At Oxford University, conduct that might be regarded as unacceptable elsewhere can sometimes be treated as ordinary. Matt Rattley, a biochemistry lecturer at St Hilda’s College, has become a striking example of that apparent double standard.
The 36-year-old academic has recently attracted attention for teaching in full make-up, low-cut tops or plunging dresses, and enormous prosthetic breasts, despite also wearing a beard.
Photographs of Mr Rattley, including some taken inside an Oxford lecture theatre, have prompted a fierce reaction online and renewed scrutiny of the university’s response.
Former students and parents have raised concerns, women’s rights groups have commented, and some social-media users who identify as transgender have also criticised his presentation.
One fellow academic even asked in writing how the university would respond if a female lecturer wore an exaggerated male equivalent of prosthetic breasts.
Yet Oxford has not publicly condemned Mr Rattley’s sexualised appearance, despite sustained criticism from people inside and outside the institution.
The apparent message is that there is no issue to address. Critics say the silence recalls the familiar story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
In other words, no one in Oxford’s ivory towers appears willing to say that the lecturer’s appearance crosses a line.
Matt Rattley is a biochemistry lecturer at St Hilda’s College, Oxford
One former student 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 account captures the concern expressed by critics, who say the university’s language about inclusion has obscured the experiences of women who feel uneasy about Mr Rattley’s clothing. They also describe a culture in which challenging it can feel risky.
For example, everyone who spoke to us requested anonymity. One tutor later sent an extraordinary email from what they described as a difficult-to-trace personal account: ‘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 identified, said she stopped attending most of a staff-training programme because Mr Rattley’s presence caused her distress.
During one session, at which he delivered a presentation, she and another woman sitting near the front were so uncomfortable that they ‘didn’t know where to look’.
At another session, held during a period of hot weather, she said his short skirt left his underwear visible. She described him sitting with his legs apart, ‘airing his b***s in a miniskirt’, between two women wearing dresses.
She said it was particularly troubling to see others treat the presentation as unremarkable. Describing female colleagues as ‘fawning’ over him, she said, reinforced her impression that objections to his appearance would not be welcome.
A former postgraduate student, who was not taught by Mr Rattley but encountered him around the university, described a similar atmosphere.
‘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?’
She said people she knew professionally, including former supervisors, supported him.
The equality, diversity and inclusion representative was also someone she might otherwise have approached. ‘I didn’t know who I could speak to without being judged,’ she added.
Complaints have continued. On May 1, three former St Hilda’s students wrote to Principal Professor Dame Sarah Springman, expressing dismay that a college founded to support women’s education had allowed what they described as ‘highly sexualised’ clothing.
‘As you will be aware, his [Rattley’s] highly sexualised attire (large fake breasts) has rightly caused outcry on social media,’ the letter stated.
‘We are dismayed that a college once known for offering women a safe, female-only environment is now apparently welcoming this completely unacceptable behaviour.’
The former students added: ‘Such a style of dressing would be inappropriate in any work setting.’
There is little dispute that Mr Rattley is a capable academic. He holds a first-class degree and was previously nominated for a prestigious ‘best tutor’ award. By many accounts, he is also regarded as a pleasant colleague.
Critics nevertheless argue that few institutions outside Oxford would allow an employee to arrive at work wearing a prosthetic chest so large that some women might find it deeply uncomfortable, particularly in one of Britain’s most prominent educational establishments.
Mr Rattley has taught at several Oxford colleges over the past 13 years
His appearance before students, both in one-to-one tutorials and larger lectures, has led some observers to compare him with characters from the Kenny Everett Show and its deliberately exaggerated humour from the 1970s.
Viewers over 50 may recall that the cult programme frequently used outsized anatomical features and suggestive props for comic effect.
Outdated comedy is one matter. Critics argue that Oxford’s decision not to challenge Mr Rattley’s clothing amounts to permitting ‘highly sexualised attire’ that could conflict with St Hilda’s sexual-harassment policy, which refers to an ‘intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’.
The issue carries particular significance because St Hilda’s remained an all-female college until 2008, making it the last Oxford college to become co-educational.
Critics say it is difficult to imagine a clearer example of an institution looking the other way. Oxford has long been portrayed by its detractors as a centre of so-called ‘woke’ culture.
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The university ranked second, behind Cambridge, when researchers at the Civitas think-tank recently assessed 137 universities for ‘wokery’.
The two institutions topped Civitas’s ‘radical progressivism ranking’ after introducing initiatives including unconscious-bias and race workshops for new students. At the same time, critics said, they had attempted to place ‘trigger warnings’ on pro-life student stalls and remove historical items associated with slavery.
Those critics argue that women’s right not to feel ridiculed or uncomfortable appears to receive less attention.
When Mr Rattley began dressing this way three years ago, some colleagues initially assumed it was a joke or an extended experiment intended to test public tolerance. Others compared it with a US reality-television contestant who said he had pretended to be a trans woman.
There is no evidence that Mr Rattley’s clothing is part of such an experiment, however, and he continues to dress in this manner.
Against that background, the concerns raised in interviews with Oxford insiders, formal complaint letters and material published online are understandable, according to those who have criticised the university.
Mr Rattley wears low-cut tops, plunging dresses, bright red lipstick, nail varnish and high heels, while making no attempt to conceal that he is male.
His long, wispy beard makes that clear. The question critics continue to ask is why he chooses to wear such dramatically oversized breasts.
Political commentator Douglas Murray, who heard from a female student interviewed by Mr Rattley on Zoom for a position at St Hilda’s, offered his interpretation in The Spectator 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 has deep roots at Oxford. He graduated from Somerville College in 2012 with first-class honours in chemistry and received the Mary Somerville prize for his examination results.
He is also a talented musician who has performed Beethoven and Bach on the bassoon at concerts with the Somerville orchestra. He spent his childhood in Brighton.
Both of his parents were company directors and died relatively young. His father died in 2007 at the age of 44, while his mother, who worked in real estate, died in 2017 aged 58.
St Hilda’s College, where Mr Rattley lectures after graduating with first-class honours and receiving a prize for his examination results
He has credited a ‘brilliant’ A-level teacher at Varndean College with inspiring his interest in science.
‘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 several years ago.
Mr Rattley has taught at various Oxford colleges for 13 years.
Since 2023, he has worked as a non-stipendiary lecturer at St Hilda’s, receiving a fee rather than an annual salary. The college’s notable alumni include novelist Val McDermid and broadcaster Zeinab Badawi.
He has frequently posted photographs of himself ‘dolled up’, as he puts it, including one taken in a lecture theatre on October 14. In April, he wrote: ‘The problem I’m running up against is imposter syndrome – classic.’
A video later spread widely, apparently because of the cleavage visible in another revealing outfit.
‘Mad World,’ one viewer wrote, while another responded: ‘No kidding.’
OpenAI has also highlighted Mr Rattley’s work on an artificial-intelligence teaching tool for biochemistry students, using a photograph in which he is wearing the prosthetic breasts.
He also appears to have been hired to teach online classes through Chat GPT education. His unusual appearance seemingly did not prevent corporate endorsement, with promotional material also showing him wearing the prominent prosthetics.
The wider issue raised by the controversy is whether people at Oxford feel able to question conduct they consider inappropriate. Critics say that challenging someone such as Mr Rattley, regardless of the prosthetic breasts, risks being portrayed as prejudice rather than a legitimate question about professional standards.
Some insiders argue that this reflects the university’s alleged capture by gender ideology and helps explain what they regard as its silence.
The controversy is an unwelcome distraction from Mr Rattley’s academic work, particularly because few people dispute his ability and he is considered popular by many colleagues and students.
‘From what I’ve heard he is a great tutor and lecturer,’ said one final-year student.
The dispute has again placed Oxford in the spotlight as the national debate over sex and gender grows increasingly tense. That debate was reignited this week by Labour proposals to criminalise parents for questioning their child’s gender-identity choices.
Mr Rattley has declined to comment on the controversy.
A spokesman for the university and college 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 centre of the dispute is a straightforward question: is Mr Rattley’s clothing suitable for the workplace, and are cartoon-like prosthetic breasts acceptable attire for someone in his position?
So far, Oxford University has appeared unwilling or unable to provide a clear answer.