Even though I wasn’t a supporter of Sarah Palin, she was recently hired at Fox News, and I feel I need to warn her. After all, she’s a brunette who often wears glasses– a breed targeted for extinction in Foxworld.
There’s something creepy going on at Fox, and it’s not just the skewed way they choose to report the news. When a woman gets a job on the “fair and balanced” news network, she gets “Foxified.” No matter how she looks or how old she is when she signs her contract, these female contributors transform, appearing on our screens strangely clone-like, blonde and so heavily made up they all look around 40.
Greta Van Susteren famously made the cover of People after she scored her own show on the network and got “Foxified,” sporting much lighter hair and tighter skin.
When I used to produce talk radio programs for the ABC affiliate in the Bay Area, and the host had a legal issue he wanted to discuss, I often booked a brilliant and beautiful law professor as an expert: Lis Weihl. After 9/11, she was hired by Fox News. The next time I saw her on TV, I only recognized her by her name in the byline.
Fox News is a modern day Stepford factory for accomplished women. By turning professors and authors into porn star doppelgangers, the network effectively communicates what women say is not as important how they appear.
The older, winkled, balding male stars of the news channel obviously have different physical requirements to get a job on TV. Maybe Palin earns some of those privileges, because she’s already famous with her own loyal following. We’ll have to wait and see if her brown hair and Tina Fey glasses survive the preferences of Fox News President Roger Ailes, himself not the most svelte, glossy headed guy in town.
Update: I’m not attacking these women for getting jobs; I’m pointing out the sexist requirements for men versus women on TV. Furthermore, being “Foxified” doesn’t translate to being attractive or beautiful. As a commenter pointed out, it has to do with becoming a “femmebot.” The blonde dye jobs and overly made up faces on Fox News women are indicative of a culture dominated by caucasians and capitalism, keeping women in line by rewarding them when they conform to the rules. It’s a reflexive, but still clever, way to keep women in their place and uphold the power structure as it is.

Liz Wiehl


Greta Van Susteren gets Foxified

Can you tell these women apart?
YES I CAN TELL THESE WOMEN APART:
Jill Dobson, Alisyn Camerota, Courtney Friel
Molly Henneberg, Shannon Bream, Gretchen Carlson
Anna Gilligan, Ainsley Earhardt, Martha MacCallum
HERE ARE SOME FOX NEWS WOMEN THAT YOU’VE OVERLOOKED:
Julie Banderas, Uma Pemmaraju, Harris Faulkner
Reena Ninan, Patti Ann Browne, Domenica Davis
Lauren Green, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Catherine Herridge
Mara Liasson, Carina Sonn, Michelle Malkin
They are beautiful, no doubt. But they are also very talented, damn good at their jobs and not all white and blond. I’ve been watching the women of FOX News for years. Their beauty is just the icying on the cake. Their professionialism is the cake itself.
How is the beauty of FOX News’ women any different that the beauty of CNN’s, HLN’s or MSNBC’s women. HLN’s Robin Meade was also criticized as looking like a “porn star.” I don’t believe she does look like that. To me she’s a talented, successful, lovely woman. A lot of the woman in the news industry are hot, period. Is MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer not attractive? What about CNN’s Kiran Chetry? I think FOX News has more blonds simply because they have more employees. I don’t see FOX News as some how being different, in the women’s department, but they are my favorite.
I don’t mean to offend, but you yourself are very beautiful Margot. The funny thing is, you look like another women that works for FOX News, Mary Katharine Ham (FOX News contributor, Weekly Standard columnist).
Lis Wiehl is definitely NO pushover!
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Lis Wiehl ‘Kills’ O’Reilly in New Book
Excellent post! not to be crude, but Fox News proven formula puts “asses in the seats” — hair big, skirt short, heels high, and lay on it thick ladies, we’re paying a lot for you! giggle, giggle…jiggle jiggle…wiggle wiggle, arch those backs, pout those lips, shake that hair! “but I have a law degree”…”so go back to wherever you were!”…”alright, alright…how much do I have to whore it up?” “until we tell you to stop”
commenter has worked in television news…this is the way it is…competition for on-air positions is fierce (with incentive clauses)…they all do it, to a certain degree, then off-air, rip each other to pieces…”oh, she’s such a whore”…we guys just laugh at the hypocracy of it all — Has anyone seen Sarah Palin?
This has long been a bitch-pitch of mine, except more with so-called “men” on the WB network. “Charmed” had to have been the worst offender. All the men made up to look more boyish, chests waxed for the shirtless scenes, no facial hair on anyone except the villains, and even they were immaculately groomed with the trimmer set on Don-Johnson-#1. No male character, aside from Tom Welling, allowed to display any ability or independent thought — just concern for his lady-love’s emotional state. The eyebrows can never turn downward as they meet in the middle, they always have to veer upward. Jay-Leno-cash-register-jaw — out of the question. The actor’s skull & jaw shape had to be somewhat weasely, rodent-like, or he could forget about it. A puppy-face made to order for twelve-to-fourteen year old idiot girls who find anything truly male to be threatening.
I’m sure you’re onboard with that pet peeve at mine, since it’s essentially the same as yours. You are, right?
You certainly get fewer tho’ more intelligent comments on your blog than you do on the SF City Brights blog although I only saw the “oldest” ones as that was what popped up. jeez…I always think of the City as being so liberal.
I don’t really think “talent” has much to do with the hiring of the women on Fox be they blonde or brunette. It’s really just a bunch of what has always been known in the broadcast industry as “talking heads”…they look good and can talk but reportorial skills are limited or non-existent. Frankly, I find it offensive whether it’s male or female.
I prefer real reporters who actually understand what they are saying and whose boobs, fake eyelashes, over processed hair and overly whitened teeth have nothing to do with whether they are hired or the manner in which they report.
I should probably first admit that I really cannot watch Faux News.
I notice something similar with CNN. If you’ve been watching it through the years, have you ever noticed that the woman who is anchoring the midday Eastern – mid-morning Pacific segment has been at CNN for a long time? It’s like that slot is the knacker’s field. Where is Bobbie Baptista and Susan Rook, after all? Kyra Phillips has been in the business in a while, she is of a certain age…how much longer will she be at CNN?
The “shell hair” probably has a positive effect: it acts as a natural amplifier for her voice and for sounds coming in.
I find Ms. Wiehl more attractive in the before picture. The series of Fox anchorettes simply looks like a bad sorority where the girls (yes, not women) are required to conform to that sorority’s style (hair, designer, type of car, type of boyfriend).
“Her teeth are on the table/And her wig is on the shelf/Think I’ll put the good parts in a bag/And go out by myself.” — Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem
I noticed the same thing and had said something about the Fox girls being clones. Project Monarch anyone?