TORONTO 鈥� Kim Campbell is admonishing female news anchors who wear sleeveless dresses on the air, calling the bare-armed attire 鈥渄emeaning.鈥�
The former prime minister tweeted her displeasure, saying 鈥渂are arms undermine credibility and gravitas.鈥�
She faced quick criticism and one tweeter pointed out that former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama frequently wore sleeveless dresses.
Campbell replied that she was specifically referring to female broadcasters.
She pointed to an essay by U.S. speaking coach Nick Morgan for back-up, who asserts in a blog post that 鈥渋f you show up in front of us with skin exposed, we鈥檙e going to think about your body.鈥�
He also takes issue with men who wear an 鈥渆xpensive, cool-looking casual T-shirt鈥� for an important speech.
On her verified Twitter account, Campbell said: 鈥淚 am struck by how many women on television news wear sleeveless dresses 鈥� often when sitting with suited men.鈥�
鈥淚 have always felt it was demeaning to the women and (Morgan鈥檚 blog post) suggests that I am right. Bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas!鈥� she wrote.
