Grown up girls take responsibility

The outrage against Victoria's Secret and the Lea Michele frock nonsense have taken their protests into a whole other area, and one that raises questions about Reist and Funnell's judgment.

In order to interpret the world as they apparently do, you have to start from the position that there is something fundamentally wrong with all public representation of female sexuality. Any expression and representation of female sexuality is dangerous for women one way or another, according to this perspective, and it has to be stopped.

I have not read of either of these campaigners offering alternative representations to those they critique, so I'm beginning to conclude they don't have any. Perhaps they really don't believe there can be any such thing as an acceptable public representation of female sexuality, like the Taliban.

Public displays of female flesh lead inevitably to a culture of exploitation and rape, turning sane men mad, apparently. All those KanYe West and Brian McFadden lyrics churning round in their animal minds, causing them to lose what little sense of decency they might just have been born with, if they were lucky, and then, dammit, a woman in a thong hoves into view, and it's not on her foot, either.

In the world these campaigners inhabit, not only are all women too stupid to know if they're being exploited, all men are too base to think about a woman as anything more than a root, a drunken root if possible, or if it's KanYe West we're talking about, a dead root.

If I'm wrong, and they do think there's an acceptable way to publicly show off the female body, then it's time they told us what it is, because their unrelenting negativity, their lack of any positive options for women who want to enjoy and share their sexual beauty and power, is becoming very wearing.

There's nothing wrong with desire, and cleavage

Personally, I think the human body can be breathtaking, and I see no reason for it to be treated as something that must be hidden for fear of the desires it might arouse. There's nothing wrong with desire, either, it's one of the driving creative forces in the world. It should be aroused.

Calling for the end of the "sexification" of women is not much different to telling women we are responsible for men's bad behaviour because of the way we dress ourselves. If we want to "sexify" why shouldn't we? We are sexual beings, sex is a fabulous thing; some of us like looking sexy, and men have to deal with that. We aren't going round in potato sacks because they allegedly can't keep it in their pants.

The majority of men do deal with it, admire the sexuality, and behave. Some don't, and I'd venture to suggest that they wouldn't anyway. Rape is nothing new, it happened when we were covered from head to toe, and you don't have to be overtly sexy or dressed in revealing clothing to be raped, as we very well know. Rape frequently has little to do with sex, and lots to do with power.

Lacy panties and balconette bras might not be everybody's choice, but there's room for them in the world. There's nothing wrong with you, ladies, if you want to wear them and you feel good in them. Don't let anybody tell you there is. Go for it. Cleavage can be wondrous.

It's insultingly reductionist to peddle the theory that because a man (or a woman) admires a lovely body, he or she automatically doesn't give a toss about anything else that human being has to offer.