Something inside Katie Fehlinger finally snapped.
And it was about freakin’ time.
Fehlinger, a Philadelphia meteorologist, had been trying to ignore constant jabs about the way she looked during morning weather segments for a local CBS station.
And the way she looked was pregnant. Very, very pregnant; 35 weeks to be exact.
Did I mention she’s having twins?
That big old baby bump rubbed some folks the wrong way. Instead of commending her for dragging herself into work at the crack of dawn every day, viewers called her “disgusting” and compared her to a “sausage in casing.”
Well I say, with quote creds to Gwen Stefani, “This shit is bananas.”
Fehlinger thought so too and took to Facebook addressing the cowards hiding behind their keyboards.
Now, I would have lost my cool and shot off the mother of all hormonal rants. And that is why I don’t have a career with a major network affiliate. Fehlinger had a job to protect, I get it.
So, she gave props to all the moms out there in TV land, went on about the beauty of pregnancy and stood her ground. Overall though, it was the written equivalent of a raspberry; pretty tame stuff.
But, there was one line in her little manifesto that actually pissed me off:
“…the nature of my job makes me an easy target for criticism. I will always understand that…”
That is just a load of crap.
Does the weather improve when attractive people give the forecast? Do tragedies seem less so when good-looking people report it?
That would be a no and a no.
But somehow, we as a society still expect our news programs to be filled with beautiful people whose most relevant skill is mastering the teleprompter. We then take it upon ourselves—well some of us anyway—to body shame, hair shame or wardrobe shame them if they fall short of that expectation.
These are not actors and actresses who are paid to look a certain way for a role. To conjure up an image and transport us with their characters. News anchors and weather folks are basically reading the newspaper to us with a little more zing. Race, color, and dress size will not alter these facts and should not be a factor.
And the real kicker? Fehlinger looks awesome; not a hair out-of-place.
Jeesh, I remember the all-out revolt my body waged as I neared delivery with just one baby. Brushing my teeth was an epic accomplishment.
Yet, she manages to look like a rock star at dark-o-thirty every morning because, sadly, it comes with the job. I bet there are days when she wants to stand in her pajamas and talk about that cold front sweeping in. Because nothing, anywhere in any maternity department, is going to minimize the evidence of 35-week old twins.
Pregnant women, like Fehlinger, go to work in fast food restaurants, factories and offices all over the world because they need to feed their families. Not because they want to show off their fantastic baby bumps.
The Kim Kardashians of the world have given pregnant women a bad rap.
Fehlinger made the choice to have a public job. That alone should not predispose her to a public flogging no matter how she looks, pregnant or not.
