to think that Rachel Riley off Countdown should be free to wear whatever she likes?

[MardyBra]

link here

OK her outfits are not to my taste, but so what if she shows a bit of leg/cleavage/at the same time.

[EuroShopperEnergyDrink]

I get what you mean- but I doubt it was 'her choice' to wear a labia skimming body con dresses and sky high heels for afternoon telly.

[JeezyOrangePips]

I think YABU.

I think that employers are entirely within their right to state what is and is not appropriate for their workplace, as long as it is not unreasonable. This doesn't seem unreasonable for a daytime show.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

YANBU - she is an absolutely stunning woman, and IMHO should be showing off her god given assets as much as possible. She's also ridiculously good at the numbers - far, far better than the mutton dressed as lamb that is Carol Vorderman ever was. She frequently goes into the thousands, and then divides to get the answer. I never once saw Carol do that.

[CuriousMama]

She has a great figure so why not? And I agree with Cheryl she's amazing at the numbers.

[BalthierBunansa]

YANBU, I can't see one thing wrong with any of her dresses.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

A lot of the viewers of Countdown are elderly and may well think she is dressed very inappropriately. It does shout "dolly bird assistant" rather than anything else. However, the fact that she is standing while the men sit also shouts that so meh.

[MardyBra]

Well she needs to stand to be able to do the letters MrsTP.

I do agree the whole format of man in charge (Des/Nick/Richard) with woman to do the letters (Carol/Rachel) is very sexist though.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

Anyone who watches the show and thinks 'dolly bird assistant' because of how she chooses to dress whilst ignoring her talent isn't worth listening to.

[ImperialBlether]

at the thought of Carol not being able to divide thousands. Ffs.

[MardyBra]

I do like Nick though. Haven't watched for a bit. Been too busy playing Words with Friends instead.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

Oh and my mum, who's in her 60's always comments on how great she looks when she's wearing these figure hugging dresses. My dad, who's in his 70's, also enjoys them too - and who can blame him. So not everyone in the older demographic is a prudish fool.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

It's not about her being someone to stare at - they marvel at her numerical skills too. But even if that wasn't the case, what on earth is wrong with someone appreciating an exemplary example of the female form?

[CherylWillBounceBack]

@Imperial - Carol was seemingly incapable of manipulating numbers above 999. Never once did she realise that the number could be a divisor of something larger. It always baffled me as to why she wouldn't do it.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I think she should of course wear what she likes.

But, FWIW, DH knows her vaguely and friends of his know her well, and there was an awful lot of talk about how before she got the job, she didn't like to dress like that. Who knows - people change; lots of people would dress one way as students then leap at a chance to glam up. I feel a bit uncomfortable at speculating one way or the other about how she dresses or why it's changed.

I think making snide comments about why she got the job is really shitty, too. She has a good degree in maths - d'you know, someone, I think she's probably quite good enough at maths to do countdown!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

*somehow, even, not someone.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Well, most lucrative jobs for mathematicians are a 'waste' of their skills. So what?

It's a great job if you like that sort of thing. Most job adverts make out that the job is great -why wouldn't they?

[ouryve]

I always wonder if there's rules against ending up with fractions before multiplying up to get the final answer. I've potentially solved a few, that way but I've never seen it done.

As for RR, some of what she wears isn't to my taste and I've noticed she does tone it down with certain contestants, but I can't say it bothers me.

And if anything, there's a bit of stereotype busting. The old guy is sat reading off cue cards and cracking a few jokes while the women are doing all the clever stuff.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

You could argue that creating the black scholes formula or credit default swaps was an almighty waste of maths skills too given the havoc they've caused

[CherylWillBounceBack]

I agree ourve - fractions, powers and roots would be nice. However there is something pure about doing it using the basic operators too, so it could easily be argued it's fine as it is.

[LineRunner]

She's also very funny.