What To Think of Givhan’s “Cleavage” Piece?

By Patrick on July 30, 2007 10:50 AM

Re: Robin Givhan’s piece on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s cleavage…

Howie Kurtz and Anne Kornblut weigh in here.

Says Givhan:

Givhan, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year, said she disagreed “that there was anything in the column that was coarse, insulting or belittling. It was a piece about a public person’s appearance on the Senate floor that was surprising because of the location and because of the person. It’s disingenuous to think that revealing cleavage, any amount of it, in that kind of situation is a non-issue.

“It’s obviously not the most important thing in the campaign. It’s obviously not the most important thing Hillary Clinton has ever done by any means.”

The Clinton campaign calls it “grossly inappropriate” and asks donors “to take a stand against this kind of coarseness and pettiness in American culture.”

On “Meet the Press,” Eugene Robinson defended Givhan:

You know, you either cover fashion or you don’t. And, and I think it’s some–it’s legitimate to argue that, that you shouldn’t worry about fashion, but, you know, it’s the way we present ourselves to the, to the world, to others. We make decisions every morning on what we, what we put on and how–what what sort of image we want to project. And, unfortunately, in our society, women are scrutinized in a way that men aren’t. I mean, what, what did John Edwards wear at the YouTube debate?

So did John Harwood:

When you look….at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil, OK?

But Andrea Mitchell seemed uncomfortable with Givhan’s piece:

She arguably–if you look at the Senate floor any day of the week, if you look at the floor of the House of Commons when a new Cabinet minister was speaking who had a far more low-cut neckline…this was so marginal. This was like microscopic evidence of, of an–of..inappropriate attire..Sometimes a blouse is just a blouse, to paraphrase…

Says Deb Howell: “I admit to both wincing at and being fascinated by the column.”

Plenty of Post readers criticized the piece in this weekend’s “Free for All.”