Jacotte Brokken, the VRT weather forecaster, responded to the online hate messages about her appearance in the program ‘MakeUpDate’ with Bert De Kock. “It hit home hard that the editor-in-chief was cc’d.”
MakeUpDate is an interview format on VRT Max in which Bert De Kock and his guest paint themselves and the host asks questions in the meantime. Jacotte Brokken had to paint her face in a lightning storm while answering questions about, among other things, the hate messages she receives about her weight.
“I recently had a difficult day,” Jacotte started. She had received another body shaming email, but this time the wording was new. Someone had emailed: “You have to lose weight, otherwise you won’t be allowed to present it again.” The email was sent to Jacotte’s work address with the editor in chief in cc. “That hit me hard.”
“Someone had emailed me: ‘You have to lose weight, otherwise you won’t be allowed to present again.’ That hit me hard.”
Jacotte Broken
Weather woman
Jacotte says that she often posts the hate mail on her Instagram stories so that only close friends can see it and send comforting replies. But she had put that “You need to lose weight” email on the newer channel Threads, so that more people could see it. “And there have been a lot of reactions to that.”
Is the word ‘fat’ allowed?
The weather woman asks herself in MakeUpDate: “How does my weight have anything to do with my abilities as a weather woman? Whether I’m skinny or fat, tall or short, that doesn’t have anything to do with it, does it? (…) Sometimes people try to send me sweet emails and write: ‘Despite your size, you are a good weather woman.’ Then I think, ‘Come on, guys!’”
In MakeUpDate, Jacotte Brokken had to paint her face in a thunderstorm while answering questions about, among other things, the hate messages she receives about her weight. — © VRT Max
Bert De Kock wanted to know what Jacotte thinks of the word fat? “I think we can reclaim that,” the weather forecaster replied. “I understand that it is a bit confusing. You don’t want to call someone fat, because then you think: if that person is not on board, then I may have called them names. But I would describe myself as someone who is fat, but that doesn’t mean I’m ugly.”