Can we just not, everyone? We were all having a lovely weekend, and then this happens. A Fox News idiot (yes — I’m saying “idiot”) body-shamed Kelly Clarkson on Friday. The idiot’s name is Chris Wallace, and his radio co-star’s name is Mike Gallagher (also an idiot), and when discussing the 32-year-old pop star, they recommended she “could stay off the deep dish pizza for a while” because they are monsters.
Well, the noise was rightfully brought down on them, and Wallace has issued an apology because he either feels remorse, or he was told by Fox to get it together.
“I sincerely apologize to Kelly Clarkson for my offensive comment,” he said in a statement to E! News. “I admire her remarkable talent and that should have been the focus of any discussion about her.”
THAT’S CORRECT, SON. And Gallagher’s apology was also correct.
“Tubby Mike is the last person in the world who should bring up anyone’s weight,” Gallagher wrote on his website (and in third person, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear). “I couldn’t possibly feel any worse than I do for making an observation that led to the conclusion that I ‘fat-shamed’ this talented and classy entertainer. It was really a stupid thing for me to do.”
That I can kind of get behind. That seems a bit more sincere than Wallace’s sentence, to be honest. But at least we’re getting apologies at all. While I want to scream at the moon because what both men said is nonsense and also indicative of the way the media looks at women, I will still tip my hat to the fact that they apologized. Under the gun or not, they apologized. Which is more than what can be said for the men who do not.
Though this isn’t a free pass. Gallagher and Wallace’s body-shaming is just a cog in a very large misogynistic machine. But if we can bring the noise down whenever we hear somebody go on about the way a woman looks, we might slowly get to a place where guys like this are afraid to comment on women at all. (Oh man, imagine. IMAGINE THAT BEAUTIFUL WORLD.)
You go, Kelly Clarkson.
– See more at: http://www.29secrets.com/daily-whisper/foxs-chris-wallace-apologizes-body-shaming-kelly-clarkson#sthash.TrdoYu9k.dpuf
