THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING BOSOMY

Anne Cunningham has a couple of intriguing posts on the subject of cleavage (or the lack thereof) in the new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice:

A lot of the fun or interest of period drama is the contrast between the demands of chastity, on the one hand, and the overwhelming need to attract a husband on the other. There is great visual tension in nubile young women both flaunting their figures (sometimes with eye-popping décolletage) and trying to remain shy and retiring and above the fray.

Anne's commenters ask whether busts actually, er, loom large in Jane Austen's text, or whether they're just a screenwriter's convention. (Can't answer that myself, as my eyes tend to glaze over whenever I read Miss Austen. Sorry, but it's true.)

It is a truth individually acknowledged that a single adaptation of a famous novel must be in want of a good bosom.

Well said.

Modern-day cleavage is a tricky issue for us men. Remember Jerry Seinfeld's warning? "Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun -- ya don't stare at it!"

Yet is that rule still in force? The latest Wonderbra ad, which I drove past the other day, gives out very mixed signals. (Ignore the yellow text, which isn't part of the original image.) So are we supposed to stare, or aren't we? Life is becoming extremely confusing.

While I'm on a battle-of-the-sexes rant, I wish somebody could tell me why any intelligent women has ever taken Madonna seriously. Telegraph columnist Lesley Thomas certainly used to, although she's having doubts now:

We have grown up with her setting the standard (and sometimes the boundary) for contemporary female mores....In the old days, Madonna used to give good advice, like any older sibling. When times got tough and we didn't know whether to dump that boyfriend, buy those shoes or change our hair colour, we'd ask "What would Madonna do?"

Yes, well, I can imagine an 18 year-old saying that. But still doing the same thing at 25,30,35...? Am I the only man who thinks there's something odd about this? If I wrote an article saying that, until very recently, I never decided what shoes to buy until I asked myself what Alice Cooper would say, I'd be a laughing stock. Yet somehow Madge's legions get away with it. Perhaps it's all Camille Paglia's fault.

I'm not being facetious. I really am curious to know the answer. And in case anyone thinks I'm a male chauvinist, I think Ann Althouse is dead right about sexism in the blogosphere. So, please, no hate-mail.

Comments

[Tracy]

What WOULD Dolly do?