Lesley’s husband Crayton is filling in this week with a few posts.
Allow me to introduce you to Angie González.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLCR9LzHDg&hl=es_ES&fs=1&]
González is the afternoon weather presenter (I am going to try to avoid using the term “weathergirl” or “chica de la clima,” as they’re known around here) on Milenio, one of Mexico’s 24-hour news channels. Google doesn’t turn up much about her, except that she’s from Monterrey, like many of her female colleagues. Regias, as women from Monterrey are known, have a reputation in Mexico for exquisite beauty.
At my place of work, we have Milenio on all day long on mute, and González caps off an all-day parade of heavily made-up, scantily clad young women telling us whether to expect rain. Other networks also employ attractive women, but Milenio clearly pushes the boundaries farthest in terms of attire and invitation to ogle.
I’m accustomed to the U.S. version of the weather presenter, a guy in a suit with very white teeth and a hokey sense of humor, Willard Scott-style. But that’s not to say that the U.S. is immune or above this sort of thing. Bobbie Keith kept morale up during the Vietnam War. Jill Nicolini is a traffic reporter, but appears to serve the same purpose at New York’s WPIX (and with excellent screen presence and a good sense of humor, I must say).
Weather presenters have been around almost as long as TV. (Chicago’s Clint Youle was the first national weather presenter in the U.S. in 1949.) And people are supposed to be relatively attractive on TV. As long as that’s the case, broadcasters are going to push boundaries, especially with something like weather forecasting that doesn’t require a particularly serious or grave presence. (I think well-researched post about this weather-presenting cheesecake being more common in warm-weather climates, but I think it’s probably because those places have fewer weather disasters, like snowstorms, that might require a weather presenter with more gravitas.)
I’m not going to act like I don’t enjoy seeing González and Milenio’s other presenters appear on the screen. It would be disingenuous of me to say that. But the lengths to which Milenio has gone in its objectification are disconcerting. González is a pretty lady, but she’s also an animated person on TV and would do just fine in more professional attire. Milenio ought to cut this out.
I leave you with Chicago’s “weather bunny,” Kelly Bundy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32YKaPxAxwA&hl=es_ES&fs=1&]
