So...watching Suits [frivolous emoticon], all men in suits (obv), women in revealing sleeveless cocktail dresses. For work!

[SwiftRelease]

Ridiculous, no? Really really struck me. Even more than many similar programmes. Wtf can prog makers get away with being quite so blatantly explotative? Beyond the norm?

Jessica (head honcho) always has extremely fancy outfits but that's more her trademark I think. Donna is usually quite dressed up but in a more conservative worky way, although I do think she looks uncomfortable. The other women tend to wear skirts and shirts though.
Suits is a funny one on the feminism front - Jessica is very much the boss, which is unusual for a black woman, but the main players are definitely the men. The other women are secretaries and paralegals and tend to be bit-players. Donna in particular is a rather ridiculous character - seemingly omniscient and ultra-capable and yet very subservient. It hacked me right off when she looked so delighted when Litt said "Donna you could be a lawyer" as though the job she does very competently is worth nothing in comparison to the glory of the men she serves. She's more like Harvey's mother than secretary.

I like Suits but I agree - the clothes for the women are ridiculous. They look as if they are having to breathe in constantly. If you've seen the most recent series (and it sounds like you have, callindana) Mike's new assistant has a much less skin-tight style, obviously she still has to wear insane shoes but at least she looks like she could have a sarnie at lunch.

It is an odd one because it seems like it could have another strong female lead, but doesn't quite seem to know how to do it. Donna is a brilliant character and the actor who plays her is fantastic, but short of doing a Donna-in-the-West-Wing and turning her into a super political operative overnight (or a CJ-in-the-West-Wing for that matter, one of the least credible TV promotions of all time, I think Dallas would have blanched at it) it's hard to know how to make her more of a player. Scotty seemed to be a contender, although of course had to be defined by her relationship with a man. The 'new Sheila' seems to be completely superfluous.

But yes, Suits could do with taking a leaf out of Scandal's book. Even when they weren't dressing Kerry Washington carefully to disguise her pregnancy, she swanned about in fabulous clothes that actually looked like you could sit down and get some bloody work done in them as well. You can't imagine a show except for one about dancers that would dress its male stars in such form-fitting outfits.

Not seen it so google imaged suits tv show. (Interested as many in my office dress quite OTT).

Anyway.

All but one of the pics on the first couple of pages were just men. I assume there are women on the prg. Weird.

I googled for the characters by name and got this site for Jessica (the boss). It doesn't show the dress she wore with the very obvious zip all the way up the back, just eye-poppingly unsuitable for the office.

Here is Donna the executive assistant note off the shoulder blue dress.

Rachel the paralegal - note corset style top. Fortunately none of these lawyers ever have to go to a courtroom.