Why isn't Oxford University listening to the women who say this bearded male lecturer wearing giant false breasts and low-cut tops makes them feel uncomfortable?

Perhaps only at Oxford University could the unacceptable so often be considered acceptable. Matt Rattley, a lecturer in biochemistry at St Hilda's College, is surely a case in point. Let us explain.

Mr Rattley has been in the news recently as the bearded academic who wears gigantic fake breasts – along with full make-up and low-cut tops or dresses with plunging necklines – to teach.

Pictures of the 'big-busted' 36-year-old – some taken from inside a lecture theatre at Oxford – have resulted in an almost viral backlash against the university hierarchy.

Former students and parents have complained. Women's rights groups have weighed in. Social media contributors identifying as transgender have criticised him.

And one fellow academic asked, in writing, what the response would be if a female lecturer wore the outsized male equivalent of fake breasts?

Yet Mr Rattley's sexualised appearance has been effectively normalised by Oxford's inaction in the face of the torrent of criticism, including from other members of staff.

Nothing to see here seems to be the official response. It's the equivalent, you could say, of the Emperor's New Clothes.

No one, metaphorically speaking, in the ivory towers of Oxford is screaming: 'He's naked.'

Matt Rattley is a lecturer in biochemistry at St Hilda's College, Oxford

Not like this former student, who told the Daily Mail: 'Matt Rattley's prosthetic breasts made me feel uncomfortable. But at Oxford, I felt women's discomfort didn't matter.'

That's the truth of it, words which cut through all the 'inclusive' waffle and obfuscation. But a culture of omerta prevails in the 'city of the dreaming spires'.

Everyone who spoke to us, for example, asked not to be identified. A tutor we contacted later sent us this extraordinary email: 'Oxford University here, mailing from one of my hard to trace personal accounts for reasons that should be obvious.'

A female academic, who used a false email address because she feared being exposed, told how she stopped attending most of a series of staff training sessions because she found being around Mr Rattley distressing.

At one session, where he was giving a presentation, she and another woman sat with her near the front were so uncomfortable, they 'didn't know where to look'.

At another, which took place during a spell of hot weather, she said his short skirt left his underwear visible. In her description, he was sitting with his legs apart, 'airing his b***s in a miniskirt', flanked by two women in dresses.

Perhaps most distressing, she said, was seeing other people treating his presentation as normal and describing female colleagues as 'fawning' over him, adding to her sense that questioning his appearance would very much be unwelcome.

A former postgraduate student, who was never taught by Mr Rattley but encountered him around the university, described a similar experience.

'His presentation made me uncomfortable, but I quickly understood that saying so would not be acceptable,' she said.

'Colleagues applauded and celebrated him. You couldn't simply ask: what on earth is he doing?'

People she knew professionally, including former supervisors, supported him.

So did the equality, diversity and inclusion representative she might otherwise have approached. 'I didn't know who I could speak to without being judged,' she added.

The complaints have kept on coming. On May 1, three former St Hilda's students wrote to the Principal Professor Dame Sarah Springman expressing their dismay that a college founded to support women's education allowed what they said was 'highly sexualised' attire.

'As you will be aware, his [Rattley's] highly sexualised attire (large fake breasts) has rightly caused outcry on social media,' the letter said.

'We are dismayed that a college once known for offering women a safe, female-only environment is now apparently welcoming this completely unacceptable behaviour.'

They added: 'Such a style of dressing would be inappropriate in any work setting.'

Undoubtedly Mr Rattley is a gifted academic. He has a first-class degree and was once nominated for a prestigious 'best tutor' award. He's also a 'nice bloke', by all accounts.

Surely, though, few places – outside Oxford – would allow him to turn up at the office, never mind one of the country's most prestigious educational institutions, with a prosthetic chest so big the discomfort it would cause would have many women considering breast reduction surgery.

Mr Rattley has taught at various Oxford colleges for the last 13 years

His appearance in front of his students – in both one-to-one tutorials and at lectures to a wider audience – is reminiscent, some might think, of a character from the Kenny Everett Show in the unreconstructed 1970s.

Readers over the age of 50 may remember the cult programme featured exaggerated parts of the anatomy and suggestive props.

Sniggering at outdated comedy sketches is one thing. But in not censoring Mr Rattley's outlandish apparel, Oxford stands accused of permitting 'highly sexualised attire' which violates St Hilda's own sexual harassment policy that refers to creating 'an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment'.

The allegations are especially ironic as, until 2008, St Hilda's was an all-female college and the last to become co-educational.

It would be hard to find a more outrageous example of looking the other way than the appeasement of Mr Rattley, even though it's a crowded field, given that Oxford, in the eyes of many critics, is the ground zero of wokeism.

Oxford, in fact, came second – behind Cambridge – when researchers from the think-tank Civitas recently ranked 137 universities for 'wokery'.

The two topped the 'radical progressivism ranking' after they introduced programmes such as 'unconscious bias and race workshops' for freshers, while at the same time attempting to stick 'trigger warnings' on pro-life student stalls and removing historical items with links to slavery.

Women and their right not to feel ridiculed or uncomfortable appears to be less of a priority.

When Mr Rattley began his bizarre transformation three years ago, some of his contemporaries thought, initially at least, that it was a joke or an extended social experiment to test public tolerance – with comparisons being made with a US reality TV contestant who said he had pretended to be a trans woman.

Yet there's no evidence this is the case, and the academic is still dressing like this.

The concerns and criticisms, based on interviews with Oxford insiders, letters of complaints and material published online, are surely understandable in the circumstances.

Even though Mr Rattley wears low cut tops, dresses with plunging necklines, bright red lipstick, nail varnish and high heels, he is obviously a man and does not try to hide the fact.

He has a long, wispy beard, after all. So why wear such cartoon-sized breasts?

Political commentator Douglas Murray, who has heard from a female student interviewed by Mr Rattley on Zoom for a position at St Hilda's, offered this theory in The Spectator magazine this week.

'It seemed obvious to me at the time, as it does to the wider world now, that Mr Rattley is not one of those people who is trying to "pass" as a woman, or one of those in the "trans" community hoping that with a few major cosmetic alterations he might go under the radar and go about his business of biochemistry.

'What Rattley is doing is the opposite of trying to "pass": he is trying to stand out.'

Mr Rattley is no stranger to Oxford. A star scholar himself, he graduated with first-class honours (MChem) from Somerville College in 2012 when he received a Mary Somerville prize for his examination results.

He is also a talented musician, performing Beethoven and Bach on the bassoon at concerts with the Somerville orchestra. His childhood was spent in Brighton.

His parents, both company directors, died young – his father in 2007 aged 44, his mother, who worked in real estate, in 2017 when she was 58.

St Hilda's College, where Mr Rattley - who graduated with a first-class honours degree and a prize for his examination results - lectures

He credits a 'brilliant' A-level teacher at his school, Varndean College, for inspiring him to become a scientist.

'It might also be a bit of rebellion, as my parents repeatedly refused my requests for a chemistry set for birthdays and Christmas,' he recalled in an interview with a scientific journal a few years ago.

Mr Rattley has been teaching at various Oxford colleges for the past 13 years.

Since 2023, he has been a non-stipendiary lecturer, receiving a fee, not an annual salary, for his time at St Hilda's, whose roll call of famous alumni includes novelist Val McDermid and broadcaster Zeinab Badawi.

He has regularly posted pictures of himself 'dolled up' – his description – including one from a lecture theatre on October 14. In April he declared: 'The problem I'm running up against is imposter syndrome – classic.'

The video went viral, presumably because of the 'cleavage' he displayed in another revealing outfit.

'Mad World,' posted someone who watched the clip while another said: 'No kidding.'

OpenAI has also showcased Mr Rattley's work developing an AI teaching tool for biochemistry students, using a photograph displaying his prosthetic breasts.

He also appears to have been hired to teach online classes with Chat GPT education, where his unusual appearance seemingly raised no obstacle to corporate endorsement either – the promotional materials also contain a picture of Mr Rattley with his prominent fake breasts.

Behind the story of Matt Rattley is another one we've already alluded to. At Oxford, questioning someone like him – fake breasts or no fake breasts – risks being treated as evidence of prejudice rather than a legitimate concern over professional standards.

This is because the university has been 'captured' by gender ideology, insiders said, if any validation was really needed. Hence the 'silence'.

The controversy is unfortunate, an unnecessary distraction, as no one doubts Mr Rattley's ability and he is a popular member of the faculty.

'From what I've heard he is a great tutor and lecturer,' said one student in their final year.

The spotlight has fallen once again on Oxford at a time when the sex and gender debate is at the centre of an increasingly fraught and rancorous national conversation, which was reignited this week with Labour's proposals of criminalising parents for questioning their child's gender identity choices.

Mr Rattley has kept his counsel throughout and did not wish to comment.

But speaking for the university and the college, a spokesman said: 'The University of Oxford is committed to being an inclusive and welcoming place where all members of our community feel respected, valued and able to be themselves.'

At the heart of this avoidable furore, when all is said and done, is a simple question: is Matt Rattley suitably dressed for work or not, and are his cartoon-like fake breasts acceptable or unacceptable attire for someone in his position?

It is a question Oxford University seems incapable – or unwilling – to answer.