In defense of the cleavage and why women flaunt it

Cleav-age: (noun) The area between a woman's breasts, especially when revealed by a low-cut neckline.

Which of the following comes to your mind when you see a woman walking down the road wearing a clinging shirt and showing her cleavage:

1. Wonder where did she buy that shirt?

2. I wished I/ my partner looked like her

3. Wow, what a perfect set

4. Such women are a shame to female species/ Indian women

5. God, she is so desperate for attention

6. Now that’s an icon of woman power

While you think about the questions and (try and) give an honest answer, I bet No. 6 will get the least votes. Despite the fact that every woman – irrespective of her breast size – has a cleavage and apparently now even men want one, showing off a cleavage usually has negative connotations. Quite sad, given that cleavage has a number of uses.

For one, it provides employment opportunities to many women. If it were not for their cleavage, Mallika Sherawat, Rakhi Sawant and Malaika Arora would be out of jobs. Furthermore, cleavage specialists Wonderbra – and other lingerie brands – would go out of business and all lad-mags (think Maxim) would go bust as well.

Looking beyond commercial cleavage, even cricket, our unofficial national sport has benefited from cleavage. Despite the Indian women’s cricket team debuting in 1976 (first test against West Indies), it was the on-air innings by Mandira Bedi’s cleavage that truly married women and cricket. The curious can check the channel TRPs to satisfy themselves.

Cleavage also changed the reading habits of the Indian women – and some say even men – forever. From the days when the leading magazine used to be the beaten-housewife-special or something with 20 recipes for tiffin-boxes, the 21st century is all about the fun, fearless female. If Cosmopolitan – unimaginable without a cleavage cover – taught the women to flaunt it and get the men by the (eye)balls, Sex and the City caused another revolution. It made cleavage, Carrie and confidence, synonyms of each other.

Yet when a woman shows cleavage in office, it’s her women colleagues – while the men meekly peek over their computers – who will dish out the most rabid, caustic comments. If a woman showing her cleavage is a sign of empowerment and her being “comfortable with her body”, why does it get such reactions?

Before you read further, what do you think of:

1. why a woman shows off cleavage?

2. women showing cleavage are asking to be leched at?

3. women showing cleavage are characterless?

NEXT PAGE >>> Is there something called an innocent cleavage?

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It’s no secret that the world out there is quite competitive today. One of the surest ways of making headway in the rat race is to stand out of the melee. People do many things to stand out.

Some put all their achievements – even if it’s winning the poetry competition in kindergarten – on their resumes. Others upgrade their cell-phones or cars with subsequent pay rises. Journalists cover the windshield of their cars with the stickers of all the companies they’ve worked in. Rich people have extravagant weddings to show they’ve made it. The Rule of Showing Off clearly states that if you have it and want others to know it, you have to flaunt it.

Yet if it’s a woman who has it and flaunts it, she’s had it. Perhaps the only others to get equal or more flak are the men who eat steroids for breakfast, pump iron that’s more than their body weight and wear body-hugging clothes that show off their bulges. Personally, have heard myriad reasons to why a woman shows cleavage.

From women with boyfriends/husbands who have the charming quality of checking out other women, “I show mine so that his eyes are only on me.” From women who have recently lost weight or undergone liposuction, “I worked hard to get this body, why shouldn’t I show it?” From women who have other ‘hot’ women friends, “I don’t want to look like a dowdy cow when with them.”

Whatever be the reason, the cleavage conundrum seems to start and end with ‘looking’ a certain image, an image that perhaps gets attention even if it does not necessarily ask for it. And yet, if showing off is about well, showing off, why give the cleavage such a hard time? The answer – or something like it – came from a survey conducted amongst friends, colleagues and readers. A 155 people – both men and women – responded with some interesting reactions.

The question asked was, “Why does a woman dress provocatively” and the answers were:

1. She likes men leching at her (8 per cent)

2. She doesn’t want her man to look at other women (7 per cent)

3. She does not like other women looking better than her (11 per cent)

4. She likes looking hot and wants to feel good about herself (56 per cent)

5. She wants to keep her man on his toes by reminding him that she can get any other man she wants (18 per cent)

Despite 56 per cent saying women dress up for personal pleasure, majority agreed that women needed to look ‘hot’ to feel good about themselves. A cleavage, unfortunately, is considered ‘hot’.

Till the time the sexual connotations about a cleavage don’t die – will they ever? – men will look and label and women will continue flaunting their cleavage and pulling up their necklines when the looking gets too much to handle.

Do you agree/disagree with the article? Please use the feedback form to leave your views and thoughts. For queries/ suggestions on relationships and other trends, you could mail the author: [email protected]