Naga Munchetty fires back after BBC viewers tell her what to wear
Naga Munchetty spoke with fellow BBC presenter Gabby Logan about how women in media are judged for their looks.
Naga Munchetty has fired back at BBC viewers who have made body-shaming comments on social media about her during the Breakfast show.
The veteran presenter, 50, made the comments during an appearance on Gabby Logan’s podcast The Mid-Point, which features discussions about middle age.
The BBC Radio 5 Live presenter spoke about body-shaming during a discussion on the progress made in the media industry in recent years.
While Naga acknowledged she doesn’t feel any pressure to leave because of her age, she said women on TV are still judged by their looks more than men.
Naga referenced an experiment Nadia Sawalha did on Loose Women in 2017, when she wore the same snake-skin blouse over several episodes of the ITV programme and elicited questions from viewers. Nadia later revealed she wore the top across eight episodes to reveal a sexist double standard, after Rob Rinder admitted he wore the same suit in interviews but nobody noticed.
Naga went on to say that if either of her co-presenters Charlie Stayt and Jon Kay did the same, it would also go unnoticed.
Naga said her male co-presenters aren’t scrutinised in the same way (Picture :BBC/James Stack) Naga made the comments on Gabby Logan’s podcast (Picture: Visionhaus/Getty Images)She continued: ‘The number of times I’ve had comments, ‘Oh you shouldn’t be wearing that dress, you’ve got a bit of a belly’. People are quite happy to email or comment on social media.
‘I’m very happy with my body. I’m fit, I’m strong, but women have bellies.’
She added: ‘I don’t think Charlie’s ever had a comment about his belly.’
Naga went on to say that she gets ‘a lot of nice comments’ from viewers as well, but continued: ‘To go back to age, women are expected to portray a certain aesthetic.
Naga said she also gets nice comments from BBC viewers too (Picture: BBC)‘When you dress for news, you have to be mindful that what you wear cannot be distracting because the story is important.’
Gabby chimed in to say that she had a similar experience from presenting sports coverage for the BBC, saying she doesn’t want her clothing to be anything more than a ‘passing thought’ for viewers.
To which Naga added: ‘Women are more highly criticised and noticed.’
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays at 6am on BBC One.
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