Either cover her cleavage or don't go in. Student stuck at the Musée d'Orsay

A 22-year-old literature student was asked to cover her conspicuous cleavage to enter the Musée d’Orsay: this happened yesterday at the famous museum in Paris. The girl, Jeanne, had shown up at the museum, along with a friend, in a dress with ample cleavage that evidently upset the staff of the company that holds the ticketing concession, since she was asked to cover up, otherwise she would not be able to enter the museum. The young woman then delivered her outburst to a tweet, which went viral (6 thousand retweets in two hours, 21 thousand in total).

“Arriving at the museum’s entrance,” the young woman recounts in an open letter, "I didn’t even have time to show my ticket that the sight of my breasts and low-cut dress upset an attendant in charge of checking reservations. So she began to psalm, ’ah no, that can’t be possible, that’s not tolerable.’ One of her colleagues then asked her not to get attached to such things and tried to restrain her. At that moment I still did not know that my cleavage was the object of all this drama. At that point I asked her what had happened: they didn’t answer me, they stared at my breasts, I felt terribly uncomfortable, I still didn’t quite understand what was going on, the friend I was with at the museum was stupefied." As soon as it emerged that cleavage was indeed the problem, there was reportedly an argument between the girl and security officers.

“A manager,” she recounts, "intervened, never told me that my cleavage was a problem, he gaudily stared at my breasts, simply referred to them as ’this,’ and I clearly asked why the fact that I had cleavage was a problem, maybe if I didn’t have a chest they wouldn’t have said anything. No one answered me, they simply insisted that the rules are the rules, and repeatedly told me to cover myself with the jacket I was holding. My friend pointed out that she was instead wearing a half shirt and therefore her belly button was showing, but she was not told anything, the attendants however did not respond, they were supposed to enforce the rules: ’that’s it, I tell you, put your jacket on and I’ll let you in, then inside the museum do what you want, if you want to take it off, I understand but these are the rules.’ In the museum it is full of nudes, and I remarked that it is deeply undemocratic to discriminate against me on the basis of cleavage, and the manager laughed. ’I didn’t want to put on my jacket because I felt defeated, constrained, humiliated, I felt like everyone was looking at my breasts, I had become nothing but my breasts, I was nothing but a sexualized female, but I wanted to enter the museum. ’Make a complaint.’ I put on my jacket (sigh of relief from the Musée d’Orsay staff) and entered the museum. Inside: paintings with naked women, sculptures with naked women. In the corridors of the museum: men in tank tops, women with bare backs, in bras, in crop tops, but all thin and with little breasts. I then wonder if they would have let me in without a fuss if I had brought some outfits of certain women I passed."

“I wonder,” the girl went on to conclude, “if the attendants who wanted to prevent me from entering knew the extent to which they had sexualized me, obeying sexist dynamics, and if they felt it was their right not to respect mine in the evening on their way home. I question the consistency with which representatives of a national museum can prohibit access to knowledge and culture on the basis of an arbitrary judgment that determines whether someone else’s appearance is decent. I am nothing but my breast, I am nothing but a body, your double standards should not be an obstacle to my access to culture and knowledge.”

The museum responded a few hours after the incident, sorry for the incident: the institution apologized to Jeanne and let it be known that it would be in touch with her. Yesterday evening, the Musée d’Orsay then issued a note renewing its apology and letting it know that “a reminder has been made about the rules of reception to the concessionary company on duty at the entrance to the museum.” Jeanne later let it be known, reached by the newspaper Libération, that she had indeed been by the museum: the institution reportedly told her that what she had suffered “is not normal and does not correspond to their policy.” “I don’t want to call for a boycott of the Musée d’Orsay,” the student stressed, in reference to some absurd suggestions that have been circulating on social media. “I myself will return there. I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that sexist discrimination still exists, and every day, for women.”

Pictured is Jeanne in the dress that has upset the staffers at the Musée d’Orsay.

Either cover her cleavage or don't go in. Student stuck at the Musée d'Orsay

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