Steve Hartman: The Hair Apparent
My dad really likes watching Katie. The only complaint he's ever had came one Wednesday when she wore her hair up. He told me, "Tell that pretty girl not to EVER do that again." It really bothered him. I got less guff when I crashed his '73 Maverick.
My mom also likes to comment on Katie's appearance. In fact, before Katie even started, my mom was on a rant: "Only reason CBS hired her was so they can show off her legs on the set," she insisted. I assured my mother that CBS had no intention of "showing off" Katie's legs -- but mom wasn't buying it. She bet me 5 dollars that the new anchor desk would be "see-through." Of course, it isn't. I won the bet. Although, I'm still waiting to collect.
I'm writing all this not to "out" my dad as sexist or my mom as a welch, but to make the point that we've all put too much emphasis on Katie's appearance over these last few months. Even me. When I sit next to Katie on Fridays I always look to see what shoes she's wearing. I even write a little critique in my head. I never did that with Dan Rather. Dan could've had a club foot for all I knew.
I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for Katie. As a male, and not a very striking one at that, I'm rarely boiled down to my looks. But I recently got a small taste of what it must feel like -- and the feeling isn't good.
A friend called my attention to a small item she'd seen in the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. A gossip columnist by the name of "CJ" had apparently watched the news that Friday night, and since I used to work for a TV station in the twin cities, she apparently thought people there would be interested to know her thoughts on my appearance.
"Steve Hartman, what's with the slicked-down hair?" she wrote. "A few freckles and Hartman could have been mistaken for that rascal Alfalfa."
That was all she wrote. It may not seem like that big a deal to you, but it was a light bulb moment for me. Since leaving Minneapolis in the early 90's, I've had about a dozen promotions. I've been on Oprah and Letterman. I've won Emmys. But none of those accomplishments made the paper in Minneapolis. Apparently, none of those events were as important as the state of my hair on February 9th, 2007.
Now, think of Katie. She has accomplished so much more, just in the past few months, than I ever will. Yet some people still choose to focus on the color of her jacket, or whether she has the right number of wrinkles for her age. Not me. Not anymore. Now that I've been in her shoes, I won't be paying any attention to them any more.
