did episodes on teen kindness and teen suicide? When we explored themes of religion and faith, and when, as we’ve done in nearly EVERY episode of One Tree Hill, we preached acceptance, and honor, girls helping girls, and girls believing in themselves and their own self worth? This show garners very little press. It doesn’t deserve this. It deserves so much better. And when these people see our first episode of the new season, they are going to look really silly, because it’s an episode STEEPED with pro-girl and pro-kindness and pro-love themes and messages.What happened along the way, that someone can read an erroneous blurb in a tabloid, dash off an aggressive and wrong-minded letter, and then the Chicago Sun Times swoops in, picks it up and runs with it? It’s disappointing. Because it calls into question all the good things that this organization probably does. It’s ignorant, and more than that, it smells selfish and malicious to me. And OK, the critics don’t like our show. But that doesn’t mean they can make up malicious LIES and print them as TRUTH.
To that end, the logic behind all of this is so flimsy and false. We haven’t even explored the idea that a band could be called “No Means Yes” and have NOTHING TO DO with sexual assault. I realize that when your life’s work is in regard to sexual assault, which is very worthy work, this might be your interpretation, but it certainly doesn’t make it a FACT. That being said, IF the band name DID exist on the show (which it DOESN’T) and IF it WAS a nod toward sexual assault, you know that a regular character would protest it and it would serve as a discussion point to basically reference the stats that the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago references above. But does anyone ask that question in advance? Does anyone give our show the benefit of the doubt? Apparently not these people and not in this day and age. Sad.
Finally, when you don’t receive a response from a show creator whose show has a fan base of roughly FOUR MILLION PEOPLE, to assume that it means that our network supports “rape and the perpetuation of rape culture” is really, really stupid. Maybe it means that Ms. Thrall made a hasty mistake and because there is NO MENTION OF A BAND NAME ON THE SHOW, we dismissed the letter as simply ignorant and reactionary.
So this is where I’m at. It’s Tuesday. Maybe the Sun Times will run their article on Thursday. There’s really nothing I can do about it. Sadly, this is the state of journalism today. If you subscribe to the Sun Times, you might want to look into that. If you donate money to the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, that’s great. I’d still do it. But is it too much to ask them to take the above post off their web site? You might consider writing them an e-mail and asking them to do just that.
At the end of the day, none of this surprises me. Our show has always quietly been a show of grace and integrity. So that’s what I’m going to preach now. As I did when I initially read Ms. Thrall’s letter, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt. As I said, I think her heart was in the right place. The rest of it is a mess. Non-profits dashing off angry letters in reaction to tabloid press releases? Once-decent newspapers printing irresponsible articles under the guise of journalism? Politically correct whispers that make lies truth? Really?
If you feel strongly about this, you might want to send an e-mail, write a letter or make a call to the people below. (Ms. Thrall didn’t include an e-mail address in her letter. Apparently she only wants to tell, she doesn’t want to listen.) It might be nice for these people and organizations to hear from a fan base, a predominantly female one at that, how One Tree Hill has done a few good things over the last five years and doesn’t deserve this HATE disguised as pro-social concern. It’s not. And for that, someone owes me and you and One Tree Hill an apology. All good things…
Mark Schwahn
Esther Cepeda – Chicago Sun Times ecepeda@SunTimes.Com 312-315-2802
Laura Thrall - CEO of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. 360 N. Michigan Ave. Suite 800 Chicago, Illinois 60601 312-372-6000
www.ywcachicago.orgSarah Frick - YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Public Relations Officer 312-762-2723 Sarah.Frick@ywcachicago.org
Michael Cooke – Chicago Sun Times Editor-In-Chief mcooke@suntimes.com
Amanda Barrett – Chicago Sun Times Features Editor abarrett@suntimes.com