The Mirror

Blonde Female TV Journalist To Male Viewer Who Assessed Her Weight: ‘We Are Not Your Eye Candy’

Screenshot/WREG/Memphis

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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The fumes of the #MeToo movement continue moving around the planet. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein still isn’t in prison. Female journalists are feeling more empowered than ever to reveal the idiotic behavior of men in their midst.

Nina Harrelson, a broadcast journalist in Memphis, went off on a male stranger over the weekend who approached her and told she “looks mighty big” on TV.

He wasn’t referring to her brain.

Harrelson is a weekend anchor for WREG in Memphis.

A Twitter parody account calling himself @niceDonald Trump asked, “How do you even respond to that?”

Harrelson responded to phony Trump, saying, “I explained to him that was incredibly insulting and suggested he keep future opinions like that to himself. He apologized and laughed nervously.”

This is hardly the first time that a TV journalist has experienced a male stranger eyeing a female journalist’s physique. In July, a male viewer wanted to know about Kasie Hunt‘s weight gain. She shut him down quickly and publicly by informing him that she was pregnant. (RELATED: Kasie Hunt Gets Broiled For Saying Something Nice About A GOP Candidate)

The male viewer asked, “Why is @kasie getting so fat?”

Hunt replied, “I’m 8 months pregnant.”

Harrelson quickly realized she might have offended some “big” people in the process of revealing a stranger’s dumb remark.

“My intention wasn’t to imply there’s anything wrong with being ‘big’ — I’m just pointing out that it’s asinine how people feel they have a right to comment on women’s bodies just because they can,” she continued. “It’s entirely possible to think something and not say it.”

After NBC’s TODAY Show showed her some love, she tweeted, “Happy to represent women of all shapes and sizes — whether you’re in the public eye or not. Thank you @TODAYShow and to everyone who has shown their support.” (Pssst…no mention of Matt Lauer, but yeah, kudos to the “TODAY” Show.)

Mike Bills, a wedding DJ in Charleston, seemed to not understand that this happened to her in person.

“This is a classic example of the lack of filter on social media,” Bills told her. “I bet the person would not say it to your face. You are stunning.”

Harrelson replied, “This was to my face.”

The Memphis anchor received plenty of support online from strangers who sympathized with what happened. They also told her that she’s beautiful as is.

“I wish I had your hair,” one woman wrote her.

Harrelson replied, “You are too kind. Your hair is beautiful!”

Monkeyfister wrote, “Dambed [sic] straight. You tell ’em Nina! One day men will figure it out.”

Harrelson replied, “I’m not so sure.”

“This sort of abuse is all too frequent, and as a talented journalist, you shouldn’t have to receive it,” wrote Alison Comyn, a news anchor and MC. “I’m sure you’re able to ignore it, but it can still get to everyone at times, so thank you for calling him out. I too took the time to report his tweets as harrassment.”

Stephanie Guzman, a content producer for az family, a local CBS affiliate in Phoenix, told her, “You always look fab. It’s a shame someone thinks it’s ok to write stuff like that.”

Harrelson replied, “He said this to my face! I wonder if he expected me to thank him?”

Harrelson assured her viewers and followers that this incident hasn’t damaged her psyche.

“Luckily, after nearly nine years in this business, I have a very thick skin,” she wrote. “But I feel sorry for the young women breaking into news who will have to deal with that kind of criticism, which their male colleagues will almost certainly never face.”