Meghan McCain’s Busty Photo: Inappropriate? Or Further Proof That the World Is Frightened by Cleavage?

Did you guys hear about the Meghan McCain photo scandal? The sometimes outspoken daughter of former presidential candidate John McCain snapped a very chesty shot of herself recently and posted it on Twitter. Let’s just say that people REACTED to it…

She was just having a quiet night in, reading an Andy Warhol biography–but after Meghan McCain posted a photo of herself with the book, she set off thousands of Twitter users and bloggers who called the photo “too racy,” “inappropriate,” and some even went so far as to call McCain a “slut.”

At first McCain responded by saying she was “hurt” and that she was considering deleting her Twitter account as a result (you may recall that Miley Cyrus deleted her account for similar reasons), but McCain’s most recent update notes that she’s keeping her account and that she now says posting such a photo was a mistake, even though she says she wasn’t trying to be a sexpot–she always wears tank tops when she’s hanging out and relaxing at home.

Alright–I think the photo was in poor taste–for McCain or for anyone. Gals, do we really need to flash our boobs around to get attention? I think not. But seriously, peeps, calling a gal a slut because she has curves and shows them, alright, flaunts them a bit? That’s just wrong. And P.S. I hate the word slut and don’t think that any woman under any circumstance deserves to be called that. Ever.

Still, this “scandal” is a reminder that social media can be a downer sometimes. Just because you have followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stand by you or cheer you on when you post photos/opinions–and some people don’t deal well with that.

A friend of mine was just saying on Facebook last week that some random guy on Twitter told her she was, in so many words, a bad mom. She blocked him, but it caused her a lot of grief. What did this stranger know about her parenting style? Nothing. Yet, his comment stuck with her. It stung. Yep, Twitter and Facebook are fun and have lots of benefits–but they come with this sort of crud, too.

Thoughts on the Meghan McCain photo scandal? Do you think posting busty shots of yourself online is OK? Do you do it? What do you think of other women who do? And, what do you think of the “s” word?

More reading:

The last time Meghan McCain was in the spotlight, it was about this controversy…

12 things you don’t know about Meghan McCain…

First racism, now … fatism?

More Ways to Get Glamour

You could win $50,000 just for registering for or logging in to Glamour.com!

Sign up for Glamour.com’s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters!

Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage.

Follow us on Twitter!

Photo: Megan McCain via Twitter