Within the past week, two TV presenters have had the sheer audacity to wear dresses which showed a bit of cleavage - apparently sending some of the UK public into a moral panic… Over women having boobs.
Last Sunday, 341 people complained to Ofcom about Dancing on Ice. Many took issue with Rufus Hound's political comments, but Holly Willoughby’s Disney-princess-esqe Dany Atrache dress also received complaints - because, you guessed it, the outfit showed her cleavage. Meanwhile, over on Good Morning Britain this Wednesday, Susanna Reid wore a gorgeous green dress which just so happened to have a scoop neckline. Headlines quickly followed about viewers being outraged over her ‘inappropriate’ and ‘racy’ outfit, all because it showed the tiniest bit of boob on breakfast TV. In fact, there has been so much nonsense about tits on primetime ITV that yesterday two writers in the Mirror battled it out over the ‘great cleavage divide’.
Obviously, this 'debate' (eye roll) is nothing new. It's a tale which feels as old as black and white television, but in the age of social media, these complaints seem to have proliferated. People kicking off to the TV regulator about women having tits seems to have become a national hobby - and subsequently a backbone of the tabloid press. Other women who have been complained about include Maya Jama and Nicole Scherzinger - and in 2017, a low-cut Julien Macdonald dress Amanda Holden wore on the Britain’s Got Talent became the most complained about TV moment of the year.
But the problem is merely with those offended, and women shouldn’t be targeted for this misplaced anger.
'Think of the children! Won't you think of the children,' seems to be the rallying call of those complaining. But this is absurd. Children do not grow up learning to be offended by the merest sight of chest - however, if they see their parents’ horrified reactions, then they too are going to grow up believing women’s bodies are wrong. You are perpetuating the outdated viewpoint that a woman is somehow less if she wears less clothing. Plus the fact, many of these women have children of their own, do you think they appear on TV wanting to offend their kids? Of course they don’t. They just (rightly) think they shouldn’t be reduced, or sexualised, for what they wear.
And if you are a grown man, unable to control yourself over a woman wearing a low-cut top on television, then that really is your own problem. Not the fault of the woman on screen. (And you probably shouldn’t be allowed out in public.)
I would like to remind people - in case anyone has forgotten - that it is 2021, not the 1950s. You would have thought a woman could wear a nice dress on TV which shows a bit of neckline without a fuss, but apparently not. We are still castigating, and judging, women for showing skin - as if having boobs is something to be ashamed of, something that makes you unintelligent, or something that means you're allowed to be sexualised by the whole country.
And finally, I know there is a pandemic on and we all have a lot of time on our hands, but how bored do you have to be to complain of Ofcom about a dress? Please! Get a life. Start an actual hobby. Or maybe get angry about the things worth getting angry about on Good Morning Britain, like the politicians who dodge Susanna's questions and won't hold themselves accountable for the ongoing coronavirus crisis. That's surely far more enraging than whatever outfit Susanna happens to be wearing.
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