Government Website Photoshops Out Official's Cleavage

A new Canadian Member of Parliament has apparently been the recipient of some extra cleavage coverage, courtesy of Photoshop.

The Contrarian alerts us to the case of twenty-nine-year-old MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan, whom the Globe and Mail describes as “the most compelling of the new crop of young [New Democratic Party] MPs.” The first-ever Tamil-Canadian MP, she “puts a new face on some enduring NDP values, while reaching deeper into first- and second-generation immigrant communities –- a growing demographic that Conservatives successfully courted in the May 2 election, but which the NDP has, for decades, been slow to connect with.” But the Contrarian post isn’t about her politics — it’s about her neckline.

The blog notes that while a Google Image search yields a thumbnail that reveals some cleavage (though by no means a risque amount), Sitsabaiesan’s official Parliamentary profile (from which the thumbnail comes) bears a less revealing photo. It looks like somebody replaced the MP’s original photo with one that’s been Photoshopped to look more modest. Says the Contrarian, “This makes us wonder whether the bowdlerization took place on request from the NDP caucus, from MP Sitsabaiesan’s office, or on the Parliamentary website’s own authority.” Us too. Did somebody decide that showing a little cleavage was inappropriate for a young female MP? Given the “runaway MP” scandal earlier this year, and criticisms of the youth of the NDP’s candidates, was the Photoshop an attempt to make Sitsabaiesan look more serious? I’ve contacted Sitsabaiesan for comment, and await her response.