http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/male-tv-host-wears-same-suit-for-a-year-to-highlight-sexism
This article from Buzzfeed talks about the fascinating year-long experiment by an Australian news anchor. He wore the same suit every day, and no one noticed. During that period, many comments were made about his female co-anchor’s outfits. He changed his shirt and tie, but kept the same suit this entire period.
First off, I commend Karl Stefanovic on this experiment. He clearly is a feminist and cares about women in media, something that would be very easy for him to write off or ignore as a white man in the broadcast industry. The dedication of wearing a suit for a year is a testament to how serious the issue is and how seriously Karl takes this experiment.
As far as the result, I think its really interesting. I think it absolutely makes a big point about how women are criticized for their appearance and dress all the time and men are not. He shone a light on this major double standard, which is really important. It’s interesting that no one noticed, but because men’s suits are more similar than the wide variety of outfits available to professional women, I think its not quite as shocking.
This issue of men repeating outfits is also relevant to regular people that are not professional TV stars. For example, as a college-aged woman, I frequently attend formals. I am expected to wear a different dress to every formal, but my date can wear the same suit to every one and no one will care or notice, especially if they are black tie-then he has to wear the same suit! This double standard has always bothered me but I am not really sure how it can be changed. Men are always able to be professionally appropriate in a shirt, tie and slacks, but women have 3849723 choices for any given situation that could be “business casual”, for example. In this way, society sets women up to lose; we can never quite be wearing exactly the right thing at any point.
Something as simple as choosing an outfit can be really loaded with gender politics, and kudos to Karl Stefanovic for bringing this issue back into the spotlight.
bowsoverbros1 