Pregnant Anchor Answers Bullies Who Dissed 'Gross' Body, Clothes
A pregnant newswoman who directly addressed the bullies who’ve been sending hate-mail attacking her appearance has received nearly a thousand emails in support, she said Wednesday.
Kristi Gordon, the meteorologist for Canada’s Global BC News Hour, is about six months pregnant with her second child, and has been receiving letters insulting her weight gain and her choice of maternity clothes. “Nowhere on North American TV have we seen a weather reader as gross as you. Your front end looks like the Hindenburg and your rear end looks like a brick s**t-house. We now turn off Global,” wrote one viewer. “Buy some decent clothes and have some respect for your unborn child. You’re not the first pregnant woman. OMG,” said another.
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Gordon said this wasn’t the first time she’s gotten criticized for her pregnancy appearance. “We were expecting this. This happened last time I got pregnant. As I got bigger I started getting more and more bad notes and emails from people,” she said. “By the way, you can’t really hide something like [a pregnant belly].”
“Why would you want to?” replied anchor Robin Stickley.
In the 4-and-a-half-minute segment, Gordon, Stickley and anchor Squire Barnes laughed at the notes, pointing out that the first letter-writer, who sent the note anonymously, misspelled the word global, instead writing “globel.” “If you’re going to diss us, please learn how to spell,” Barnes said.
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But later, Gordon got serious. “I feel like I’m a pretty confident person, I wouldn’t be in this industry if I wasn’t. I don’t feel like this is affecting me, or has affected me,” she said. “But I thought about some of the things I did last night: I checked the mirror to see how big I’m getting, I asked my husband, ‘Am I not seeing it? Am I getting really big?’ It wasn’t until I went to bed that I realized that - despite us saying that these guys are crazy — it’s amazing that when you say something mean about someone it still affects them.”
Gordon didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo Parenting’s interview request.
Since the story aired. Gordon has heard from countless fans and her story has been shared on Facebook more than 14,000 times. “It’s been absolutely mind-boggling,” she told Global News reporter Patricia Kozicka. “I’m probably close to about a thousand emails.” A lot of the notes have been from women facing various forms of discrimination. One 67-year-old woman who recently rejoined the workforce said she constantly faced ageism. “Meanwhile she’s doing it because it’s a necessity, just the same way women go through pregnancy – they don’t have another choice. The male can’t have the baby,” she says. “It’s tough when you’re second-guessing yourself all of a sudden.”
In response to the flood of support, Global BC released a statement standing behind Gordon. “To all viewers, thanks for all your feedback. We’ve read them all. We support Kristi, her wardrobe choices and all women who work while pregnant.”
But the anchors on Gordon’s segment were more concise with their message. As Squires said: “Haters gonna hate.”
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