The normally very conservative dresser’s slightly low neckline during a July 18 campaign debate on education mostly went unremarked at first, until Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan took notice and branded it a “small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity.”
“There was cleavage on display Wednesday afternoon,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning Givhan wrote.
“It belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton.”
Clinton wore “a rose-colored blazer over a black top. The neckline sat low on her chest and had a subtle V-shape.
The cleavage registered after only a quick glance,” she wrote.
“There wasn’t an unseemly amount of cleavage showing, but there it was. Undeniable ... It was startling to see that small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity peeking out of the conservative — aesthetically speaking — environment of Congress.”
The focus on Clinton’s bosom rather than her national security policy drew an explosion of “thousands of angry letters and calls” from readers, mostly women, the newspaper’s ombudsman later wrote.
Many took issue with the idea that the Post devoted so much room to a non-political aspect of a tense national political battle for the White House.