”I want two inches off your hair and two inches off your arse!”
News presenter Tracey Spicer lets rip at male TV execs who judge women on their appearance in less than flattering terms.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
SKY News presenter Tracey Spicer, who was sacked by TEN in 2006 returning from maternity leave, has written an Open Letter on thehoopla.com.au to male TV executives, or perhaps one in particular, which makes for insightful reading.
At the time TEN denied any discrimination issues but the two parties eventually settled out of court.
Similar murmurs once emanated from Nine when Christine Spiteri claimed she was told by John Westacott, “To make it in this game, women have to be f***ble.”
Spicer’s editorial begins:
Dear Mr Misogynist,
I’d like to thank you for everything you’ve taught me over the past 25 years.
Why, I had no idea I was so fat, ugly and stupid. I thought being a size 12 was perfectly acceptable.
But when you yelled across the newsroom, ”I want two inches off your hair and two inches off your arse”, suddenly, a light went on.
Of course! The size of my posterior is directly related to the content and credibility of the stories I’m reporting on for this network. Silly me. You’re right. I’ll never make it as a TV journalist.
Those wise words of yours from 1986 are still ringing in my ears: “That’s why you don’t see blonde newsreaders,” you explained patiently. “People don’t take them seriously.”
You can read the rest here.
15 Responses
People should be careful what they write on the Internet. Even if it’s true.
@ Riga. i fully support your comment. It makes sense and is a good honest unbiased opinion of the state of the commercial news department on Network Tv and Sky News for that matter. I was watching Q & A these past two episodes and the overwhelming topic of the shows was sexism and misogyny such as what constitutes it and who does it the most. The problem i see is that women are in danger of not being taken seriously when ever they are treated in a way that they don’t like. The word sexism or sexist or mysoginy is in danger of being diluted in terms of their importance and influence, its like the sentence disturbing news trends being over used by the commercial media (which was cleverly lampooned by the chaser boys on Hamster Wheel). Likewise women are putting themselves in danger of crying wolf to many times and thus when an incident does warrant serious attention and that something be done about it than nothing will end up being done about it because people will believe that the woman or women were just winging and complaining or nagging. Men in particular hate nagging women they immediately turn off and switch off. So the women may be doing themselves are disservice by crying wolf to many times. If you don’t like how your being treated at work simply quit and move on. Start your own company if you wish or go on radio. You don’t have to look good to be on the radio just ask the male shock jocks.
I agree with Ted. Commercial TV ‘news’ executives are marketing a saccharine-coated product that is all style and image and not much content. It is therefore important to them and their audience that the autocue reader is engaging and looks good. Shallow? Yes. Sexist? Misogynist? No. Only if you believe that any criticism of any woman is sexist and/or misogynist, which is not far from what some would have us believe.
But sexism does exist in TV. Who can forget Lee Lin Chin’s sexist blooper live on SBS news when she blurted out “Who is that handsome …?” over the end a taped piece by a male reporter. I find it difficult to watch her now without recalling that incident.
Tracey Spicer displays incredible naivety in using terms such as “credibility” and “journalist” in a commercial TV news context, because there is very little of either in that particular genre. The chase for ratings demands that nothing in the ‘News’ should have the potential to lose viewers, hence the sterile, lightweight, inoffensive, trivia-filled bulletins they churn out.
Anyone with an IQ above their dress size realises this.
As crash dieting seems to make people look old and hagard these TV execs might be shooting themselves in the foot by insisting that their female presenters go on a diet.
Why does it matter what size her arse is , its hidden behind a desk ????
Carrie Bickmore? Seth Myers weekend updates are more credible.
Wait… she can’t be called fat, but it’s perfectly alright to say this guy has a “tiny d**k”? To paraphrase Tracey: how is his size relevant to his intellect, or his ability as a TV producer, or his decency as a person? It’s not.
I think her point stands and the behaviour against her was wrong, but her letter was sarcastic and rude.
Johnsmith: I trust TS was being sarcastic, to illustrate how the medicine should be returned in relation to job skills vs. presentation.
No matter what way you look at it newsreaders, especially women, will always be subject to their appearance being critiqued. As soon as I turn on the news each night I subconsciously make a judgement on Sandra Sully’s appearance – nice dress, appalling colour, new hairstyle, looking a bit tired tonight etc etc.
But at the end of the day, I’ve turned on Ten News for 18yrs because of her…no matter how appalling the chosen dress maybe for the day. Why? Because, to me, she is an ultimate professional, sincere and down to earth.
Interestingly enough Tracey speaks of being ‘long in the tooth’ well it is fabulous to see women in their 40’s dominating newsdesks. (Sandra, Chris Bath, Kay McGrath, Georgie Gardner etc) . I’d much prefer one of these ladies reading me the news than a young gun like Hamish MacDonald or Matt Doran.
there is only one reason I trust a news reader, there credibility, the way they look doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I know when they are telling me something I can trust that what they are telling me is nothing but the honest news and are reporting on what they believe is the correct story, and if what they are reporting isn’t exactly the truth they are willing and happy to explain there mistake and make the right corrections in the news story.
If we look at who is reading us our news, and who we trust with giving us the right story, a few names come to mind and they are mostly woman.
Georgie Gardner, Sandra Sully, Carrie Bickmore and Hamish McDonald and guess what, they all happen to be blonde and I trust them 100% with the news they are telling me, the Viewer.
This is one rare occasion that I actually agree with the male tv executives. The Benny Hill tv show had a huge influence on my life and my outlook on the world. I even married a nurse cos of the uniforms. Everyone gets a little to high and mighty about sexism etc….far better off being shallow imo
Get ready to have at me.
One very important reason why TV presenters (male and female) get (and keep) the job is how they look.
Being asked to maintain a standard is not unreasonable. Most understand what is required and do so, some feel they are being singled out, they are not, after all it is an image based industry.
Lets put this in perspective, the military will remove you from duty, cut your pay even discharge you if you do not maintain both your fitness and your grooming. Always has, its not mysogony nor is it sexism, it is called standard required for employment. Hell I even lost 4 weeks pre-tax pay (comes out of post-tax pay, so no pay for 2 months) for not having a haircut.
That was a totally gripping read, thanks David.
Everyone should try to read Spicer’s letter as it is both a cautionary tale and historical document.
And it’s pretty funny too.
I worked in the Computer Operations centre of a bank in the ’80s & ’90s and the senior management were exactly like that! Blatantly sexist sh*theads. They would try to ‘bond” with the male workers by passing comment on every woman in the office. I found it so hard not to smash in their smug fat red faces. Most of the guys I worked with hated it too. Times have sure changed.
Hah, good read. Thanks for pointing it out.
It seems this has been going on for some decades now. Women should walk away from these organisations. There probably wouldn’t be this sort of culture at the ABC or SBS.