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!)
This recent piece published in the Guardian felt like some weird nostalgic throwback to sexism.
Jon Snow is an amazing journalist and by all accounts a thoroughly decent man, so I am not trying here to deconstruct his achievements. However, when I read his autobiography some years ago, I was struck by his own admission that he missed the births of his children and many successive domestic responsibilities and events - to focus on covering global news. The larger point is that most TV ‘beasts’ are still men who do exactly this, normalise being absent from home for their job - which effectively severely limits the industry to women - especially those with children. And this same dynamic is repeated across the world of work.
Let’s not even start on the topic of race and television…. because the numbers of non-white reporters…who are women… with children… with often higher qualifications (i.e. languages and lived experience) … who are paid on par with their white, male counterparts for the same work … Waaaaaait - are there any? Like even ONE? Please illuminate me if there are - I need to pray to this goddess, especially if she didn’t get there through caste or nepotism!
I’ll turn the TV news back on when there’s a channel which is majority-staffed by accomplished, intelligent, normal looking women wearing whatever the hell they like (this is sometimes called radio) …. being paid the same as men… (sadly not radio). Or when technology is sufficiently advanced and allows me to choose my own newsreading avatar. I’ll likely choose my aunt - a very intelligent Indian woman in her 70s with childbearing-induced incontinence, a lovely laugh and wicked sense of humour… as well as a stock portfolio build by tucking away pennies since she never worked outside the home. She kicks ass, even if TV news will never see that.
My current TV boycott does not mean I'm living in the dark ages - uninformed about the world. Luckily, there are radio and podcasts, as well as a growing number of digital options that provide accurate, curated news and information, as long as you take the time to assess their impartiality.
Meanwhile, here are the things I’ve personally done to re-assert my values as a brown, female, feminist journalist:
1) I quit my job. It was a prestigious one, with security… but also toxic overwork caused by a significant number of men in my department who weren’t pulling their weight and were in positions of power. The result: all the hard work and responsibility (but surprise, surprise: none of the rewards) fell to the conscientious and highly skilled women.
2) I used what I learned on that job to create an investment income that pays my bills and allows me to pick and choose what work I do now.
3) I quit another job - ironically working for a female liberal politician with skin-deep progressive values - because anti-feminism can be female too.
4) I focus daily on the life-enhancing practices that too many jobs pay lip service to, ignore or actively destroy - which is destroying us individually, as well as the planet as a whole:
- health and well-being
- being a carer
- making thoughtful consumer choices
- recycling, reducing waste and consumption
- growing my own food
- cooking and having time to enjoy food
- a low fossil fuel/carbon existence
- being an engaged parent and spouse
- advocating for others
- being part of a community
- building a new network of mothers, journalists, activists, ass-kickers
- creating something of lasting value
- being an informed and thoughtful citizen
I could do precisely two of those things well in my old job - can you guess which ones? Now, I am at least doing all of them.
5) I’m actively expanding my work opportunities beyond my old (behemoth) employer into new industries and territories.
6) I’m making space for all this by saying no to projects that don't meet my threshold, even if they are prestigious, which is hard. The most recent one is a great example:
I was asked to host a podcast that uses all my skills and passions and has done well! But it is underpaid with low support and no time for development. The producers recommissioned the series and asked me to continue hosting.
I explained I had to be paid a more commensurate fee - one in line with similar assignments within their organisation - though still much lower than my usual rate.
The contracts people said ‘no’. The say fees are decided on the length of program and the merits of each assignment (or sometimes companies use the phrase ‘case by case basis’.)
To deconstruct those excuses: the length of a radio programme/podcast is not like the length of a wall, which relies on bricks (fewer bricks, shorter wall, cheaper cost). A radio programme explaining a vast subject requires me to know EVERYTHING - then to accurately and skilfully distill it.
In fact, the shorter the programme, the more the skill involved. It's like creating a gourmet appetizer - it still requires all the effort and delivers all the taste, but is even harder to prepare because everything must fit perfectly in miniature.
Also, I’ve worked long enough to know that companies are adept at appearing to be equitable in pay. But these phrases and excuses are essentially a tool of institutionalised sexism and racism and everyone knows it.
If you think I'm unqualified or am misrepresenting things, then please don't take my word for it, here's another take - albeit on opportunity, rather than pay.
7) I’m following my passions - however piecemeal and in my own time - including developing a series of bilingual Indian children's picture books, because otherwise, wtf is the point?
Don’t get me wrong - I don’t wake up every morning aglow with joy and self-satisfaction. Quite the opposite: I regularly battle deep self-doubt and various forms of regret. Writing this is an exercise in countering the doubt and remembering why I made my decisions. And hopefully this will help remind others why it’s soooooo worth it!
Smash that patriarchy, people! It’s past due.
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