It was the most shallow of weekends. The news was full of items that demonstrated how important appearances still are in 2013.
From BBC commentator John Inverdale’s outrageous comments about Wimbledon Ladies Champion Marion Bartoli to the hideous statements about the Prime Minister’s daughter Jessica Rudd on twitter, superficial judgement was overwhelmingly everywhere during the past couple of days.
These were some of the culprits:
- How can you be a winner if you DON’T resemble the traditional view of attractive?
Saturday night during the Wimbledon Women’s Final, John Inverdale said to a co-commentator: “Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little ‘You’re never going to be a looker, you’ll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight?” The BBC has apologised for this “insensitive” remark but they haven’t sacked him. All class, Bartoli didn’t let it spoil her day. She retorted: ” I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamed about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry. But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.” In 2006 Inverdale made a disparaging remark about the Duchess of Cornwall during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year coverage when he suggested the horse Princess Anne rode when she won the 1971 European Championship was called Camilla. What does it take to sack a BBC presenter?
- How can you be a winner if you DO resemble the traditional view of attractive?
I am disappointed that new Sunrise host Samantha Armytage hasn’t been able to openly celebrate her big promotion. The dark cloud that hangs over this opportunity was created by a media frenzy suggesting that her age and relative attractiveness were the reasons why she has landed Melissa Doyle’s job. Armytage is younger and apparently viewers consider her to be sexy, according to “a television insider”. With the TV industry’s track record with women, it was no surprise that many assumed Melissa Doyle had been boned. Seasoned female TV journalists who have been unceremoniously dumped by their networks include Tracy Spicer, Helen Kapalos and Jessica Rowe. But when Doyle publicly denied that she had been dumped, surely that should have been the end of it. Instead the weekend papers were full of stories contradicting Doyle’s account of her reason for leaving Sunrise. Doyle claims she has been offered a great opportunity to front a new current affairs program that will have the added bonus of allowing her to actually see her children before they leave for school in the morning. After 11 years of ungodly-hour starts, can’t we just be happy for her? And can we now get on with the job of congratulating Armytage, who has done the hard yards fronting Weekend Sunrise since 2007? Let’s not fall into the trap of suggesting that a smart, successful woman isn’t deserving of a promotion simply because she is also considered attractive.
- A wife’s duty is to make her husband look good, regardless.
Art dealer Charles Saatchi announced via the British tabloids that he will be divorcing Nigella Lawson because she “failed to defend his reputation”. When the public display of domestic abuse was reported originally, Saatchi downplayed the incident as a tiff. The fact that Lawson didn’t concur indicates we probably did see what we thought we saw. Bullies don’t like being stood up to so they drop a bomb. Unfortunately this very public domestic dispute demonstrates the importance still placed on appearances.
- Women are merely accessories to be displayed and judged.
As Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott wheel out their daughters for their election campaigns apparently to show they are female-friendly, the nasty element on social media kicks in. A tweeter whose profile reads “Anti Labor that inc. Gillard & Rudd. Love Australia, multiculturalism is great But stop the boats. Long for the day of honest politicians. Brisbane (sic)”, clearly thinks Rudd’s daughter is fair game. He or she tweeted yesterday: “when you don’t have friends you use family. Jessica Rudd has no class she’s a slut”. Abbott and Rudd should seriously consider leaving their children out of the public gaze during what will undoubtedly be the most vicious of campaigns. Their daughters have no policies to share, no insight to add, so how can they be judged by anything other than appearances and the political biases of some of the looser canons in our society?
Have you had a gutful of this onslaught of superficial public judging?