Introduction

Female news anchors are harassed and not taken seriously all around the world. There are more than several accounts of sexual harassment while a female news anchor is reporting in public. Male viewers and politicians constantly comment on the appearance, credibility, and intelligence of women in news programs. Women are seen to be more emotional on television and are therefore not reliable sources. A female news anchor who does not dress in a sexually appealing way is discredited. This often results in hateful comments and messages from viewers to the anchors. The female news anchor who does dress in the way that male viewers like usually receives more ratings and respect. Throughout these next blog posts, we will show you how the media unfairly portrays women in the news networks.

News media takes female candidate less seriously than male candidates

USA Today argues that "news coverage decisions are overwhelmingly made by men, who lead the vast majority of newsrooms."

According to Women's Media Center: 
- Women make up two-thirds of journalism and communications grads, yet men write or produce 63% of all news coverage
- On television, male journalists outnumber female journalists by almost 2 to 1
- On Twitter, male political reporters ignore female reporters altogether; they retweet fellow male journalists three times more often than they retweet female journalists

As a result, male voices are genuinely heard more than female voices in news media. During political campaigns, this has a huge influence on how women are perceived. In news media, women in politics are often ignored or ridiculed. During Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential race, she was attacked for being unlikable, aloof, shrill, etc. During the 2020 Democratic nomination, similar comments came up while discussing Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand. 

Women have to walk the line of being either aloof or emotional, passionate or angry, etc. while men rarely have to face this predicament.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/02/14/amy-klobuchars-surge-shows-gender-inequality-sexism-media-men-majority-column/4754230002/ 2/14/2020

Female news anchors' emotions are often criticized

There is an ongoing discussion about whether or not news anchors should show their emotions or hold them back while they are on screen. Some argue that emotions show that the anchors are humans, just like the viewers watching. Others argue that they should conceal it and only deliver the news in an informative way. 

Women are often criticized for showcasing emotions on air, while men are praised for it. I looked up "female news anchor getting emotional," and chose the first video- "Rachel Maddow breaks down during report on 'tender age' shelters." In the video, Maddow has to eventually toss to a different anchor because she was about to cry while delivering the story. 

June 2018

The first three comments on the YouTube video are... 

One of the commenters went out of their way to misgender Maddow. Many of the other comments were similar- commenting on her appearance, credibility and lack of composure. 

Next, I searched "male news anchor getting emotional." I found a video titled "Anderson Cooper's emotional message to Haiti." Cooper also gets choked up while delivering the story. 

January 2018

The first three comments on the YouTube video are...

The majority of comments are about how moving his speech was and how "emotions are never a sign of weakness." 

I am aware of the difference in stories and that the same people are not giving the same comments on both videos, but it goes to show that men and women are often perceived differently when they "lack composure" or show emotions while on television. 

Sexism in News Media

Dec 21, 2012

In the video above, viewers hear the comments that men and women make about other women on TV. Whether it be comments on voice, position of authority, hairstyles, body type, attire, credibility, and intelligence, these comments are usually negative and demeaning. It saddens me to see other females joining in on criticizing their fellow female reporters instead of defending them and shutting down the negative comments.

The cartoon, "Robot Hugs" makes a valid point similar to this article. Robot Hugs (2014) states,

 "Look, all I'm saying is that you can't dress provocatively and then get all offended when guys treat you in a certain way! I mean... at a certain point, aren't you kind of asking for it?" 

Most men do not understand, or at least claim to not understand, how uncomfortable they make women feel when they comment on physical appearance, such as body parts and attire. Making comments like this towards women is objectifying and uncomfortable. 

Influence of Female News Appearance and Credibility

Click here to display full article April 2017

The article states that viewers tend to retain news better when the presenter is properly dressed. Several studies have been done to prove that better dress is directly associated with higher attractiveness. Another study was done which supported that an attractive educator was more likely to change an audiences mind. Attractiveness of news reporters is directly linked to their credibility. 

"People perceive attractive individuals as more curious, complex, perceptive, careful, and these are associated with the credibility of news." 

Most female reporters believe they are the object of jokes and sexual comments. Physical appearance is very important for a newscaster because the more attractive the person is, the higher the ratings for the station.

 "As the saying goes, Beauty sells!"

 It was noted in the article that many organizations want "cute faces and cute bottoms." 

The phrase, "journalistic damsels" is used to represent the performance of women news anchors. The importance of physical appearance leads to the thought of how you never really see older women reporting news anymore. The news industry is overflowing with young and beautiful females newscasters. The article mentions that there are several variables that determine a viewer's perception of a newscaster. To paraphrase, these variables include, the angle of the camera, the newscaster position and posture, attire, style of makeup/ how much, hairstyles, skin complexion, facial expression and quality of voice. 

Two different studies were completed recording people's thoughts on women's appearance and the results were placed into the images below. 

SA=Strongly Agree, A=Agree, UD= Undecided, D= Disagree, SD= Strongly Disagree

The talk of importance of women's female appearance on the news is also shown in the video Miss Representation (Newson, 2011). At around 1:04 in the video below they stress the importance of how good a women's legs look on tv and also if the clothes she wore were a big mistake. They were all observations of the female reporter's physical appearance instead of listening to what she was reporting on. 

Jeanine Pirro responds to critics of appearance on Fox News show

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/29/jeanine-pirro-appearance-fox-news-technical-difficulties    March 2020

I read the article linked below about a news anchor that did a show from home since everyone is in quarantine and she received backlash. Viewers criticized her hair and appearance. 

Excerpt from Fox News:
"Jeanine Pirro missed the entire first segment of her show Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News and appeared disheveled when she did finally appear, her hair noticeably and uncharacteristically non-coiffured. Fox News issued a statement on Sunday blaming “technical difficulties” for the spectacle and seeking to excuse the mishaps by pointing out that it, like other networks in such challenging times, was operating “with a reduced staff working remotely to ensure the health and safety of our employees”.

I thought that even Fox New's defense was wrong and lame at best. Calling what happened a 'spectacle' is not the right way to handle it in my opinion. Just because a new's anchors job takes place in front of the camera does not mean everyone is given free rein to comment negative things about her appearance. Fox New's barely defended her. It is not her job to look good, but instead to report about events to update and help the public. It is also very difficult to be ready and your best when having to do a show from home due to the nationwide circumstances surrounding Coronavirus, a major current event impacting everyone differently. Additionally, women, in particular, are the ones that are constantly criticized for their looks, particularly on television and news. It is truly something that needs to end. 


This article reminded me of Tufekci (2018) because in the Tufekci article it described how social media is such an issue, especially Twitter for people not thinking their thoughts through and using social media as a rapid-fire response system.  The article talked about trolls who throw abusive comments at women most on Twitter. This relates back to the news anchor article because the people were just commenting blindly and not realizing their impact on the other person. 

How Hillary Clinton was portrayed on television during her 2016 presidential campaign

Women can often get a bad reputation for being "too emotional" on television in comparison to men. We frequently see men being praised for being "strong" and "opinionated," yet women are criticized for being "emotional" or "weak."

Hillary Clinton told Vox News that she "had to learn as a young woman to control [her] emotions." Clinton has a huge presence in news media, and she gets criticism for her emotions constantly.

"I’ll go to these events and there will be men speaking before me, and they’ll be pounding the message, and screaming about how we need to win the election. And people will love it. And I want to do the same thing. Because I care about this stuff. But I’ve learned that I can’t be quite so passionate in my presentation. I love to wave my arms, but apparently that’s a little bit scary to people. And I can’t yell too much. It comes across as ‘too loud’ or ‘too shrill’ or ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’"

Hillary shared an example in her book, "What Happened," that shows how her and her opponent, Donald Trump, were treated differently during the 2016 presidential election. 

“If Trump ripped the shirt off someone at a rally and a button fell off my jacket on the same day,” she wrote, the headlines would report: “Trump and Clinton Experience Wardrobe Malfunctions, Campaigns in Turmoil.”

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12851878/hillary-clinton-control-emotions-sexism-humans-new-york September 2016

TV gender gap

Click here for full article March 22, 2017

Females continue to report less news than males do. On major network channels, women are said to report 3 times less than their male counterparts. This gap remains the same throughout newspapers, online articles, and television. Men dominate media across all platforms. Male reporters do not find stories told by a female to creditable and their female partners are not "equal" in telling the story. Research presents that overall, men report 74.8% of news, leaving women with only 25.2%. Men are found to report more on sports, weather, and crime, where women are seen reporting education, lifestyle, and health related news.

The article, "Sex Segregation in the US Labor Force," (Bose, 2001) relates to this article because it talks about how a lot of common occupations are male dominated. Bose comments, 

"In white-collar, pink-collar, clerical, and blue-collar occupations, the jobs at the top of the hierarchy tend to be male dominated; when women are allowed into those specialties, it is usually because the jobs have changed in some way to be less attractive to men." 

Bose emphasizes the point that many of the occupations held by women are occupations that men have passed up because they have found better work. Women do not have the same opportunities than their male counterparts. 

I Prefer to Hear a Male Voice

Click here to read the full article June 26, 2018

Female Commentators Find Harsh Judgment at World Cup

A British sport journalist, Vicki Sparks, made history when she became the first female to report on a live World Cup game. She faced criticism when viewers watched her report and claimed that she had a high pitched tone in her voice. A man named Jason Cundy commented during a segment of Good Morning Britain, 

"I prefer to hear a male voice when watching football... Ninety minutes of hearing a high-pitched tone isn’t really what I like to hear. And when there’s a moment of drama, as there often is in football, that moment needs to be done with a slightly lower voice." 

He later commented that his original statement was just a personal preference. His apology to the public is seen below. 

Other women who have reported at the World Cup have been sexually harassed on live television. Men randomly run up to female news reporters and squeeze body parts or kiss them. This is not appropriate or wanted. The female news reporter is not allowed to retaliate because she could lose her job. She has to remain calm and keep reporting, which is unfair and cruel.

The content in this article reminds me of the article, "Why You Shouldn't Tell That Random Girl On The Street That She's Hot," written by Miri (2013). The content of both articles relate because women do not like to hear from strangers "how good they look," and they also do not want to be touched by strangers. Most men find their comments to just be compliments, but from a women's point of view, these comments can harmful and threatening. 

Pregnant Fox News anchor slams people offended by her maternity clothes

A news anchor who was pregnant at the time was wearing dresses to do her job on television and was then criticized by viewers. 

Viewers emailed and messaged Kristen Nicole, the news anchor, to give their negative input. She said that they told her to "stop wearing tight dresses" and that "nobody wanted to see it". I find this almost unbelievable. A woman cannot control how her baby bump looks in clothes and she should be allowed to wear whatever she wants to without public criticism over her natural body. The article says "Just because news anchors are in the public eye doesn’t give people the right to criticize their attire." I completely agree with this and believe that the public needs to not be so quick to judge people. Often people forget that the people on television are real and that you should not feel free to openly criticize them. 

I could not help but to think of the "Feminist Frontiers" article while reading about how a pregnant woman was being criticized based on appearance. A quote from the article is, "Even within the most traditional male-dominated organizations and fields, gender relations are not immutable and women employ diverse strategies to resist gender inequality ranging from abortion rights, domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse, and pregnancy discrimination to daycare, sexual harassment, and welfare rights (Ferree and Hess 1994; Gagne 1998; Luker 1984; Staggenborg 1996; Whittier 2009). I felt that the viewers were discriminating against the news anchor by saying that what she was wearing was inappropriate just because she was pregnant. Obviously, there was no other issue with her outfits any other time, just when she was visibly pregnant. Pregnancy is not a shameful thing and women cannot hide it and should not have to try. 

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/pregnant-fox-news-anchor-slams-people-offended-by-her-maternity-clothes August 2017

A female news anchor criticized by a male viewer of the program.

A female news anchor in Portland Oregon was criticized by a male viewer of the program. 
The man told the news anchor to "dress like a normal women". This phrase "dress like a normal woman" obviously is referring to the non-modern stereotypical woman who would be wearing a dress or other normative feminine attire. Some men in particular throughout history have seemed to senselessly deem themselves fit to judge a woman based on their appearance. This is very degrading and honestly so outdated that it reminded me of the article entitled "Converture". This article detailed how women were treated in different circumstances, but in each case, they were very much lesser than the dominating male figure. One part of the article says, "Outside of the legitimizing context of property ownership or family identity, women might effectively be rendered non-persons." Although I am in no way saying that men today feel that women are "nonpersons", I feel that by people in general, but particularly men, finding it okay to voice their opinion about a women's appearance while doing her job is outrageous and only makes me think of these outdated rules. It only supports the claim that men feel they are superior to women and more dominant. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/tv-anchor-air-rebuttal-viewer-critique-attire-65496903 September 2019