The Cleavage Controversy. Personally, I don't really give a damn what other people wear or don't wear. Shirtless frat boys frolicking in the soccer fields? Red-lipped bank tellers flashing their perky chests as they count out twenties? Stilettos on ice? Dingy looking baseball caps on backwards? Whatever. Except in lab--then, it's a safety issue rather than anything fashion, gender, or social-related. But this is just me. Other people, however, have hang-ups. It's disingenuous to say to people that your fashion choices are a form of your expression and that if they have a problem with it or for some reason misinterpret nonexistent signals, then tough cookies for them. Like birds and plumage, clothes are signals to most people. Being professional, particularly in a business setting, is all about appearance. Ask the average person and they will have preconceptions about young men in baggy pants and bling, people dressed in black, and the old lady in her Sunday best. Until society as a whole manages to quash its fixation on the body and concentrate more on the mind (which I doubt will happen any time soon), fashion choices will have their consequences.
It took me going out the actual article for me to realize you were talking about sandals and not shorts or jeans that adhered to the privates a bit much. "Toe cleavage" came off like cameltoe.
To which I thought, how is that unsafe in the lab? A distraction? Could a pipette get stuck?
As for the cleavage as mentioned in the article ... I don't know if a middle-aged man from the midwest's opinion matters all that much, but, yeah, a whole lotta boobage on display makes me think the lady in question either doesn't understand the impression she's giving, or she's all to aware and feels it keeps the guys off-balance, which it can for some. There are better ways to accomplish that. But, some would say if she's got an advantage, use it. But she should be cognizant she may not be getting the result she intended.
All Captain Obvious stuff, I know. But as I've learned with having kids, sometimes the obvious does need saying.
None of this is directed at you, my dear, of course.
Even in biology labs, there is a fair amount of work with acids, organic solvents, radioisotopes, and other nasty chemicals. And if you work in a microbiology lab like I do, there are also a lot of (potentially pathogenic) microbial liquid cultures sloshing around. So if you accidentally spill something...well, you can see how open-toed shoes can be a problem.
