Over the top: The fuss about cleavage

Over on the Telegraph's welcome new Three Line Whip site, Melissa Kite has a characteristically peppy posting about the cleavage issue:

I know the line I ought to take as a good feminist, whatever that is, is to say that these women are involved in the most serious matters of state and their physique ought not to be the subject of discussion by the male dominated commentariat.

But do you know what? The sight of Mrs May's garish pink and green dress and the desperate shortage of work it made for the imagination made me feel deeply embarrassed.

I can't agree.

I find the fuss about the way May and Smith dressed, baffling and outrageous in equal measure. There was nothing wrong with what they were wearing.

And, while I listen to Melissa with great respect on this, the reaction was sexist, pure and simple.

Comments

[Diane Abbott MP]

What a relief a commentator has come out and said how silly this fuss is about female politicians and their cleavage.In both cases, cleavage which would be unremarkable in real life, looks striking in photographs because in the chamber of the House of Commons you are filmed/photographed from above. As for Melissa Kite, if she is really "deeply embarassed" by the merest glimpse of the outline of another woman's breasts, maybe she needs to see a therapist.

[ben]

Oh Daniel, please... It's not in any meaningful way sexist.

Were you having a bad day?

How on earth can you find it outrageous - let alone baffling?

The sight of Mrs. May in that outfit was as embarrassing as the sight of Gordon Brown in extra tight jeans would be.

If you don't know how to flaunt it, the result is likely to be a train wreck if you try.

The reaction (badly expressed by Ms. Kite) was about style and taste. Can't you see the large and important difference between that and what a sexist reaction would be?

Go and show that photo to any French woman.

[Jan]

I don't agree with Daniel Finkelstein.Cleavage of any sort in the workplace is unacceptable.Flashing your bosoms off a la Jackie Smith and Theresa May should be left until after dark.Women want to be taken seriously but how can anybody take these women seriously when you can see half their mammaries?The only exception should be underwear models and strippers.Women are the first ones to complain about builders botties.Yet some find it acceptable to be in a state of undress at work.Then complain that men stare at them.Ladies you can't have it both ways.

[Renny]

I myself would't go around like that but then I didn'teven when I was young.Nowadays women go around showing their bra straps which I don't like but that seems to be the fashion nowadays so if someone does't mind showing their cleavage it's up to them.

[Tim Worstall]

Why such a fuss about a secondary sexual characteristic anyway? We don't make the same fuss over men flaunting beards do we?

[Cromwell]

To be honest the only complaint I have is that May's dress should have been black but apart from that I think she looks hot. Yes I am single and no I'm not getting any.

[David Martin]

It's not sexist.

If David Cameron came into PM question time with his shirt unbuttoned to show his chest, no tie and a big medallion do you really think it would pass uncommented on.

And I was completely unaware of the "fuss" until I read this comment so thanks for fanning the flames. Are there not bigger issues for you media commentators to dwell on at the moment?

[NorthernMonkey]

Finky, I find myself agreeing with you more and more these days.

[Old-fashioned Feminist]

While the form the response has taken in some quarters (criticizing physical appearances) has been rather depressing, I see nothing inherently sexist or anti-feminist in the underlying sentiment. Women speaking on the floor should avoid gratuitous displays of décolletage for the same reason men doing the same should avoid wearing shorts - simple respect for the formality of the forum.

[Kong Kek Kuat]

True; there is nothing 'wrong' with what she wore. The problem is people tend to confuse 'distraction' with 'wrong', imprecisely turning the latter into an all inclusive word.

I found myself switching my visual attention off Cameron to her everytime she came into view. Lovely she is. Distracting indeed, but wrong nought.

[peter]

Finkelstein!

Get off your high horse - how is Melissa Kite's comment sexist? I don't want want to see Theresa May's ample cleavage on display any more than I'd like to see David Davis parading around the Commons in a pair of Speedos. It's a matter of dressing appropriately.

[nick g.]

For most of the time 'cleavage' is prefered to looking and listening at most of New Labour's "Blair Babes"

[james Murphy]

Dear Daniel, of course it was sexist - but surely that's the point! - Think about it: bosoms themselves are sexist: that is to say, their display inherently appeals, however innocently, to sexual appetite. In that respect, their display is inappropriate at any public function where the concentration should be on matters other than sexual desirability. Why, for example, do women not display cleavage at funerals, or at religious ceremonies? By all means reveal their beauty at parties, shows, events geared towards sexual display, but otherwise harness their power appropriately. - Come on Daniel, normally so sensible, don't go all PC on us now! all the best, James.

[eve]

gross and ugly!!!

[Dave B]

I think it's more about class than gender. It just seems inappropriate for HM Home Secretary to dress like a barmaid.

[Praguetory, Czech]

Is there a fuss? I dodn't know until I read this. Best to ignore it. There are more pressing matters in the body politic.

[PaulH]

The Times readership still seems to have more than it's fair share of old fogeys! Of course it's sexist, in a dreary grey old English sort of way. If only more of the men in Parliament would follow this lead and stop appearing in pointless ties and anonymous suits. The place may start looking a bit more interesting even if most of the speeches don't inspire.

[Josh Cooper]

Politics is fun to people like us in a non sexual inuendo sense. of course, the sun readers like a bit of this and it seems to attract the majority of the media consuming public... I say spice it up by talking about Smith and May's assets!

[Julian Cox]

I think Ms May's recent appearance on Newsnight in an appealingly masculine mid-brown, leatherette overcoat made her look just a tad like a full colonel in the KGB - let alone the fact that brown is a recession colour and hasn't been in vogue since the Winter of Discontent. Is she trying to tell us something about the state of the nation? Are the dead bodies going to pile up like they did then, over the corpse of Gordon Brown?

No, I'm all for equality, me.

You see, that jobbing careerist Chris Huhne appeared on Newsnight, too, wearing a tie like a graduate of The Jon Snow Finishing School for Sartorial Mishaps, in the best traditions of Shirley Williams in her Mix 'n' Match Period.(And boy, was it a humdinger of a period in those heady, television strobing days of yore.) I think he was talking about comets or meteorites at one point - as if his party weren't far enough beyond the asteroid belt of reason, keeping company with the vaporous gas giants still within the gravitational field of Westminster -but when you start worrying about other men's ties during a Jeremy Paxman interview on the cutting edge of a government meltdown, maybe there's some truth to the fact that you only start noticing what people of either sex or possibly even both are wearing when they're talking about heavenly bodies - and quite obviously listening to the music of the, er, spheres. I half expected Colonel May to arrest him for the politically correct crime of boring us to death - but that only leads us right back to the Winter of Discontent, doesn't it (he said hopefully), and the rigor mortis of Gordon Brown's stillborn government and when someone is going to have the decency to bury it.

[dp]

Of course it's sexist. It's also a sign of desperation among gossips with nothing better to do than invent vapid rules about other people's comportment. Really, such gossips should turn on themselves, and each other. That would be a service to the community!

[Sutton, UK]

It takes a desperate man to consider it worthwhile to make any comments on those 2 post menopausal sad ladies.

[Peter]

Has anyone considered the possibility that the two lost CDs from HMRC may be hidden in Theresa May's cleavage?

[oldasiahand]

Sorry Dan you are wrong. These women should stop dressing like down market madams and dress with respect and, in so doing, set an example for our daughters. Our women politicians and news readers look awful and tasteless in comparison to those in North America.

[Andy Pandy]

Cleavages to me look like "builders bums"

[Justin]

I didn't even know they made clothes like this for old people. Perhaps they are only available in specialist shops.