Here’s a sentence I can’t believe I’m writing: A Canadian meteorologist went on air the other day to read the hate mail she’s gotten after appearing on-air with her pregnant body.
Kristi Gordon of Global B.C. is pregnant with her second child, and has received some pretty cruel mail from viewers about her pregnancy weight gain and how she looks in her clothing, The Province reports.
“Nowhere on North America TV have we seen a weather reader so gross as you,” one letter read. Another: “Your front end looks like the Hindenburg and your rear-end looks like a brick sh—house. We now turn off Global.” And then there was this one: “Buy some decent clothes and have more respect for your unborn child.”
The worst part is that Gordon said, “We were expecting this because it happened to me last time I was pregnant.” Are you serious? Have people never actually seen a pregnant woman on television before? And are they so taken aback by it that they can’t focus on whether or not it’s going to rain?
READ MORE: The 10 Most Glowing Pregnant Ladies of 2014
Gordon calls herself a pretty confident person, but despite working in a visually critical industry and never letting stuff like this bother her, she admitted that she found herself questioning the beauty of her pregnant body and wondering if maybe some of the haters were right. That right therese proves how vicious critiques about our bodiesd do affect us, if even intellectually we tell ourselves to tune it out.
Gordon even started to wonder: Should she cover up or take off work to hide her pregnant body? Ultimately she decided, via Global News:
I am definitely not doing either of those. I love my job and I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can – and I’m not spending any more money on maternity clothes … especially muumuus.
Gordon then goes on to explain that while this bullying experience has cut at her self-esteem more than she imagined it would, she also learned a valuable lesson that we’d all be smart to learn, too:
No matter how rational or confident you are, the mean things people say can have an impact. The negative thoughts seep in when you don’t even realize it. Even a little joking comment could do some damage. Hopefully this can help us all be more aware of our impact on others.
Below, watch the news segment where Gordon reads some of the cruel letters on-air.
