Post fashion writer needs to get over Hillary’s chest

Double standards

August 1, 2007 4:03:47 PM

It seems absurd that a newspaper like the Washington Post would bother to print an article discussing how Hillary Clinton has cleavage. Of course she has cleavage! Why is this worthy of comment?

I don’t see any articles about which side the male candidates dress on, or how well endowed they may be. But recently, when Senator Clinton spoke on the Senate floor, wearing a pink jacket and slacks, with a white V-neck blouse underneath, Post fashion editor Robin Givhan saw cleavage on C-Span (at left), according to her article.

Givhan went on to describe her discomfort with this (though the photograph that ran with her online article doesn’t show a hell of a lot of cleavage.) Apparently this woman — an African-American journalist who ought to know about bias — has never been in the try-on room at the nearest Loehmann’s. If she had, she would long ago have gotten used to the sight of women in various stages of undress.

It’s a good thing Hillary isn’t a young breast-feeding mother. If Givhan had happened to walk into a ladies’ lounge in Nordstrom and seen her breastfeeding a child, God only knows what kind of a column that would have generated.

I am just sick and tired of the absurd standards being set for Hillary Rodham Clinton as a senator and as a presidential candidate. She’s bright. She’s a capable and determined woman, and yes, Robin, she even has breasts. Get over it. Her breasts aren’t running for president; she is!

Givhan goes as far as to say that a woman who shows cleavage where neither cocktails nor hors d’oeuvres are being served is being “provocative.” Next time Givhan is in a house of worship and a strapless-gowned bride walks down the aisle to the altar, I hope someone throws the bride a stiff drink and a hunk of Swiss cheese. If not, Robin is bound to declare the wedding X-rated.

The Post writer may be one of the first people to go on at length about Hillary as a sex symbol — not something the wife-of-Bill is usually accused of being.

America’s voters, however, will be voting for the candidate whose brain and whose heart they believe best for America. Hopefully, the candidates’ external anatomical appendages will not be a factor in the way their ballots are cast.

Now, if Ms. Givhan can just get out more, maybe she can actually come up with something sensible to write about.