I've never seen Ashley as likely to top the male vote at all because Hollyoaks probably doesn't have much crossover with Strictly's older-skewing audience, and it frequently struggles to break 1m viewers. It really wouldn't surprise me if Ben, a former international rugby hero and founder of an anti-bullying charity, was getting more votes than him.

If the intention isn't to invite phwoars (and perhaps distract from the dancing, more cynically) then why do any of the male dancers, pro and celebs, need to get their pecs out? Aside from some dodgy Kristina bikinis I don't recall any of the women dressing to get their tits out ...

Edit: missed one of the parentheses

An exposed man's chest doesn't have the sexual connetations of a womans breasts. Entirely different. As for middle aged women, I wouldn't mind Darcey drooling over me. She's smoking hot whatever age she is.

I'm not a huge James fan, but sad to see him go so early in the competition. It always saddens me when the celeb says they'll miss training with their pro partner each day, & I agree James was very gracious in defeat with Vanessa this evening!

Then why did the women give that highly sexualised reaction? And would it be OK for Len and Bruce to react like that to a young woman? I think there would be an outcry ...... including from people here.
Its a prime-time family show, not some late night CH 4 effort.

Why don't you answer the question as to why the male pros and celebs get their chests out? That's the issue. Answer seems to be to invite the response you find loathesome.

sorry, didn't know they designed their own costumes.
If I used the "asking for it" line about women I would get howled down. And if Len or Bruce reacted that way to the womens' bodies .............. you can imagine the response.

I think using the term 'asking for it' is unfortunate and not one that I employed in either of my posts. I'm pretty sure that celebs and pros get some say in how much flesh they want to expose. That's clear from some of the choerography that requires outfits to be 'adaptable' for the dance. Ben could have had an exposed chest for his rhumba this week but didn't. Ashley needn't have had an exposed chest for his samba but did.

Your remarks show that women emulating men and treating them in a sexualised way is disliked by (some) men. Well now you know how we feel. If Len or Bruce behaved in a similar fashion the BBC would be on very thin ice as it's been heavily criticised for its historical treatment of male to female sexual abuse and continues to face contemporary criticism of its treatment of women.

Hatred for Bruce reaching the pathalogical point almost psychotic in this thread, disturbing.