"Men are allowed to be bald and fat and ugly and still deliver the news. There are no bald, fat, ugly women delivering the news." ­ Connie Chung

While the above statement is indisputably true, the question of "why?" still remains. In our country, as in all societies, there are highly pervasive myths about the significance of a person's appearance. The first aspect of this problem is that in our society, everything is based an appearance. Even though it is by no means fair, time and time again studies have shown that more attractive looking people get more promotions, higher salaries and even better grades in school. More attractive people are also more likely to get a particular job in the first place, even if they are not going to appear on TV. Thus any person with an appearance flaw starts out in the work place with a serious handicap.

Why doesn't the prejudice against ugly keep unattractive men off of the news? This question reveals the second problem of appearances in our society. Women are held to a much higher standard than men. It is sufficient for men to look "distinguished." Women are supposed to look like supermodels. The most minor flaw in a woman's body or face disqualifies her from being beautiful. Unfortunately, this double standard also applies to the quality of work a woman must produce. Thus a woman not only must be beautiful, but also better than her male peers to qualify for many jobs.

The final appearance problem is that in the news broadcasting industry, people are supposed to look intelligent. Throughout history cultures have stereotyped people with particular appearances as having other specific traits. These beliefs are ingrained into our subconscious during childhood and are difficult to overcome. Thus everyone in our society knows that a woman with a wart on her nose is a witch, a man wearing glasses is intelligent and that a beautiful woman is stupid or airheaded. While the conscious mind rejects that these mythical stereotypes seriously influence anything, these are still the associations that come to mind when you see someone with those physical traits.

The paradox for women in the television news industry becomes clear: How do you look beautiful and intelligent at the same time? For men, being paunchy and middle-aged with a touch of grey is not only attractive, it is practically the definition of intelligence. For women beauty and intelligence have become almost mutually exclusive, especially as far as appearance.

-Laurie