Marta Fernández: the price of a new look
Spanish journalist Marta Fernández has changed her look and social media is not letting it go. How far are women in the media judged by their appearance? A…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Marta Fernández: the transformation nobody asked for but everyone judges
Remember that dark-haired, smiling journalist who seemed to have stepped out of a perfume ad? Well, according to the digital murmur, she has now become a carbon copy of Begoña. The debate is not about her work, but about her face. And for a woman in the media, that is a classic.
Marta Fernández's physical transformation has peine the old debate about public scrutiny of women's image. The comments range from nostalgia for the Marta of the 2000s to comparisons with an alleged incivil (unnamed, but it doesn't matter: the pile-on doesn't need facts). Some even celebrate that she has aged without fanfare. Who is happy? Nobody, because the yardstick is always different.
The curious thing is that nobody asks whether the new hairstyle or makeup were her own choice. In a profession where male presenters go grey and wrinkled without anyone batting an eye, female journalists remain subject to aesthetic judgment. Ironies of the trade: being compared to a 90s beauty icon can be a compliment or a sentence, depending on the day.
In the end, the Marta Fernández case is nothing more than a mirror of how we consume the image of public women. As long as she keeps doing her job – which is reporting the news – the noise about her looks says more about those making it than about her. But of course, that doesn't sell clicks.
Remember that dark-haired, smiling journalist who seemed to have stepped out of a perfume ad? Well, according to the digital murmur, she has now become a carbon copy of Begoña. The debate is not about her work, but about her face. And for a woman in the media, that is a classic.
Marta Fernández's physical transformation has peine the old debate about public scrutiny of women's image. The comments range from nostalgia for the Marta of the 2000s to comparisons with an alleged incivil (unnamed, but it doesn't matter: the pile-on doesn't need facts). Some even celebrate that she has aged without fanfare. Who is happy? Nobody, because the yardstick is always different.
The curious thing is that nobody asks whether the new hairstyle or makeup were her own choice. In a profession where male presenters go grey and wrinkled without anyone batting an eye, female journalists remain subject to aesthetic judgment. Ironies of the trade: being compared to a 90s beauty icon can be a compliment or a sentence, depending on the day.
In the end, the Marta Fernández case is nothing more than a mirror of how we consume the image of public women. As long as she keeps doing her job – which is reporting the news – the noise about her looks says more about those making it than about her. But of course, that doesn't sell clicks.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (16 replies).
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