It started as a simple experiment. Karl Stefanovic – co-host of Channel Nine’s Today show – decided that he would wear the same generic blue suit on camera for a few days in a row. The days passed and nobody noticed, so Stefanovic decided to up the ante. He made the decision to wear the same suit on air, every day for a year. Now, that year has passed and no-one – not fashion commentators, other media or even audience members – noticed a thing.
The experiment came about as a result of Karl’s anger at the sexism that his female colleagues and friends experience regarding their fashion choices on air. Stefanovic’s co-host Lisa Wilkinson is often censured by anonymous internet trolls and media commentators alike. Stefanovic’s brave though quite possibly unhygienic experiment has exposed the inherent sexism in the way we perceive our male and female public figures.
“Women are judged more harshly and keenly for what they do, what they say and what they wear,” Stefanovic told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I’m judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour – on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they’re wearing.”
And that Stefanovic sense of humour was on display while discussing the experiment today. About the state of his now year-long blue suit, Stefanovic joked “Only Lisa [Wilkinson] and Today news anchor Sylvia Jeffreys know about the suit. They often remark that it’s getting a bit stinky. I’m hoping to get it into the dry cleaners at the end of the year.”
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