After Aliya-Jasmine Sovani got into a car crash, she thought the scars the accident gave her would mean she would never work in the media like she always wanted.
Sovani had been eating at Rooster’s Coffeehouse at Carleton with a friend during the summer between her first and second years of university. On her way home, the Jeep she was driving rolled over, dragging her arm underneath her.
“No one’s going to want me to be on their TV screens if I have what looks like burn marks all over my arms and my legs,” she told a crowded room full of students in Residence Commons March 8. “You don’t see all the girls who are on The Hills with scars all over them. That was a really big issue for me.”
Sovani delivered the keynote address on women’s media representation as part of Women’s Day at Carleton. Sovani has been working in the Canadian media for about 10 years. She has been a host for MTV Canada since the network’s inception in 2006. She has more recently done work for TSN.
She said her long career in the media gave her insight into the pressure on women to be beautiful.
Aside from her address, Sovani also moderated a panel on women and the media. Panelists from the Carleton community discussed women in the news media, representation of women of all sizes, and ethnic backgrounds in magazines.
Carleton’s Panhellenic Council organized the event, along with Carleton’s Greek Council. Event co-chair Christine Ackerley, a second-year journalism student, said the council is made up of four sororities at Carleton, but some of the event’s organizers are not involved with Carleton’s Greek community.
The Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre, an Ottawa-based alternative addiction treatment centre, also sponsored the day’s events.
Before the panel, Carleton’s women were invited to attended seminars on sexual health, women in science by Kim Hellemans, and women in business hosted by Janice McDonald.
McDonald, a music industry entrepreneur, said women who want to start businesses, could face challenges with access to capital, but technology has made it easier than ever for women to become entrepreneurs.
“Technology has always been a great leveller and equalizer and has offered women tremendous opportunities because they can work with their laptop and a great idea,” she said.
During the panel, McDonald said women’s media representation is important to help women achieve their goals.
“In order to see where you want to get to, you have to see that represented,” she said.
McDonald pointed out that a sign we’re on our way to greater women’s representation is that six of Canada’s provincial premiers are women, meaning 87 per cent of Canadians have a female premier.
“Pretty soon it won’t be male premiers and female premiers,” Sovani added. “There’ll just be premiers.”
