When women are free, they tend to wear less than when they're oppressed, I think. So it's not as much sexism as a reflection of real life.
That catsuits look stupid. The catsuits WERE stupid. I would much rather have people topless in bed after sex within the context of a real adult relationship or romp. However Star Trek is apparently a family show (this is what I'm always told when I say I want it to be adult) and that makes catsuits fine and adult normal nudity not. We did see Hoshi with a sheet up over her chest but apparently not wearing anything after her Risa fling, at least as I recall. What I'm curious about is, would they do the catsuits today? They look pretty dated. And as so many of us have said, uniforms are way hotter. The catsuits can be a bit anime to my eyes. Which has its nice qualities but really isn't grown up sexy to me. That said, I personally don't care about catsuits. My point has always been they could have made these characters MORE sexy without them.
heh, Troi and T'pol looked better in uniform as well. I don't get the point of 7's catsuit at all. I doubt she has the slightest interest in looking sexy so, if not in uniform, I'd expect something very utilitarian. The outfit didn't stop her being a good character; there was more to her than just sexy appeal. But it was, in of itself, ridiculous.
The in-universe point of 7's catsuit is that she is used to the form fitting coverings of the Borg. Abruptly removed from them she is more comfortable being held and contained by her clothes. Loose fabrics moving about on the skin with AIR between the fabric and her distracts and disturbs her. When the EMH first dressed her he gave her clothing that mimicked how Borg coverings felt, though he opted not to dress her in black so as to make her more approachable.
The same could be said about Commander Kira. The picture that teacake posted says it all. The Starfleet uniform conveys power without suppressing much sexuality. Almost every female character who adopted it looked better. Moreover, in the case of Troi, it aided in character development.
The Bajoran militia uniform was poorly designer, both for men and women. It was drab in a non-utilitarian fashion. Granted, it made the men look more muscular in the chest. Kira's uniform attempted to be sexy in that it was form fitting. However, it looked like it had some weird suede shrug that drove me mad. At least the quilted-looking uniform from late seasons wasn't so unusual.
Nana Visitor's outfit always reminded me of a red Visitor's outfit from "V". Maybe it was just her surname that did that.
Its a shame that the rest of the Militia personnel on DS9 didn't get the new uniforms, I always found it odd that they didn't. But I do have to agree that she looked much better in the Starfleet uniform, as did Troi, T'Pol and Seven when they wore them. If the distribution of "sexy" outfits was fairer I wouldn't have such a problem with them (ie for every woman in a catsuit we got a guy in one too)
Kira looked awful to me practically all the time. Hair, horrible uniforms.. every now and then there was a big improvement.