Ottawa, August 11, 1994 – The “Fashion Television” segment aired on CITY-TV on January 23, 1994, did not exploit women, according to today’s decision of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) Ontario Regional Council.
This program contained interviews discussing fashion experts’ opinions on women and fashion, a segment on fashion and lifestyles in Florida, and coverage of a fashion show. A CITY-TV viewer wrote to the CBSC to complain about the “bold, invasive style of the camera” and the “degrading and oppressive” message that “Fashion Television” transmitted to women about their bodies and self-image. According to CITY-TV, though, fashion was meant to entertain and to be artistically expressive. Moreover, the station added, “Fashion Television” had run stories on “the power of being a woman and the power that comes from believing in yourself, not just in your physical being.” The complainant was dissatisfied with this response and wrote back to the CBSC to have the Ontario Regional Council consider her complaint.
The Regional Council members recognized that the viewer was concerned about the fashion industry in general, but that CITY-TV could not be expected to address these general concerns. After viewing the logger tape of the program, the Ontario Regional Council decided that “Fashion Television” was entertainment programming which covered the fashion industry in a manner similar to other programming on the same subject. The program did not exploit women and was not degrading to them. Therefore, the Council decided that CITY-TV had not breached the industry’s Sex-Role Portrayal Code, which states that broadcasters cannot air programs that exploit women.
The Ontario Regional Council is composed of women and men from the general public and the broadcasting industry. The Chair, Marianne Barrie, represents the public, as do Susan Fish and Robert Stanbury. The broadcaster representatives are Al MacKay (Vice-Chair), Don Luzzi and Paul Fockler.
The Council administers, in addition to the Sex-Role Portrayal Code, an industry Code of Ethics and the Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming. Since November, 1993 it has also administered the Radio Television News Directors Association Code of Ethics.
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For more information, please contact the CBSC National Chair, Ronald I. Cohen, at (###) ###-####.