Those of us who celebrate women in the pregnant form quickly forget that society is full of meanies who prefer women with child stay covered and tucked away for nine months as was done in the dark ages.
Kristi Gordon, a pregnant British Columbia meteorologist at news Global BC, said when she first got pregnant she plead with viewers to “please be nice to me about my clothing.” How sad is it that she had to even make such a disclaimer to audiences. Are we such a judgmental culture that we aren’t capable of seeing pregnant women in daily newscasts and deal with it for a few months? Ugh!
But no such luck! Gordon recently started received a very mean letter from a group of viewers criticizing her bump-hugging wardrobe.
Gordon, emotionally, read some parts of the letter.
“Nowhere on North America TV have we seen a weather reader so gross as you (sic),’ Kristi read from one of the messages. ‘Your front end looks like the Hindenburg and rear end a brick – fill in the blank – house.”
“‘Buy some decent clothes and have more respect for your unborn child. You’re not the first pregnant woman OMG.”
“‘Looser tops would look much more professional.”
During the segment, Gordon and her co-hosts Robin Stickley and Squire Barnes laughed off the misspellings in the letter, also pointing out that the author were too cowardly to include their names and a return address.
“First of all, if you are going to diss us, please learn how to spell,” Squire noted, explaining Global is spelled with an ‘a’ – not an ‘e’ like the group had written.
The hurtful words got to Gordon and she said although she considered Squire’s opinion to not even address the “haters” she felt compelled to share how upset she got by the words and they affected her self esteem.
“I feel like I am pretty confident person… I wouldn’t be in this industry if I wasn’t. I don’t feel that this is really affecting me or has affected me.”
She also responded:
It’s amazing when you say something mean about someone, it still affects them Even if you are joking, it sinks in at some level….I was not impressed with myself when I got into bed yesterday and thought about what I had done through the evening hours. It obviously had affected me….
For those of you emailing to say I look great and to keep my head up — THANK YOU! Please also share a kind comment to the person next to you…
No matter how rational or confident you are, the mean things people say can have an impact…The negative thoughts seep in when you don’t even realize it. Even a little joking comment could do some damage. Hopefully this can help us all be more aware of our impact on others.
Good response but still upsetting that women on TV and in the media must be subject to such garbage opinions!
