Theresa may's awful awful red dress

[BananaMilkshake13]

AIBU?
I think she looked absolutely ridiculous in that red dress when she greeted Trump at Blenheim palace.

She looked out of place and was perhaps trying to compete with melania trump...obviously a formal event but that dress was a bad choice and didn't suit her AT ALL.
The slit....🙈

She looks shattered. I bet she only gets a few hours sleep at night.

What a bitch to start a thread like this. Women helping other women - ha ha ha. Sometimes I too am ashamed to be a woman.

She looks unwell. Her posture was poor, possibly due to absolute exhaustion from the last few weeks.

Her dress was perfectly fine. I dare say it was one of the worst nights of her life. Whether you agree with her politics or not she does perhaps deserve some empathy. Her diabetes will also contribute to feeling crap and quite possibly be lining her up for major problems at some point.

This is why women are never taken seriously

"I bet she only gets a few hours sleep at night."

Awww boo fuckin hoo. I bet she gets more sleep than the poor single mum with 2 kids who's just had her benefits sanctioned and her kids need a new pair of shoes, or The bloke who has to wait 6 weeks for his UC to come through.

I thought she looked nice, it’s also bloody irrelevant and in fact, I think she’s playing a smart game skewering unpopularity of the trump visit and then him dissing the plan to build support for her soft Brexit plan.

I love the beauty and the beast comment re Melania! My 8 yo dd thinks Melania always looks gorgeous

@underestimation

That's a really interesting take on it and one that hadn't occured to me. Maybe it is because we just do not see many women in roles like this that their behaviour and mannerisms seem so out of place. Our "norm" is seeing men in these positions.

Embarrassingly I see myself as a feminist and yet this has never occurred to me. Thanks for helping me see the alternative view point.

@athuritis - Yes, exactly that. We judge women by masculine 'norms' and we don't even know we are doing it most of the time. (I am an academic who talks about this stuff for a living, which obviously doesn't mean I am 'right' but does mean I have a particular perspective on it all I guess)!

Interesting fact: Most CEOs in the States and elsewhere are men. One study found that almost 60% of CEOs of leading companies are six foot or over. But in the US population as a whole, this is closer to 15%. Clearly height does not equate to ability. Tall men are not 'better' at doing their job, I wouldn't think, just because they are tall. But height and physical stature are closely associated by many people with leadership (as is masculinity more generally).

If we don't challenge these (and other) naturalised associations, it is highly problematic - women mostly cannot replicate these characteristics and will as a result almost always be found wanting.

Well, royals are ceremonial and they signed up for the supermarket opening etc, May is a politician doing a serious job.

Ok I'm clearly on another planet because I thought her dress was incredibly chic and she looked great! Strong colour suits her very pale complexion. Nude colours drain her.

Her posture does her no favours, and can let a great dress look I'll
fitting, but I don't know if she has a specific back problem? Either way I doubt she has any time to properly address it. It's not like she has a regular spot in her busy Brexit negotiation/farce/shit-making schedule to practice some Alexander technique is it?

Personally I thought Melania was channeling Greek Oracle of Delphi a bit too much!

There are enough men in the world who think it’s the role of women to look nice and attract rich men rather than do the important jobs themselves without the op (and the fruit loop who went on about posture) joining them. Just put a sock in it as sir Nicholas soames would say

If we were beinh=g really objective here we would recognise that the way we present ourselves in different situations is actually very important. Also for a man although not so obvious. The clothes we put on our back, hair make up tattoos etc talk to our observers about how we are trying to be... serious, glamourous, frightening, non-threatening, rebellious, you name it we all tell a tale. Boris Johnson and Donald Trump spend ages arranging their hair in their peculiar images, all to get a message across. Would you wear the same clothes for a business meeting or a party? How do you want people to think of you? Fun, gravitas. We all have roles to play and jobs to do and wear the "uniform" to fit the message we are trying to give whether that is shaven head tattoos or piercings, or demure concealment. All animal body language really. My only comment on the dress was that front the front it looked dignified and take me seriously, and from the back it looked a bit foolish. She has a heavy role to present, I would go for "dont mess with me " message

Whenever I see threads like this i always think of Sarah Millicans account of being criticised for her bafta dress. Makes me so sad.

www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-05-15/sarah-millican-twitter-was-a-pin-to-my-excitable-bafta-balloon/

@aawlookatmybabyspider - Awww boo fuckin hoo. I bet she gets more sleep than the poor single mum with 2 kids who's just had her benefits sanctioned and her kids need a new pair of shoes, or The bloke who has to wait 6 weeks for his UC to come through.

It's hardly TM's fault that marriages break up and useless men don't support their dc, is it??

She has a stressful job that is more important than most jobs in this country...

I think she has a medical condition which explains her posture

What would 'don't mess with me' look like though?

Ideally nobody should critiicise trivial style choices but certainly not when May was effectively at work - that was a work outfit for an important piece of work.

Are royals working at their weddings, christenings etc? I don’t care as much about that, but I don’t think you can argue that because we criticise the royals we can criticise what a woman wears to a work event as long as it is work appropriate.

Oh, that's such a sad article about Sarah Millican, @NellMangel, and she puts her point so well.

I think she looked, and generally looks, fantastic. I don't agree with any aspect of her political positions (apart from her campaigning AGAINST Brexit, anyway), but I think that unlike a lot of other senior politicians, she uses clothes to make strong statements, and she does it exceptionally well. She doesn't dress to downplay her "woman-ness" in any way - she dresses well, with a dominant/feminine vibe, and with a slightly flamboyant awesomeness which I think is pretty fab at 61.

Everything about this visit is being scrutinised for hidden messages and body language and so on, and I think that the very strong block colours she has been wearing this past week - last night's gown and the cobalt suit at NATO with the giant pearls - are significant and confidence and strength (the shitstorm in her cabinet notwithstanding).

I completely disagree with the people saying "she's not thinking about her dress - she's freaking out about Brexit" - of COURSE she's thinking about her dress. She can freak out about Brexit and say "get that dress for me in red by 6pm" at the same time, surely.

Let's have your equal views on the suits then please! God forbid a middle-aged woman should try and look nice for a reasonably formal occasion. I think she looks very appropriate for all occasions personally. Who the hell am I to judge what she's wearing?

She looked fabulous and she’s an absolute boss lady, running the country during a ridiculously difficult period and having to deal with shitty male colleagues who are constantly shirking their duties. HTH.

Ps. I’m a labour supporter and you, OP, are a nasty misogynist.

@motheroffourdragons - I do agree this is a tricky question. I think the problem lies in the extent to which the value of women is and has been reduced to little more than their appearance, so that their expertise, ability, experience, etc. count for nothing, compared to whether they are considered decorative or not.

The danger of commenting on TM's dress is that it (along with her body/her posture/her stature etc) come to represent everything else about her. Her competence, her leadership skills, her technical skills, etc. We see this as the thread develops - it starts with a quite basic criticism of her outfit but quickly becomes much more than that. My view is just that we need to guard against reproducing this in the way that we talk about other women, because it is quite insidious and hugely damaging to women's interests overall. This doesn't mean that we don't have an opinion about what she wears, obviously.

Where Meghan and the Royals are concerned I suppose we could think of this potentially as less problematic on one level, because their role is in many ways largely decorative. They explicitly don't and are not allowed to have a voice or opinions or knowledge or expertise and they have no official role as head of state - we rarely hear Kate M talk for example and we have no idea what she actually thinks about anything. My view is that it's highly problematic that amongst the highest profile women in the country are put out there as largely mute but nevertheless decorative items for our collective consumption, but that's another issue I guess.

Well these men should be made to support their kids. She should hound them until they do. She's quick enough hounding the resident parent. Easy target comes to mind Also sanctions are her fAult. She's PM, isn't she. Also what about women who have been widowed. You don't know people's stories.
I pay my taxes which I don't mind paying to help the poor and needy and I'm mindful of the fact that I may need help myself one day.
If it's okay to Sanction people. Why the fuck am I paying my taxes. Where is my money going.
Don't expect me to feel sorry for a multi millionaire toff, because I'm sorry to disappoint you but it going to happen
I'll save my pity for those whose children won't be eating tonight.

Yeah I can’t think I’ve seen what Kate M said reported in the press in the last year.

And I haven’t read much about the Brexit plan but the dress is everywhere.

We need a dress of the Brexit plan as a picture really is worth a million words...