ABSTRACT
This research investigates the experiences of on-air news anchors in Washington, DC and Baltimore, regarding their physical appearance, and more specifically, what kinds of comments broadcast anchors have received from audience members, colleagues, or bosses, and whether or how the experiences of men and women differ. The research is based on in-depth interviews with 20 US anchors and meteorologists, understood in the context of literature and especially published testimonies of US and UK women anchors/newsreaders regarding physical appearance. Not surprisingly, women receive significantly more critical comments than do men and that most of those comments are about appearance – hair, jewelry, clothes, body; these critiques came from managers, colleagues, and audience members. Men rarely recalled comments about appearance; the few they got tended to be from audience members. Men anchors sympathized with the degree and kind of criticism directed at women colleagues. More surprisingly, the women seemed to take such criticism as a matter of course. They were often bothered by it, but they also defended managers’ rights to set standards for women seen on-air.
