I went to town on a mission last week. This post by Darlene got me to thinking about the challenges in this day and time to be pretty. We have three beautiful grand daughters and it is contradictory to think of what Hollywood tells them beauty is and what each of their smiles tell us. The same concern is there for our grandsons, yet they don't seem as eager to emulate Hollywood styles.
As many of you know, we live in a rural community. My first stop was the local police department. We have two police officers, both male. Nope, no cleavage there. Sharing their office is the City and Volunteer Fire Department office with two middle aged women and neither having tiny waists with low cut shirts exposing any cleavage.
Our local Family Dollar, our two restaurants, our Dairy Queen, our three deli/service stations did not have employees in designer clothes with high fashion hairdos and/or expensive cuts. Surely I would find what I was looking for at the one bank in town. Most of the staff in the bank is female and there was not a one that looked anything like any of the stereotype television women.
Come to think of it, even when we visit the nearby big city we don't run into a lot of cleavage either. So what are we to think? There is cleavage in the casinos but only on the waitresses on the casino floor. Hardly any of the female patrons are sporting fancy clothing and you can still see some amazing apparel there but nothing like the clothing pictured above.
All women like to dress up for a special party and boost and squeeze as much sag as the law will allow, but to dress as if for the camera every day would be horrible. The banking industry did not approve of low cut clothing when I was employed. I don't see that they do now. Is this because I am an Okie?
Do your day-to-day travels in your state yield women dressed like you see on television? Are there companies that actually allow women to dress in the workplace as we see on television? Tell me your experiences in your state or country and let me know if Oklahoma is the exception rather than the rule.
Fun post - and unfortunately, I live in a city where the 20-somethings think they have to wear expensive clothes and show too much skin. I was never that type of person, having grown up poor, and I don't really understand why one would want to cause pain in those shoes (I wear converse high tops) and freeze to death!
ReplyDeleteWell I went cleaverage hunting,
ReplyDeletethis being a holiday resort there are plenty, but only in swimware,
People on holiday prefer to dress causually so no designer tags here I'm afraid.
Enjoyed the blog very much.
Yvonne.
Eh not a lot of cleavage in businesses around here. However I have to wonder sometimes if the women I see shopping there have a mirror at home. When you are well endowed a bra should be worn with a tank top. It's just icky.
ReplyDeleteI work for a non-profit and one mistake in the hiring process (and in our Employee Handbook) is that the org. does not expect it's employees to spend all their earnings on clothing. This leads to some interesting get ups. Although most of the people who look like they just got out of bed do not meet the public; but they do enter and egress the building for all to see. I do have to meet the public so I'm very careful about what I wear. Also, I have to be ready to speak publicly at the drop of a hat, so I mainly wear a suit. I've worn suits all my business life and will continue to do so.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much cleavage and plumbers' revelation around here you'd think evreyone was auditioning for "Playboy."
Most of the stuff I see at the office I wouldn't wear to the grocery store!!!
The blond actress on CSI, Miami told a reporter that she didn't want to dress the way the producer wanted her to. She said it was ridiculous for a lab technician to dress up in outfits that showed cleavage. She lost and cleavage is the way she still dressed.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't see much cleavage here by business women, but the streets are full of gals showing almost everything. It's 100* here so maybe they can be excused for their skimpy clothes, but I really don't want to see the bottom half of their bums or their love handles.
Thanks for the link to my post, Annie.
cool post! i live in the northeast. no cleavage to be seen in the winters. but during the summers... i'm not even a guy and i can't help but stare sometimes. we're not overrun with cleavage by any means. but we do have the occasional "look at us!"
ReplyDelete;)
your post points out the difference between reality and fantasy land. Hollywood is home to the dream factories , but you know that right!?
ReplyDeleteFunny, the person showing the most was a receptionist at our auto body shop - I laughed at myself as I tried to not be distracted.aniver
ReplyDeletei live in l.a.; do i need to say more? that's where all of this stuff starts! and i even have an expensive haircut....that, and my chosen method of hair removal are my two luxuries. oh, TMI???!!!!
ReplyDeleteNo one around here (except hookers and high school girls) dress like the women in Hollywood!
ReplyDeleteKnow what I've noticed? I watch Private Practice, in which there are 3-4 women doctors, all of whom wear very low-cut designer dresses to work, with cleavage galore! My woman doc wears high neck blouses (even though she has the stuff for cleavage...LOL)
Not because you're an Okie - but because you have a sense of decency! I don't show cleavage at work - why should I? The idea of cleavage at the police department just scares me!
ReplyDeleteAs long as men call the shots in the entertainment industry T&A will a primary accoutrement. Dressing like that in the work place ensures that very little will every get done with thought!
ReplyDeleteHere in SC there is cleavage aplenty. We have a large university nearby and some of the young women show a great deal of skin. I have also seen many mature ladies in skimpy tops displaying their tattoos.
ReplyDeleteLet me just say this...I had to send a girl home from the publishing company where I used to work for showing too much ASS CLEAVAGE! Believe it or not.
ReplyDeleteYou see a whole lot of everything in Miami...and it's not always pretty.
I work at a regional office for a Huge insurance company. They have NO dress code here. Honestly alot of the guys come to work in the "grunge" look. Hair all unkempt, surfer shorts, flip flops. Thank God they don't have to deal with customers. And the women are just the opposite. Dressed to the nines, most of them. We do have a few that dress like hookers. Lots of extremely high heals, extremely short skirts, and YES, the dreaded cleavage. Lots and lots of cleavage, but shown with class, if you can understand that. As for around town.....sloppy, comfy clothes is the norm.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall seeing much cleavage in this little town either. But IF I can remember, I'll try to keep and eye open for it.
ReplyDeleteOK truth, I always keep an eye open for it and nothing ever appears here... but just in case...
I love this sentence: All women like to dress up for a special party and boost and squeeze as much sag as the law will allow.
ReplyDeleteI just wish I had more to boost.
Came of from Scarlet's blog.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anything more fun than to go out looking for cleavage. I think I will do that this weekend. I'll call it "Cleavage Hunt '09" LOL
Seriously though, it might just be an Oklahoma thing, because over here in my little town in Arkansas there is lots of cleavage. Maybe not at the bank, but everywhere else.
Maybe you can look again when it gets hot? ;-)
What you say is so very interesting...The "Hollywood" idea of Glamour, etc...And the Reality are two different things. I must say, I personally feel that the way some women show more than just cleavage now seems like overkill to me....Almost nothing is left to the imagination....AND, the way so very many women have had "enhancement" surgery...Well, I find it all rather bizarre...!
ReplyDeleteI guess I am really getting old...lol!
I think cleavage can be very lovely....I just think seeing everything except a woman's nipples is just a bit much...Everyone looks like they belong in what we used to call "Girly" Magazines...lol!
Women in banks and building societies here in the UK tend to wear a uniform with a plain bluse which doesn't normally show any cleavage. Same with travel agents, estate agents etc.
ReplyDeleteOur doctor used to wear a lovely sari but it did show her midriff, not her cleavage. She retired and we have a bloke now.
Young women out and about tend to dress very casually often with those camisole tops showing cleavage and mid riff! What gets me is the ones who are pregant do the same.
I don't think the detective shows here show women wearing designer clothes showing their boobs.
Telly has a lot to answer for and that CSI mob are not what I imagine are typical employees. Think we have Miami Vice to thank for that. Maybe they hope the boobs, bums and designer clobber will take our minds off the programmes' shortcomings like lack of decent scripts 2 dimensional characters and totally weird, unrealistic storylines. Oh give me Harry O and Quincey any day!
So this has turned out to be "Everything you wanted to know about Cleavage but were afraid to ask." I have loved your educational responses and think it was particularly nice of Cliff and Jay to offer continued research on the subject.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Granny Annie ;) Came by from Scarlet and just want to share that most Asian ladies are rather 'flat' so we do get envious of women with big boobs ;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway....I must admit I have nothing to show, yep, no cleavage ;D
In New York it really depends. Business women certainly wouldn't show any cleavage--it's still such a man's world and they've got to be as legitimate and professional as possible. But in other places I really do see women with very low- cut necklines.
ReplyDeleteHere in AR, there's cleavage on display during the summer months because we have the three lakes and many females are wearing skimpy tops of one sort or another. As far as workers, I don't notice there being excessive cleavage or high style clothing.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd only dress in really classy clothing like you have in the photo if I worked as an attorney or something, and then I would NOT sport cleavage.
Also, too much uplifted, squeezed together cleavage tends to look like a butt on a woman's chest. Tasteful cleavage looks lovely, I think, but some ladies go to an extreme.
Here in AR, I suppose we are much like you folks in OK.
Now in CA, especially southern CA, you see a lot of highly fashionable ladies and cleavage can be found most everywhere.
:-)