Are "barely there" dresses acceptable in high profile public?

[Nothingyet]

Are "barely there" dresses acceptable? I saw this this in the Mail this morning, and there were the usual comments: "and they wonder why men sexualize them..." etc.
I wondered if there were any views? www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9792613/Cannes-Film-Festival-2021-Kimberley-Garner-flashes-bottom-Georgina-Rodriguez.html#comments

Women are allowed to want to look sexy, still doesn't give anyone the right to make vulgar comments about them or touch their body.

@gogohm

I just don't understand why they pose with a leg out all the time. Nothing wrong with a spilt but not to expose the backside!

‘Cause their legs look good!

That's the issue isn't it @Blossomtoes

The Meryl Streeps of the world can protest but someone at the opposite end of the food chain is in no position to do so, assuming they've got a mortgage etc.

@Grellbunt and who is responsible for that arousal? The person who is aroused and if they act on it. That is all. Not the person wearing the clothes. And it's not 'as such', remove that part, it's women are not too blame at all.

We wear bikinis in the beach, actors and actresses bare all in films, what is the problem with cut out dresses?

It’s a warm day today. I’m in Morrison’s now. It’s full of women in frocks like that, lifting them up to show their arses…oh hang on.

No one has answered the point about why men don't turn up to formal black tie events with their shirts unbuttoned to their navels or with no shirt on at all or wearing trousers that are cut out at the back. "Patriarchy" doesn't cut it. No one is forcing these women to dress like this.

Only acceptable for standing on the street corner.

@SoMuchForSummerLove

That's the issue isn't it *@Blossomtoes*

The Meryl Streeps of the world can protest but someone at the opposite end of the food chain is in no position to do so, assuming they've got a mortgage etc.

Of course they are. If they had no choice every Z list celeb would have turned up at Cannes dressed like that, they didn’t. You’re talking as if they have no agency. While still maintaining rhythm women can dress any way they want to. Which is it?

She wanted the press coverage for her brand, she was competing with a lot more beautiful and famous women (though she is very pretty with a knockout body!) so she did what she thought she had to do. It's the red carpet though, and I've seen more shocking outfits before.

Beautiful and very normal as expected in show business as they are acting and entertaining. Nothing extraordinary though as tame compared to many previous more outstanding and noteworthy outfits. Sexy rather than sex is just a part of this respectable spectrum of the entertainment acting and modelling show business industry.

@sloanerangerpandora

Only acceptable for standing on the street corner.

Where you reckon they belong, eh, er, Pandora?

@CounsellorTroi

No one has answered the point about why men don't turn up to formal black tie events with their shirts unbuttoned to their navels or with no shirt on at all or wearing trousers that are cut out at the back. "Patriarchy" doesn't cut it. No one is forcing these women to dress like this.

But patriarchy is the reason! Women are essentially sidelined from power by being constantly pigeonholed as decorative/weak/submissive/only there to indulge the sexual fantasies and whims of men.

Women know the media will only print pictures if they show enough flesh. They know they'll only get acting roles if they have breast implant/lip fillers/whatever. They know they are not allowed to age, have body hair or eat much if they want to have a career in the public eye.

It doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from the people at the top who set the standards for women decades ago, and so women are still trying to come up for air. Some find their way without playing along, but most don't. Those that do generally have to subjugate themselves in other ways.

Meryl Streep might not do the red carpet in a thigh high dress, but she is very happy to publicly defend child rapist Roman Polanski, for example. You can't get on unless you find a way in with the big boys somehow.

Depressingly defeatist @SoMuchForSummerLove. And ill conceived. Women are breaking into powerful roles now, there are women producers and directors who refuse to play those games as well as enlightened men. It’s ridiculous to say this is how it is and we can do nothing about it.

There are great role models like Kate Winslet who refuse to muck about with their faces or wear trashy clothes. Actors like Jamie Lee Curtis and Andie MacDowall who don’t dye their hair. The change is being made - and held back by women who collude by playing the old game instead of playing the new one.

The big boys who treat women like pieces of meat are losing their power and they’ll lose it a lot faster if women stand together and make it clear that culture is in the rear view mirror.

I really do think a lot of women just inherently like wearing sexy clothes. I'm friends with a woman who runs a burlesque school business and it's been hugely popular for years. Most of the women look nothing like models but they love the costumes and feeling sexy in a safe, all-female, body positive space. The teacher arranges lots of photoshoots which they mostly love. And it really, absolutely, 100% is not for men.

@SoMuchForSummerLove

I'm never going to bring down the patriarchy. None of us are. Not sure why you think a random on MN might be able to tell you how it can be done.

Good job that Emmeline Pankhurst thought differently isn't it.

I just watched Mare of Easttown. In it there was a sex scene where Winslet was on top naked. It added literally nothing to the story. The man's body was not seen, in fact he still had his shirt on.

It was about a 17 year old girl who gets shot in the head. When she is found she is naked. There is no explanation for this, she wasn't assaulted, she was shot and then the person moved her body.

She was only naked for the long panning shot.

Even dead women's bodies are decorative.

Call it defeatist all you like but I'm just stating facts.

Like I've said loads of times now, it's all shite. It is. And I don't think it's changing. If it is, it's not fast enough, or enough in any way actually.

My 11 year old daughter asked me yesterday why men rape women. I had to have that conversation with her. This is the climate our daughters are growing up in.

@ SoMuchForSummerLove

Good post and answer. I agree but add international show business is also quite nuanced and complex. Many of the big money men movers and shakers supposedly have very varied wild lifestyles and some with a sinister taste of illegal predatory fluid sexual orientations including children and same sexy amongst many drug and money fuelled excessive behind closed walls casting sessions. It’s apparently a very mixed up surreal world for actresses to get to the top by satisfying all the weird controlling demands for fame and fortune for and a brief me too moment on the competitive red carpet catwalk before the next new talent takes the stage.

@SoMuchForSummerLove

That's the issue isn't it *@Blossomtoes*

The Meryl Streeps of the world can protest but someone at the opposite end of the food chain is in no position to do so, assuming they've got a mortgage etc.

These are highly privileged women, trying to access a much sought after career by using their bodies, or whatever means they can. Not your average woman trying to get a bit of career progression at Morrisons.

It’s interesting that you use Mare of Easttown as an example @SoMuchForSummerLove because Winslet’s role in it pretty much disproves this:

They know they'll only get acting roles if they have breast implant/lip fillers/whatever. They know they are not allowed to age, have body hair or eat much if they want to have a career in the public eye

Winslet is make up less and devoid of any glamour. She refused to have her body airbrushed in the nude scene because she wanted to look real. Her performance is universally praised, to the point where some reviewers say it’s the defining moment of her career. It’s completely the antithesis of what you said above.

It’s sad that you refuse to accept that women working collectively can effect change and deny the very real work that a highly respected female actor has done to model that change. While we just sit back and say we can change nothing women will continue to be used and abused. To quote someone or other if we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem.

The white & purple one looks like it's made out of old sheets and towels.
The leather one is horrible.
I quite like the drapey, nude coloured one.

The absolute best one is the short white one worn by Blanche? somebody - (can't be bothered to go back into the link). I love that she's standing with her hands in her POCKETS!

They are amateurs.

Diana Dors (RIP) turned up at a film festival in the 1950s reclining in a GONDOLA and wearing a MINK BIKINI!

That’s how to seek this sort of attention, if it is (sadly) your thing.

Its Cannes, not the G12.

@Blossomtoes I know all of that about Kate Winslet and Mare of Easttown. My point was all of that and yet we still have gratuitous female nudity and objectivity of female corpses.

I don't just sit back and shrug. I am an activist in my own ways. But I don't see the point in pretending that things are so much better now when they aren't. I actually think things were better in the 90s for girls; we weren't expected to be beautiful and doll like, at least.

[quote SoMuchForSummerLove]**@Blossomtoes* I know all of that about Kate Winslet and Mare of Easttown. My point was all of that and* yet we still have gratuitous female nudity and objectivity of female corpses.

I don't just sit back and shrug. I am an activist in my own ways. But I don't see the point in pretending that things are so much better now when they aren't. I actually think things were better in the 90s for girls; we weren't expected to be beautiful and doll like, at least.[/quote]
I think it was worse back then. We were expected to be pin thin and the aesthetic was even called "heroin chic". Nowadays there is a strong push for body positivity and I see much more variation of size, even if we still have a way to go.

Women were still wearing sexy dresses then.

I quite like these vintage photos of equal opportunity exhibitionism at Cannes film festival. Plus ca change ....

1954: Simone Silva (British actress) goes topless and is asked to leave but not before one photographer breaks an arm and another a leg in a photo-taking scrummage.

1953: Kirk Douglas strips down to show off his hairdressing skills on Brigitte Bardot.

1977: Arnold Schwarzenegger comes over all coy.