Campbell has say on sleeveless dresses
TORONTO • Kim Campbell is admonishing female news anchors who wear sleeveless dresses on the air, calling the attire “demeaning.”
The former prime minister tweeted her displeasure Tuesday morning by saying “bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas.”
She faced quick criticism and one tweeter pointed out that former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama frequently wore sleeveless dresses.
Campbell replied that she was specifically referring to female broadcasters.
She pointed to an essay by U.S. speaking coach Nick Morgan for backup, who, under the title What Should a Speaker Wear — 2018 Update, said, “I was inspired to re-visit this topic by a recent study that found that the more clothing you’re wearing, the smarter we’re going to think you are. And conversely, the less clothing you have on, the dumber we’re going to take you to be.”
He wrote on the blog post that “if you show up in front of us with skin exposed, we’re going to think about your body.” He also took issue with men who wear an “expensive, cool-looking casual T-shirt” for an important speech.
On her Twitter account, Campbell said: “I am struck by how many women on television news wear sleeveless dresses — often when sitting with suited men.”
“I have always felt it was demeaning to the women and (Morgan’s blog post) suggests that I am right. Bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas!”
Most people online appeared to disagree, including Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who tweeted in response that she believes “in the right of Canadians to bare arms.”
“Wait. Wut? Credibility is earned by wearing sleeves? I give up,” Rempel tweeted from her verified account, @ MichelleRempel.
Another pointed out that Canada’s first and only female prime minister — who was in office from June 25, 1993 to Oct. 24, 1993 — once bared her shoulders for a provocative black and white photo in 1993 in which she held up a suit of lawyer’s robes in front of her body, as if naked.
Again, Campbell replied she wasn’t presenting the news at the time.
“Photo was art — juxtaposition of bare shoulders (femininity) and legal robes — (male dominated power structure),” she tweeted.
The controversy hearkens back to a similar uproar over female attire on the now-defunct Sun News.
That flap erupted soon after the right-wing all-news network debuted in April 2011, with National Post columnist Tasha Kheiriddin deriding the network’s female journalists for dressing like cocktail hostesses in “low cut, sleeveless” attire.