Paris:
A Frenchwoman has sparked an outpouring of solidarity on Twitter after hitting back at insults over her cleavage by posting a picture of herself wearing a low-cut top.
More than 4,000 people “liked” the tweet posted last week by a young woman with the account @c3lineb, who works in a laboratory according to her Twitter profile and has just 444 followers.
“So, according to the guy I just passed in the street, this top makes me look like ‘a dirty whore’ … mate, my breasts and I say fuck you,” the woman posted, alongside a photograph of herself wearing a stripy, low-cut vest.
The tweet prompted a flood of selfies of woman posing in bikinis, vests and strapless tops alongside the hashtag #JeKiffeMonDecollete (I love my cleavage).
A woman going by M Claire posted a photo of herself wearing a blue and pink vest, with the caption “#ILoveMyCleavage too. And my husband loves it. To anyone who’s not happy about that – too bad”.
“#ILoveMyCleavage because I’m a free woman, because our grandmothers fought for our freedom,” another user identified as Marie D’Ange wrote, with a photo of her low-cut red top.
“My breasts and I beat cancer, and we didn’t do it to get hassle,” said FeeNeante.
Last August, French lawmakers passed a new law making sexual harassment in the street punishable with on-the-spot fines.
The law covers behaviour including comments on a woman’s looks or clothing, catcalling, intrusive questions and stalking.
The onset of high summer temperatures has revived the debate around women’s clothing.
The controversial burkini, which was at the centre of a standoff in several seaside towns three years ago — some towns banned the garment, claiming it was a security threat, only to have the bans later overturned by a court — made waves again on Monday.
Right-wing politicians, including National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, hit out at the Islamic full-body swimsuit after a group of burkini-clad activists took a plunge in a public swimming pool Sunday in the southeastern city of Grenoble.
The women are demanding that public pools, which currently require men to wear swim briefs and women to wear bikinis or one-piece swimsuits, change their regulations to accommodate burkini wearers.
Le Pen demanded that local authorities stand firm on pool attire.
“It’s time to say loud and clear that the burkini has no place in France,” Le Pen tweeted.
The centre-right head of the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, also warned against normalising full-body swimsuits.
“If we accept the burkini, in a few years, all the young girls from poor neighbourhoods will be bathing covered up, for moral reasons or to protect their reputations,” she told Radio Classique.
Enforcing traditional swimsuits was necessary to “leave women free”, she argued.
