Rathika Sitsabaiesan, Canadian Parliament Member, Photoshopped (PHOTOS, POLL)

Lord knows Hollywood is OK with a little bit (OK, a lot) of cleavage. But Canadian parliament? Not so much.

It was brought to our attention yesterday by Contrarian, a Canadian political blog, that rising member of the Canadian parliament Rathika Sitsabaiesan has undergone some quite obvious Photoshopping.

When searched via Google Image, Rathika Sitsabaiesan's name turned up a headshot of her smiling for the camera wearing a white scoop-neck top and a green necklace with a bit of cleavage -- not Christina Hendricks levels, just the average amount for a larger-chested woman.

But Contrarian found that the exact same image appears on Sitsabaiesan's formal Member of Parliament Profile on the Parliament of Canada website -- sans cleavage.

See the two pictured below. Is this just innocuous touching-up in the name of appropriateness... or messing with someone else's body unnecessarily?

Quick Poll

Parliamentary Photoshop:

FINE! That much cleavage isn't appropriate for politics.

UNFAIR. A bit of cleavage shouldn't have anything to do with her job.

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[JessCostello]

10:10 PM on 09/29/2011

Would it be appropriate if it was a male member of parliament with an open collar revealing a hairy chest?

[Isenki]

09:42 AM on 09/29/2011

Holy crap, Canadian parliament members are hot.

[JessCostello]

10:10 PM on 09/29/2011

Most aren't that hot.

[Isenki]

12:58 AM on 09/30/2011

I know, but I'm pretty sure we don't ANY members of congress like that. At least, on the female side.

[jrsurferboy]

09:31 AM on 09/29/2011

i vote before is the,best.a

[Larabee]

05:57 PM on 09/28/2011

I'm for cutting out a lot of things. However, cleavage is not one of them.

[parksle2]

03:58 PM on 09/28/2011

the air brush guy just slipped.

[karlakwist]

01:02 PM on 09/28/2011

Actually that cleavage is a little too high for natural cleavage. Her bra is too tight on her or its a push up bra. When its too high like that, its like a breast muffin bra! It looks better out of the pic just like bat wings, cellulite through white pants, and muffin tops. She needs to get a bra fitting.

[douglazyxx]

01:42 AM on 10/04/2011

LOL... Who would have known we would get a Technical reason why her breast look like that..LOL.

[Emmayonas]

07:32 PM on 09/27/2011

Where I grew up, women breastfeed in public with out covering, women swim topless in public. Breasts are not considered sexual body parts. Why are breasts considered sexual in the West specifically in North America?

[Jay from Ottawa]

08:19 PM on 09/27/2011

ugh, welcome to NA :(

We'll shy away from a little boobage, but we'll gladly let our kids watch someone be torn apart in a movie. Priorities: skewered.

[JessCostello]

10:12 PM on 09/29/2011

Both get an R rating.

[Klein bottle]

01:46 AM on 09/28/2011

If you have to ask, I can't explain it.

[Emmayonas]

07:25 PM on 09/27/2011

I swear to God, if I had seen this picture on the left before I read the article, I wouldn't even have noticed the cleavage. This is what is wrong with these puritans - They make normal things into sexual things. Half of the world is ok with bare breasts let alone a little cleavage.

[langej]

06:00 PM on 09/27/2011

I do try, but with women who wear these kinds of clothes, the stars in their eyes is usually the sun shining through the back of their head, so eye-contact is so boring.

[leftheaded]

11:21 AM on 09/28/2011

So dumb I can smell it.

[Watersisland]

03:48 PM on 09/27/2011

I should think most sensible minded people would judge her not on the content of her bra, but on the content of her character.....and her performance in Parliament. This is not a "Fredricks of Hollywood" outfit she's wearing; it's a dress that any mainstream woman would wear in public. I think those that take issue with the outfit .....really have a problem with the womans attractiveness. A bit of insecurity ladies? No, a LOT! Along with those that wish to make a covert political attack.

[TikiHead]

03:45 PM on 09/27/2011

By removing her Valley of Boobs, they have placed her in the Valley of the Uncanny.

[aaranged]

03:34 PM on 09/27/2011

I guess the writer was so a-flutter over the cleavage issue that she neglected to mention the most basic information that one would expect to see attached to any story that centered on a particular politician. Namely, the party affiliation of the politician and the area the politician represents. I can't imagine a story on some US politician's cleavage would omit this information.

For the record, Sitsabaiesan is a member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party, representing Scarborough-Rouge River (that's a riding in Ontario, near Toronto).

Tough to find this information, I know - not a lot of reporters have heard of this Wikipedia thingee!

[Bento]

08:32 PM on 09/27/2011

And...perhaps it could have been noted that she is, at only 29 years of age, the first Tamil woman outside of Sri Lanka to hold political office, is multi-lingual, and holds a masters degree in Industrial Relations. Very inspiring!

[stevestrange]

10:31 PM on 09/27/2011

Thanks..You and the other poster Bento...Gave useful information that should have been in the article.

[Skagitonian93]

12:18 PM on 09/28/2011

Are you referring to the article that shouldn't have happened in the first place? :-) Never once, anyway, in my entire adult life have I read a fashion piece about a male politician!

[hetrose]

03:19 PM on 09/27/2011

The Great Cleavage Debacle. Brought to you by Prudes R Us.

[hatetologin]

01:55 AM on 09/28/2011

LOL - That is priceless - PRUDES R US

[senilemomma]

03:15 PM on 09/27/2011

It seems they may have lightened her skin too if you search for other photos of Rathika Sitsabaiesan and that would be far more egregious than removing cleavage (which is certainly silly).

[Bento]

08:37 PM on 09/27/2011

Sure hope that is not the case. Usually it is simply a matter of lighting or function of bringing up the over-all brightness of the photo. This all could be the young woman's doing (and her perogative). I'm totally against all the image doctoring we are bombarded with..yet, when faced with the prospects of large campaign posters with my mug on them a few years ago, I vainly turned to photoshop to do a bit of teeth whitening, etc.. I would have been outraged if someone else had done it without my consent.

[JessCostello]

10:14 PM on 09/29/2011

I highly doubt that. It would create a crapstorm among Canadian liberals.

[ozmas mirror]

03:03 PM on 09/27/2011

Oh, no, Boobies!!!
Whatever will we do?

Won't someone think of the children?