In comment today
Egypt’s state broadcaster suspended eight female television presenters for being overweight this month. Sharif Nashashibi says such sex discrimination is rife across most industries and reflects society’s obsession with aesthetics,
This month, Egypt’s state broadcaster suspended eight of its female TV presenters, giving them one month to slim down before they can appear on air again with an “appropriate appearance”. This has understandably outraged women’s rights groups inside and outside the country. It is a blatant case of discrimination based not only on aesthetics but also gender, since male presenters do not face such pressures.
However, the particularly overt nature of this case risks limiting condemnation to the state broadcaster, when in fact the primacy of female aesthetics is rife not just throughout the media, but in most – if not all – other industries. Female TV presenters, far more than their male counterparts, are expected to be attractive to draw in viewers. This is never declared policy of course, not least because it would attract criticism and lawsuits. However, it is common knowledge and points to media companies’ calculations that attractive presenters make business sense.
This is not about liberal versus conservative values. For example, many of the female presenters and commentators on Fox News, America’s leading conservative news channel, look as if they have come straight out of a beauty pageant. An internet search for Fox News brings up lists and photos of its sexiest women.
The issue extends to age as well, with many female presenters complaining of being made redundant, denied employment or given much less airtime beyond a certain age.
A 2013 study found that just 18 per cent of presenters over the age of 50 at the UK’s main broadcasters were women (the percentage was half that at Fox News’s British sister channel Sky News). The study also found that women over 50 made up just 5 per cent of on-screen presenters of all ages and both sexes. In a landmark ageism case against the BBC two years earlier, a tribunal ruled that Miriam O’Reilly had been the victim of age discrimination after being dropped from the programme she had been presenting.
News is a commodity like any other, and the industry is more cut-throat than at any other time in its history.
Media companies feel that to sell news it needs to be sexy – this is not limited to content, but to the people delivering it to audiences. In effect, they are not just presenters but advertisers. In a literal sense, they are the face of the broadcasters they work for.
The decision by Egypt’s state broadcaster to suspend eight of its female presenters for being overweight is worthy of criticism. However, among the world’s most watched and recognised international broadcasters – from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia – none of their female presenters are overweight. That cannot be a coincidence.
This is not specific to the media. All sorts of products and services are advertised using attractive models (mainly female but also increasingly male). That is no accident – it is a tried, tested and effective strategy.
One can legitimately criticise the ever- growing obsession with aesthetics, but it is unreasonable to hold the media to different standards. It is no more guilty than all the other industries that produce the goods and services people use on a daily basis.
Even in conservative countries where veiling and modest dress among women are prevalent or obligatory, advertising often still relies heavily on models who are pretty, even if their hair and bodies are covered up.
This highlights a fact of human nature, that looks play a big part in our choices and purchases, whether we like it or not, and whether we choose to publicly acknowledge that or not. The female form is more objectified by men than vice versa, which at least partly explains why women face greater pressures with regard to their looks ( though body-image issues among men are certainly on the rise, and more readily acknowledged than they used to be). So, can we blame the media – indeed all other industries – for playing to our base instincts without carrying out our own self-reflection?
Many of the female presenters on Fox News look as if they have come straight out of a beauty pageant
Sharif Nashashibi is a journalist and analyst on Arab affairs