Weather presenter Liberte Chan responds to viral clip of her being made to wear cardigan live on air

'They're calling it 'sweater-gate'. I personally was not offended at all,' she says

Tuesday 17 May 2016 10:10

✕

Weather presenter Liberte Chan made to wear cardigan on air after viewers complained about her dress

A weather presenter whose live broadcast was interrupted by a colleague passing her a cardigan to put on has dismissed claims the incident was sexist.

On Saturday morning, Liberte Chan’s weather broadcast on Los Angeles-based local news station KTLA was paused while a colleague passed her a cardigan to put on over her black dress.

“You want me to put this on?” she asked. “Why? Because it’s cold?”

“We’re getting a lot of emails,” replied the voice.

Ms Chan then posted a video of herself and colleagues reading through the many emails from viewers concerned over the meteorologist’s dress choice.

The segment has since gone viral, sparking a debate about sexism, with many raising the double standards women in the media face. Many have pointed out that a man is unlikely to be told to essentially 'cover up' for fear of offending viewers.

US bloggers Jezebel even sarcastically wrote that following the incident “shoulders and arms are now illegal in the state of California”.

However, Ms Chan disagrees the incident was sexist and addressed the controversy in a video post on her Facebook page.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Show all 12

1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

EPA

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

Getty

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

Getty Images

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

Getty

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

EPA

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

PA

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

Getty

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

Getty Images

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

Getty Images

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

Getty

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

“I really wasn’t offended, people are kind of spinning it and saying that it was sexist,” she says. “[…] They’re calling it sweater-gate. I personally was not offended at all, I found it funny […] I don’t think it was sexist but that’s just my opinion.”

Ms Chan also wrote a blog post in response to apparently receiving numerous interview requests. In the blog, she defended KTLA who received criticism for the way the incident was handled.

“For the record, there is no controversy at KTLA. My bosses did not order me to put on the cardigan, it was a spontaneous moment,” she wrote. “I truly love my job, I like my bosses and enjoy working with my co-workers. Since talking to my team, I want our viewers to know it was never our intention to offend anyone. We are friends on and off the air and if you watch our newscast, you know that.”

Ms Chan said the furore and debate over her clothing choice risked overshadowing the job she was there to do.

“Most importantly, I hope my viewers were able to plan their Saturday once they heard my forecast and enjoyed the sunny weather after the clouds cleared,” she added.

Join our new commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies