Pregnant Anchor: Hate Mail About ‘Gross’ Body Leads To Support For Kristi Gordon

Pregnant television anchor Kristi Gordon shared the hate mail she received during her pregnancy — with viewers calling her “gross” and “fat” and even calling her a “hussy” — but now the Canadian meteorologist is finding support from across the globe.

Gordon, an anchor at the Vancouver station Global BC, is just getting into the third trimester of her second pregnancy and has proudly showed her baby bump off to the world. But Gordon received plenty of hate mail during her first pregnancy and said she was ready to hear it from viewers again.

That’s exactly what happened. After a few weeks of warm messages, the pregnant anchor said she started getting hate mail focused on her growing belly.

Gordon shared some of the hate mail in a letter on her station’s website.

“I really like you as the weather person BUT why do you have to now wear such tight, tight tops? We all know you are pregnant and if you wear the tops like your 1st child we will not watch anymore. Why don’t you wear nice looser tops, they look much nicer! Hope more people write in and say the same.”

“We are excited, as you must be about your upcoming addition to the family. Wearing tops that cup your baby bump are not very flattering. There are many maternity tops that are flowing and professional looking. Please be more professional.”

There was even a handwritten letter from a number of people calling themselves “The Group.”

“Nowhere on North America TV have we seen a weather reader so gross as you. Your front end looks like the Hindenburg and rear end a brick poop (insert swear word here) house. We now turn off Globel (yes, GLOBEL and not Global). Cover up or take time off. The Group”

But now the pregnant anchor is finding support from across the globe, with many fans standing up against the hate mail. The station has been flooded with supportive messages, and many writers took the opportunity to call out body critics.

Bethany Neumetyer of The Huffington Post wrote.

“Pregnancy does a lot of weird things to a woman’s body, and weight gain is just the beginning. Body parts swell, skin changes color, stretch marks appear (I’d show you a picture of my post-baby stomach, but I don’t want to scare you away). It can be rough for a pregnant woman’s self-esteem, especially because the body changes are all at least partially outside of a woman’s control.”

The hate mail directed at the pregnant anchor also made an impact overseas. Zoe Williams, a columnist for the UK’s Guardian, responded with a story called “A handy guide to pregnant women when dealing with idiots.”

Williams said weight is a frequent target of these “idiots.”

“Even the most demonic, vindictive person will know that to level “fat” at a person who is expressly supposed to be growing insults the insulter more than the insulted. And yet, they want to: to them, leaving your physical change unremarked represents a missed opportunity. They’ll try anything, from the cliched (glowing) to the surreal (peaky), the affectionate animal likeness (heffalump), the fake-cheeky challenge (“how many are you supposed to be eating for, again?”), the solicitude (“don’t worry, you’ll have all the time in the world to lose it”).”

Kristi Gordon is also finding support a lot closer to home. When the pregnant anchor shared the hate mail on the air her co-anchors came to her defense, with Squire Barnes putting it simply — “Haters gonna hate.”

[Image via YouTube]