ELIZABETH WRIGHT WRITES:

Laura wrote in the previous entry on women’s fashions:

“Most women feel the gaze of others on their exposed cleavage. It’s distracting. I don’t know how these women on television concentrate.”

How the women concentrate? I don’t know how the men concentrate. I’ve watched as a woman being interviewed by a man is sitting there in a mini-skirt that climbs half-way up her thighs with endless legs exposed. The male interviewer is supposed to concentrate on the subject matter, while confronted with a female body that is half undressed. With or without cleavage added to the scene, I’ve always thought this was most unfair. It’s as if women are saying to men, “Hey, we know how you’re made and understand your natural impulses, but we enjoy making you uncomfortable and watching you squirm.”

By the way, in those nine photos of women newscasters, only one of them clearly has exposed cleavage, which is surprising, since I think “no cleavage” is the rule for news programs. This is unlike a Spanish-speaking station that I’ve passed from time to time, where the well-endowed women newscasters are all hanging out of their tight sweaters.

Laura writes:

It’s unfair and disrespectful to men. As Lawrence Auster has said, the workplace with women in aggressively feminine attire is emasculating. A man has two choices: to respond as a normal man, in which case he is violating the rules of the workplace and could face punishment, or to suppress his natural reactions.

Is that what women want? It’s not possible to turn instinctive responses on and off like a faucet. Do women want men who can look on their appearance with willed indifference? Regardless of what they want, it is selfish.

Yes, I gave the false impression that low-cut tops are common among mainstream women newscasters. Their appearance is often aggressively sexual – in make-up and hair –  without exposing their chests.

Karen I. writes:

The newscasters also tend to wear high heels and short skirts, like many professional women. One national newscaster who does not fit the mold is Maggie Rodriguez, who is on the CBS morning show. She is currently pregnant and has obviously gained a good amount of weight, unlike other newscasters who appear to gain about five ounces when they are expecting then lose it the day after the baby is born. She has dark hair and she wears it short. She keeps mentioning how big she is getting and she seems truly self-conscious about it. I think she seems more likeable overall than the majority of the national news anchors. What makes me laugh is the way the female anchors get all fixed up the way you describe then have to co-anchor with men who have a good many faults on display. Matt Lauer’s balding head and Al Roker’s heavy frame come to mind.

 Laura writes:

I prefer male newscasters. There’s no question many women anchors and newscasters are smart and talented. But they report the news with more emotional inflection and no matter how much a woman tones down her appearance, we are still very conscious of it. But then I don’t watch much TV news at all.

Mark writes:

I wonder how Maggie Fox (see “Comments on the Mommy Bomb”), would address some of the issues raised occasionally by you and your readers regarding the way women in the workplace use their sexuality (whether consiously or not) to effectively neuter their male colleagues. Would she think it’s out of line to enforce a dress code that would be more respectful of men (and which would also have the effect of making women more respectable)? Or is she happy with the status quo, and believes it’s up to men to exert uncommon levels of self restraint when surrounded by Barbie dolls?

Brittany writes:

I agree that clothes can be immodest and distract the man but I don’t see how long hair can do that. To me the golden locks of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield would attract more attention than long, straight hair.

Laura writes:

Kidist Paulos Asrat’s pieces, here and here, do a nice job of addressing this. It isn’t long hair per se but the way it is styled and worn.

Lawrence Auster writes:

Laura wrote: “Most women feel the gaze of others on their exposed cleavage. It’s distracting. I don’t know how these women on television concentrate, but the answer is they probably don’t or they do so at tremendous cost to their own peace of mind.”

I think they don’t concentrate. I think they are primarily focused on their appearance and their performance, not on what they’re saying. Not that they don’t think at all about what they’re saying, but that their appearance and performance comes first, and what they’re saying comes second.

The best evidence for this is their excessive, incessant smiling when they are not speaking (that is, when they are being introduced or when someone else is speaking). This is especially noticeable when there are two or more of them lined up together, either in the studio, where they are sitting together at the same table, or in head shots on the screen. Seeing, on an ostensibly political show, two or more long-haired blondies (with an occasional brunette) lined up together and smiling so excessively is funny and ridiculous. That smiling says, “I’m pretty, I’m pretty, I’m pretty, I’m pretty, I’m pretty, I’m pretty…” That is the foremost thing on their minds. That is what they’re working on. That is their principal message.

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