This was Virgil’s opening line in the Aeneid and it came to mind in the brief clip of Morgan Freeman, the latest celebrity apologizer, as he sat across from a comely tv interviewer wearing a short, tight, sleeveless, v-neck dress that had climbed to mid-thigh while she was seated. Unsurprisingly, he stared and commented on its brevity and when she stood and pulled it down, he pleaded with her not to change the object of his gaze She giggled flirtatiously at the time, but apparently thought twice when MeToo seemed a better route to follow and now 80 year old Morgan is in hot water too
If you watch morning news, as I do, you will see all the female commentators wearing sleeveless, short, body-hugging dresses and high heeled shoes with no pantyhose as they give you news, traffic and weather reports, while the male anchors are wearing business suits,button-down shirts, ties and presumably shoes and socks at 4 am These outfits are not seasonal – the women are as bare in winter as the men are overdressed in summer. On channel 2 this morning, the sign-off had 4 of the young, pretty women posed on the sofa with their bare legs glamorously oiled and slanted to avoid that center view that would be too obviously incriminating. Nude female arms and legs have become the current suggestive hallmark of sexuality.
It’s certainly no secret that between their outfits, their hair-styles and their false lashes, women who work on tv sign on to be objectified as eye candy For a while this strategy was most obvious on Fox News but the other channels quickly saw how successful it was and followed suit In the past year, I have seen only two women wearing pants – Dana Tyler on CBS and the weather girl on Channel 1 If you look around New York, there’s no question that a multitude of women wear pants daily so their elimination from the tv screen assumes even more suggestive significance.