Nothing’s more attractive than a hat-free woman with a head cold! At least, that seems to be the thinking behind Chicago Fox Station WFLD’s new restrictions on women wearing hats during outdoor live shots this winter.
According to Chicago Tribune‘s Robert Feder, Good Day Chicago executive producer Dan Salamone has issued an edict, directed only at women, requiring female reporters to not wear hats during liveshots, because he thinks women “look a lot better without them.” Good Day Chicago airs Monday-Friday from 4:30 a.m.-10 a.m.. Feder writes:
The order first came to light when Jessica D’Onofrio, a reporter for ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, tweeted: “One local TV station is telling its reporters NOT to wear hats during the winter months. #ForCryingOutLoud!” She followed it with: “It sure isn’t my station.”
For context, Chicago is now so cold that homeless people are literally living in igloos, so it’s easy to imagine that not wearing proper winter headgear this time of year could be a real threat to reporters’ well-being. That being said, WFLD isn’t totally unreasonable: according to Feder’s sources, “if it’s 20 below” or colder, women may temporarily break the no-hat ban.
Obviously there are far more explicit and grievous examples out there of sexism in media and entertainment, but this one is still worth noting as an example of the soft misogyny female journalists face everyday, in which a woman’s appearance is considered far more important to her ability to do her job than her physical health.
We’ve reached out to Good Day Chicago‘s female anchors and WFLD for comment and will update this piece if we hear back.
UPDATE: Speaking with TVSpy, WFLD General Manager Dennis Welsh issued a statement saying the station does not support Salamone’s anti-hat agenda:
Welsh told TVSpy the station does not stand by what Salamone told his reporters, who are all female and said a broad discussion about on-air fashion choices became an ill-conceived directive about hats. Welsh said Salamone used poor judgement.
[…] Welsh added that the station was taking appropriate disciplinary action, though he couldn’t say specifically whether it was against Salamone.
Welsh also pointed out that, while it’s true only female reporters received the no-hat mandate, “all the reporters in the morning are women.”
(image via Shutterstock)
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