Over on Femaletalk, my colleagues write quite a bit about the misogyny that women are still faced with in the 21^st century. I’m curious to see how she and other feminists would react to THIS STORY about an attorney who requested that a large-breasted paralegal move to the back of the court because he found the size of her breasts too distracting.

 

The opposing attorney in case, Dmitry N. Feofanov objected on the basis that the large-breasted paralegal was not really a paralegal and was sitting at the table in an obvious effort to distract him during the trial. Dmitry N. Feofanov also said that he had no problem with large breasts—he likes them—but that the woman was dressed in a distracting fashion.

 

Dmitry N. Feofanov’s exact words were:

 

"Personally, I like large breasts," he said. "However, I object to somebody I don't think is a qualified paralegal sitting at the counsel table - when there's already two lawyers there - dressed in such a fashion as to call attention to herself."

 

In court, the attorney was a little more official-sounding in his complaint, in which he said that he was fully aware of the other attorney’s tactics in this regard:

 

“Defendant's counsel is anecdotally familiar with the tactics and theatrics of plaintiff's counsel,” it reads. “Such behavior includes having a large breasted woman sit next to him at counsel's table during the course of the trial. There is no evidence whatsoever that this woman has any legal training whatsoever, and the sole purpose of her presence at plaintiff's counsel's table is to draw the attention of the jury away from the relevant proceedings before this court, obviously prejudicing the defendants in this or any other cause.”

 

 

I couldn’t find any mention of how the attorney had come to the conclusion that the woman was not a paralegal; she had worked on one other case with the attorney before. I also don’t know what the law is in regard to who can sit at a defense counsel, but if there is a law against large-breasted women sitting at counsel tables, no one seems to be aware of it.

 

While I haven’t seen any official reactions from feminists, I did find THIS from Feministe in regards to legal attire for women attorneys. The article is based on posts from female attorneys after a Chicago bar event which had a session on the etiquette of attire for male and female attorneys. To summarize the article briefly, the fashion advice for men could be summarized in one sentence: Invest in a good suit. The fashion advice for women, on the other hand, consisted of 40 “suggestions” covering everything from the size of hoop earrings to whether to wear pants or a skirt. The idea of the woman’s attire suggestions was not to look “slutty.”

 

However, since the article only discussed suggestions for attire, it didn’t have any legal opinions regarding what is permissible in a court of law.