TV Anchors: lose weight or get fired

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2006
TV Anchors: lose weight or get fired
4
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 9:19am

This was all over our news in the past few days (for anyone that doesn't know, I live in Egypt)


The two major local TV channels pulled their overweight female anchors off the air... gave them one month to lose weight... if they were not successful, the will not go back on air.


This really crushed me. I was somehow proud that we show people of all sizes on our television (well on the local channels at least). Some of these are brilliant women. And I don't believe they actually announced this decision, as if in pride. This is plain discrimination in my opinion. There are a lot of skinny girls on the air who are really air-heads.. why didn't they get rid of those? Give them a month to get educated or something. I am not saying that all skinny girls there are air-headed, but there is a portion that are and are only there because of their looks.


BTW there are overweight male anchors, but this was only done with female anchors. And that's another vent

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 9:29am

Ouch! The double standard that exists is so hard to ignore! I think one of the saddest things that I've realized is how awful other women are about a person's weight! If it was only men who insisted on the skinny ideal it would still be offensive, but often women are worse about it. Here overweight female celebrities are constantly the butt of jokes, even if they lose weight! Huh? Such hypocrisy given the obesity rates that exist. Most people must be close to someone who is obese, how can they be so openly critical?

Seems like an impossible task for one month's time. Completely unfair!

Annie

A
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2006
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 11:11am
We were just talking about that here at work the other day. They did the same thing to a couple here. WHY?? I mean it is horrible. I have to say that there are companies that do this for men/women alike because of safety issues too though. As in if you weigh 300 lbs is it really safe for you to be on top of a 10-15 ft ladder?? That kind of issue. We had a whole debate about this last week, and where I understand IF it poses a safety issue them saying the only way you can continue in that line of work is to lose weight but just for appearances sake.........HELLO welcome to the real world folks. I would sue if they told me that. It isnt' any kind of safety issue so they could win. IT is plain and simple discrimination.

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Angela

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-13-2005
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 8:56pm
WOW thats horrible!!
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2007
Thu, 03-29-2007 - 1:47pm
I love how women have changed the way that the news is delivered. They have introduced the human element to the venue. But as you say there is a double standard for how women appear on t.v. and that is how it is in life too. I think that when you are in a very public job part of the "expectation" of the job is to be easy on the eyes. I think that showing cleavage or inappropriate attire for the position of a news anchor is appropriate. Not to appear seductive but to appear pleasant and professional. So, too an inappropriate amount of weight is a problem for this particular job. As an employer if I saw a significant improvement in one month I may consider that the person was making an effort to change, otherwise I may have to take a different position. With this type of job you have to consider that so much of how well the company does is rated on public opinion and each anchor has to not only perform well but to a certain degree appear attractive. I think that the men are held to a similar standard as I do not see many extremely obese male anchors, and I do watch the national and local news programs.