A TV anchor wore the same suit every day for a year. Why no one noticed

The gender-bias experiment, by Australia's Today show morning male TV host, was prompted by the criticism his female colleagues receive daily. 

|
Twitter

What happens when Australian television host Lisa Wilkinson carefully picks out an outfit, fixes her hair in place, and paints on a face every day? She is criticized for her appearance. What happens when her co-host Karl Stefanovic wears the same cheap Burberry-knockoff suit day in and day out on air for a year? No one notices.

Stefanovic's experiment was prompted by the sexism he saw his women colleagues facing.

"I'm judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour – on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they're wearing or how their hair is," the Today show host told the Sydney Morning Herald. that's [what I wanted to test]."

Wilkinson remarked in a lecture last year about the daily critique she receives on her appearance, pointing to an email from a woman asking, "Who the heck is Lisa's stylist? Today's outfit is particularly jarring and awful. Get some style."

Stefanovic started small. He first wore the suit every day for a month without telling his co-host. When she didn't notice, the two agreed he should keep going.

And no audience member said anything about it, Stefanovic reported. Neither did fashion commentators or other media.

His theory was that criticism is based in women judging other women. "In this situation, for women on TV, it's mainly women judging women and what they wear," he said on Today. "So is that sexism, is my question."

Wilkinson agreed that most of the negativity comes from other women. "I don't know how we got into that space where it leads toward a lack of support," she said.

But, she noted, she gets a lot of emails, and "the majority of women are really encouraging."

"Women are judged much more harshly and keenly for what they do, what they say and what they wear," Stefanovic told Fairfax Media. "What Lisa has done for women, in magazines and in television ... she's a great journo."

The double standard for women in the public's eye has been pointed out before.

"Women in society are judged by their looks while men are judged by what they say, UK TV presenter Claire Balding told The Daily Telegraph. "We look at women and we judge, whereas we listen to men and we judge. Their voice as in what they say is stronger than their look"

And, she said, "That’s in every walk of life, not just the media. And it has a pervasively negative effect seeping through everything."

Hillary Clinton, at a "townterview" in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 was asked – amid questions about social and political issues in the country – which designers she wears.

"Would you ever ask a man that question?" was her answer.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to A TV anchor wore the same suit every day for a year. Why no one noticed
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2014/1117/A-TV-anchor-wore-the-same-suit-every-day-for-a-year.-Why-no-one-noticed
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe