THE CLEAVAGE CONUNDRUM
Is showing too much cleavage too distracting and a liability at work? Yes. You heard me. This gem has been plucked from the morning news cycle, and you know that I never tire of what constitutes ‘news.’ Apparently this debate is considered worth having, so I shall of course throw my hat into the ring.
Last week a survey was done with over 3000 managers (over here in jolly old England, where I guess they've tired of discussing the rising tuition fees and Camilla's brush with an angry mob) and the earth shattering result of this survey? If women show too much in the chest area they can sabotage their career. Half of these managers admitted that they overlooked a woman for a promotion if she had regularly worn low cut tops to ‘attract attention.’ Can’t you just hear them complaining as they justified themselves – "she wanted me to stare; damn her and that low cut silk number!"
Firstly, isn’t there a law against passing over a woman for such a preposterous reason? So just so I have this straight, if the woman is the most qualified person for the job, yet she’s wearing her V-neck a bit low, she’s getting passed over? How about a man getting passed over for being irretrievably stupid? "Well, as you can imagine, his stupidity was attracting attention and bringing the whole IQ of the office down. We had to let him go." Now that's more like it.
I understand the whole argument that one has to dress appropriately at the office. In fact, I think there are many out there that look as if they got dressed in the dark…or their local brothel. But if a woman has a large chest, or any chest that constitutes cleavage she has to dress like an Amish woman or suffer the consequences? I will also readily admit that there are women out there that love to put it all on display; in fact many make a living of doing just that. But when it comes to the mercurial chest area - the bermuda triangle apparently to many a men - I have known a slew of women that no matter what they wear, their chest just seems to have a mind of its own and it becomes very hard to hide or disguise. And sometimes, the mere hiding of the chest area makes it that much more apparent. Ah the irony! And it’s not like we can cut them off when the situation demands it, and then strap them back on once we clock out.
I have a tip, how about men learn how to NOT look (or shut up and enjoy the view. Oh yeah, that's right, you can't multi-task). I realize this is not in their DNA, but you don’t see us walking around staring at men’s groins. We can handle the dizzying allure, we are strong enough to say to ourselves, hmm, gee, while I’m out in public, I’ll talk to a man’s face, not his pants. What is so damn hard, are men not used to them by now. They’re there. They’re not moving anywhere else on our body. So either get used to it, or wear sunglasses to work. And you can even paste a little photo of women’s breasts on the inside of the glasses in case you just can’t handle it. Cause I realize cold turkey is just too much for some chest gazers.