When Lisa Wilkinson’s job on The Today Show came up for the first time in 10 years, the rumours of who would replace her started rolling in thick and fast.
With each new suggestion we were presented with an intelligent, experienced and accomplished woman. But they also had another thing in common: they were all attractive and blonde.
So why do so many women on television all look the same?
Journalist and author Tracey Spicer spoke to Mia Freedman on the No Filter podcast and explained it has less to do with creative decisions and more to do with the sex drives of male bosses.
LISTEN: Tracey Spicer talks about why we don’t see a more diverse range of women on television. Post continues below.
“Traditionally, male, middle-aged, white executives choose women based upon… their penises and their gut instinct. So they chose young pretty blonde women they want to have sex with,” Spicer said.
If male bosses only hire the type of women they are attracted to, it makes sense that we end up with a serious lack of diversity on our television screens left over from a time when only women with blonde hair fell into the ‘sexually attractive’ category.
It has put us behind the rest of the world.
"Overseas at the BBC they've got targets not only for gender diversity on air and behind the scenes, but for cultural diversity," Spicer said.
"Television executives [here] are still stuck in the 1950s and 60s and they think it worked for them 30 years ago maybe it'll work now. I've got a message for them - it won't work because people are angry they can't see themselves on screen."
“People want to see people who look like them on television - the true diversity of the community," Spicer said.
Listen to Tracey's full interview with Mia Freedman here:
Buy Tracey's book The Good Girl Stripped Bare at apple.co/mamamia or here.
Top Comments
Tracey Spicer goes on her bitter way. She reveals more about herself in her hatred of middle aged white men than she realizes.
Luckily they all go on their way, supremely unconcerned about what Tracey Spicer thinks or says, as do most of us. 😉
That may well have been true, but I look at free-to-air TV these days, particularly the commercial channels, and I see very little prime time content that's aimed at me/men.
Reality TV holds such limited appeal for me and I'm not a Footy Show kinda guy, nor are many of my friends.
I think that times have changed. Free to air broadcasters seem to recognise that their main demographic is female (look at the extent to which TV is discussed on this site), which is why we're seeing sexism and sexual misconduct handled very differently by these (Australian) companies nowadays.
And Hollywood; it's like someone grabbed a piece of wool at the bottom of a jumper, began to pull and it just keeps unravelling. I have the feeling that this will be a significant shift, sadly, not just because it's right and necessary morally, but because it will now be very risky financially to indulge in, cover up or condone sexual misconduct.
I'm not saying the casting couch will cease to exist, but unwelcome approaches to the unwilling will be severely curtailed.
Also, I'm of the belief that both men and women like their female presenters to be attractive, albeit for differing reasons.
The vast of majority of reality shows on free to air tv should be outlawed - they are awful and it amazes me that this site thinks/supports the premise behind shows like the Bachelor/Bachelorette. Those shows are just horrible!
For a supposed feminist blog they seem to push these shows