Sacred Cows

Monday Morning Parent Blues

Ah..... Mondays! Before kids, Mondays were simply a reality check after a weekend of lolling or partying. Those were the days! Now, as a parent, the reality check never ends. Mondays are my hardest days - when the tiredness of the weekend collides with the anticipatory stress of the week ahead. No wonder I feel like getting back into bed and binge watching Brooklyn Nine Nine. Bring on that four day work week!

 

A boycott of TV news and becoming a feminist journalist

I Googled 'TV News anchor women brown' and got the above image. Do you see many brown women? I see blondes with the last name of 'Brown'... 

 

A confession: I never, ever watch TV news anymore, despite being a professional journalist with 23 years global news experience as well as a background in TV. It’s not because there aren’t amazing TV journalists or valuable stories and information shared at times. And it isn’t because of the increasingly partisan tone of TV news in many countries - though that is reason enough to switch off. 

My reason is the sheer anti-feminist structure of the industry: a structure that glorifies appearance and imposes impossibly high and toxic standards of looks and dress specifically on women. As a result, TV news is still largely male dominated - the only senior global reporters I’ve worked with are all men or childless women (good for them!)