Just One Day after International Women's Day,this headline graced the pages of Gawker "Sawyer Scratches At The Glass Ceiling." The gist of the story is that pregnant Elizabeth Vargas is out and childless Sawyer is in as anchor of the ABC News.
Hence my Weltschmerz. Thanks to A. Word.A.Day for sending me just the right word when I need it. Between Schadenfreude and Weltzschmerz I'm feeling i need to take German 101.
Weltzschmerz, according to AWAD means:
World weariness; pessimism, apathy, or sadness felt at the difference between physical reality and the ideal state.
And, used in a sentence,"I hate being told to have a good time! I'll feel the weltschmerz if I want to."
I'm definitely feeling the weltzschmerz about a pregnant news anchor given the boot. Over at Corsair, Ron provides some back story.:
"are we about to see a catfight on the evening news?...This is sure to start a debate about career-path versus having children. Of course women can, and do, do both; but in the hypercompetitive -- and hyper-observed -- TV News fishbowl, we ought to be asking the question: Is it possible to get to the top of the network news food-chain AND have children, if you are a woman.
Merideth Vieira, then at "60 Minutes (and, coincidentally, Diane Sawyer's replacement)," also faced difficult times navigating maternity leave, day care and, most importantly, the infamously grueling schedule at CBSNews. Ultimately Vieira left, but not without painting a particularly damning portrait of Don Hewitt and Mike Wallace -- who were the proximate causes of her leaving -- as leathery old bastards intent on making a young mother's life miserable in the newsroom. Having babies, they seemed to be implying, is for sissies; CBS News should be priority-one.
When Lucille Ball announced she was "with child", television networks censored the word pregnant. And, it was a big deal that a pregnant woman was shown on TV. The network suits almost wet their pants in fear of viewer backlash.
Fast forward 50 years and it appears that the network powers that be at ABC haven't learned a thing.
The real issue isn't that Vargas is having another child and may have to take a six week pregnancy leave. She's already a parent and obviously is balancing her work-home life in a way that is acceptable at ABC.
The issue for them is her pregnancy and what pregnancy does to a women's body.Pregnant women aren't thin. The network suits believe that their viewers won't take a pregnant woman seriously ( you know the hormone thing). They believe this because they don't take a pregnant woman seriously. Oh, and also there is the loss of the F#@%able factor- which is still a criteria for choosing many women in network news.
Several years ago a friend told a story about a pregnant executive who was in charge of new business development. The executive was around 7 months pregnant. My friend's assignment was to do some undercover work for her boss to find out if the potential client would be 'uncomfortable' with a 7 month pregnant executive pitching the business.
My friend had to find out if the decision maker was married with kids and a variety of other variables to determine whether the pregnant executive was a 'high risk"
It seems that ABC News feels a pregnant Vargas is 'high risk" It's simply weltschmertz.
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