STONE AGES

TV Anchor Says She Was Fired for Having Curly Hair (Seriously)

“It doesn’t even sound real,” the fired reporter said.

A local weather anchor at the Knoxville, Tennessee, news station WATE was reportedly fired because she wouldn’t change her naturally curly hair, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Tabitha Bartoe said she was harassed for months at the station over her natural curls, with management’s displeasure culminating with her firing this week. “It doesn’t even sound real,” Bartoe told the News Sentinel. “The whole thing just sounds like a joke.” Women in TV have long been subject to sexist, sometime arbitrary clauses in their contracts regarding their appearance. Bartoe said her colleagues advised her to continue straightening her hair and, eventually, her natural curls would cease to exist. Bartoe, who regularly showed off and spoke about her curls in Twitter posts, responded: “That’s just not what I was looking for. I’d like to have my natural hair.”