News Item: Al Ahram, Egypt’s government-run news agency has suspended eight women TV anchors and demanded they diet.
While Egypt rots, authorities are focused on double chins? Sure. It’s as good a diversion as any. Offensive, they say. People won’t watch overweight women, they say.
Here’s an example:
Photo: Telegraph, UK
She’s Khadijua Khatab and while her bosses think people don’t watch her because she’s on the pleasantly plump side, they’re wrong. People don’t watch her or anyone else on their channel because Al Ahram is incompetent, unreliable and an unabashed propaganda outlet for the government of the moment.
So the women have been given about a month to drop some pounds. And this has already spawned some cottage industries.
In the open air markets around Cairo, you’ll find a whole crop of new green tea vendors. Others are selling gauze bandages of the kind formerly used to bind mummies. And outdoor gyms and fitness centers flourish.
The average temperature in Cairo at this time of year is in the low 80s. A recent random check showed a reading of 90. So sunscreen sellers have joined the outdoor gyms and tea merchants because to lose weight in Cairo all you have to do is walk around in that heat for awhile.
For her part, Khatab says those pictures of her are “old” and that she has already lost weight. No worries. If she really has and continues to, the next thing her bosses will focus on are those reading glasses. Or they’ll say she wears too much makeup. Or too little.
And the woman who runs Al Ahram TV, Safaa Hegazy isn’t morbidly anorexic either.
There’s no doubt women have trouble keeping their TV jobs everywhere and appearance often is the reason. In this country, for example, handlers don’t trust anyone over 25 and they’d better have good legs and a come- hither look.
Fat men here don’t have that problem. Think of the late Charles Kuralt. Or Al Roker before the stomach surgery or MacNeil and Lehrer who long ago were advised never to take the same elevator at the same time.
No one ever told Brokaw to call Jenny-Twenty.
And no one at Al Ahram has suspended men because they’re overweight.
Today’s Quote: For the first time ever, overweight people outnumber average people in America. Doesn’t that make overweight the average then? Hey, let’s get a pizza.” --Jay Leno
Shrapnel:
--Nice to see our Olympic athletes training for the pros. The American swimmers who partied all night then smashed up parts of a gas station and then lied about being robbed were only doing what seems to come naturally these days. Back home now, they can continue honing their skills in after hours clubs and dorm rooms.
--Trumps non- apology to people he “may have hurt” insults the intelligence of the American voter -- which is not easy to do. A Wessays™ quick-count survey shows it’s not going over all that well among Mexicans, Muslims, African Americans, Gold Star families, ex prisoners of war, low energy candidates, little candidates, guest workers, subcontractors and Heidi Cruz to name a few. Putin and Billybob at the Main Street Bar are said to be happy with it.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2016
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