Instead the responsible thing to to is to encourage women to dress appropriately …

(Image: Suspicious Nuns by fotologic published under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)
… and be respectable. In fact, women should play a greater role in policing these instances of blatant sexism for who is better suited to guard against this poor behaviour than women themselves.

(Image: nuns with guns by Foxtongue published under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)
I mean, it isn’t like I get to see anything on these days anyway so how worthwhile can it really be. It is just an excuse for Wonderbra to sell more push-up bras and further inflame irrational male desires to see less clothing rather than engage more meaningfully with women!
Sadly it does seem that Claire has allowed herself to be firmly bought over by this objectionable mentality:
I even have a couple of Wonderbras. I wear make-up to work. I’m a bit of a flirt (much more so when I’ve had a few). I have long hair.
This is an unfortunate example of the sort of insidious and pervasive male-dominated mentality that takes us as a nation to a dark place of sex and objectification …
Ok, so the first part of my post is firmly foot in mouth stuff. Speaking as a guy I like the idea of a National Cleavage Day but that is part of the problem. Men tend to dictate how women will dress and present themselves and this is usually based on exploitative sexual practices. South Africa has terrible rape statistics and even worse reporting rates.
Sexism is evident in these statistics as well as in a variety of instances of sexual harassment, discrimination and outright abuse at home, at work and on our streets. I have little doubt it can be a scary place for women.
I will probably take some heat for this post but I also support women who choose to express themselves through something like a National Cleavage Day which is just a big marketing ploy, name a major event on the national calendar which isn’t exploited commercially. What is wrong is where women are coerced or forced to do something they are uncomfortable with. That is just not cricket!
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national cleavage day, boobs, sexism, rape, sexual offences, feminism
What do you think?