A controversial caller to Liveline stirred up a furious reaction after commenting on how female presenters on RTE present themselves in a “sexually provocative” and “vulgar” way.
Sarah, from Tipperary, with a background in teaching, said she had an issue with how current affairs and news presenters present themselves, “particularly the way presenters tend to stand,” suggesting their posture seems “exaggerated and contrived and unnatural.” The caller described them as unladylike and lacking decorum.
“Less distance between your two feet, with one foot maybe slightly in front of the other,” she replied when asked by stand-in presenter Katie Hannon what way presenters should stand on television. When theorising if these presenters have been thought to stand this way, Liveline presenter, Katie Hannon replied: “To the best of my personal knowledge Sarah, there is nobody going around telling people how to stand.”
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When asked what was the harm in standing a certain way, Sarah said that television is a very powerful medium, and that nothing on television is accidental and that this way of standing “distracts from the content.” Sarah then said: “it’s bordering on looking vulgar,” after describing it as sexually provocative. When asked if her opinion might be outdated, Sarah said: “The more ladylike behaviour we have in society, the better.”
Sarah also described how male presenters present themselves on television as “unmanly.” Sarah said men on the news “particularly lately” tend to “swiddle a bit” usually having “one foot going west and one foot going north,” describing it as appearing contrived or unnatural.
One caller, Ger, said the comments were insulting to women before adding, “women are fighting for their rights and to listen to that nonsense is beyond a joke,” she said. Noreen subsequently phoned in to say that one female sports presenter in particular tends to cross one leg over the other, which she said was wrong for television, saying that one foot should slightly be behind the other with both knees together.
Another caller, Liam, said: “I’ve never heard anything so ludicrous in his life,” with Sarah saying that, “I’m not saying that these people aren’t brilliant at what they do, generally they are very brilliant, I’m just saying that their stance does sometimes distract from the content.”
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