Very well played, Karl Stefanovic.
The relatively unknown Australian news anchor has made waves around the Internet after growing irritated by the unsolicited fashion advice and appearance-based criticisms viewers have continually offered his female colleague, Lisa Wilkinson.
In response, Stefanovic conducted his very own social experiment: he wore the same suit on air every single day for one year’s worth of broadcasts… and no one paid him any attention for it.
"No one has noticed; no one gives a sh-t,” Stefanovic tells The Sydney Morning Herald.
“But women, they wear the wrong color and they get pulled up. They say the wrong thing and there’s thousands of tweets written about them. Women are judged much more harshly and keenly for what they do, what they say and what they wear."
This isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but props must be paid to Stefanovic for pointing out the double standard in such an interesting manner.
And heads must be shaken that this double standard exists so prominently around the globe.
"I’m judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humor – on how I do my job, basically," Stefanovic added. "Whereas women are quite often judged on what they’re wearing* or how their hair is … that’s [what I wanted to test]."
(*Or, in the case of Kim Kardashian, on what they’re not wearing.)
Stefanovic is receiving praise from nearly everyone familiar with this story, but he has good news for co-workers who may have their own reasons for hoping he ends the experiment soon.
"I’m hoping to get [the suit] into the dry cleaners at the end of the year," he says. "It’s getting a bit stinky."
