Why is fashion 'bare' on TV — and beyond

The president of BYU will no doubt catch some heat from the world at large for his comments Tuesday regarding the so-called "belly shirts" that have become so popular among young women all over the country.

Cecil Samuelson criticized the attire as immodest — those short shirts that are usually worn with low-riding pants or skirts to show off the wearer's midriff.

And he's right, of course.

I sometimes wonder if there's a fabric shortage and designers are trying to ration materials by using less and less as they design women's clothes.

If those who ran BYU in the 1960s and '70s thought it was tough to enforce a dress code during the heyday of miniskirts, pity today's administrators. Skirts look like slips, blouses are as sheer as nightgowns, navels are revealed and cleavage plunges down to there . . . or lower. Necklines are nowhere near the neck.

There was some talk in the early 1980s by celebrity women who said they had been empowered by the feminist movement and they would no longer allow Hollywood to exploit them as sex objects. I think that lasted about five minutes.

The thing to remember about movie and TV and music stars is that in addition to being actors or singers or musicians, they are also exhibitionists. Most of them think nothing of performing nude or near-nude in movies and TV shows, or of posing like Playboy centerfolds for CD photos or magazine covers, or of wearing next to nothing as they walk the red carpet before awards shows.

Big-time designers who come up with these outrageous outfits know that the stars will wear them, so they'll receive a lot of . . . um . . . exposure. But when they send similar clothing out to stores in the hinterlands, why do nice, normal everyday women feel compelled to follow suit?

Of course, some women don't. You can see professional women every day who dress modestly — either by choice or because they are compelled to by their chosen profession.

So it's more surprising to see characters in movies or TV shows dress immodestly, since they represent us.

We've come to expect Britney and Christina and Beyonce and J-Lo to be bouncing around a stage, flaunting their scantily clad, designer-toned bodies. But I'm still somewhat surprised when I see actors playing characters who are supposedly professionals but who dress the same way.

Let's look at just one popular example (though there are many more): "CSI: Miami."