Wait, Which One of You is Mary?
I’ve been in Florida for a week watching ABC, NBC, and CBS in the Miami area in the mornings. I’m sure this goes on elsewhere, but it’s especially obvious here: All the news show women look alike.
There is are usually a female co-anchor, a weather reporter, and a traffic reporter, leaving one male co-anchor on many occasions. The women all have about the same length hair, the same type of makeup (heavy on the eyes, lipliner) all wear dresses (no pants) that seem way over the top at 6 and 7am, and wear high heels. Whey do you need to report the weather or traffic wearing heels, and why do you need a full body shot of the reporter who is doing so? Aren’t we supposed to look at the maps and video?
I’m all for women’s rights, I think the sexual harassment at Fox was abhorrent, and women deserve equal pay for equal work. But why is there such a subservience to what I suspect is a man’s judgment that the women all have to look a certain way on the air?
At the conclusion of the news the current tradition is to have everyone sitting or standing together with some “happy talk” for the final few seconds. The women look like something between the old Playboy and the Stepford Wives. I’m embarrassed for their conforming to this beauty queen paradigm, and I’m wondering how many talented women are being omitted because they won’t or can’t conform to this sexual stereotype.
Why aren’t those women who are marching protesting what’s right in front of them every morning?
