1 small shirt for a man, 1 giant leap backward for women

[sabaku_no_gaara]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...lumn/19083607/


Good god, are we really all going to have to apologise for ing everything now?

Are these woman insane? Or did this start out as a stupid prank and did some zealous woman get too riled up? stuff like this makes me sad

[alhoon]

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?
They landed a probe on something with next to no gravity, after years of calculations and then a long time (also probably years) of travel.
And women make it about clothes.

FEMINISTS making it about clothes, reinforcing the stereotype that women care about clothes. WAY TO GO FEMINISTS! Good thing you reinforce anti-women stereotypes with crap.

[Roma_Victrix]

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?
They landed a probe on something with next to no gravity, after years of calculations and then a long time (also probably years) of travel.
And women make it about clothes.

FEMINISTS making it about clothes, reinforcing the stereotype that women care about clothes. WAY TO GO FEMINISTS! Good thing you reinforce anti-women stereotypes with crap.

The thread is over, folks. No one is going to capture the essence and gist of things in a more pithy way than this. That's +1 rep to you, sir.

When he started crying, I honestly hoped he and everyone else were just being sarcastic and then all would interrupt that with mocking laughter at how stupid these feminists are. Even the woman sitting to his left had a smirk on her face, clearly showing by facial expression that she thought the whole charade was ridiculous.

I'll take feminists seriously about their anger over men wearing T-shirts with semi-nude girls in bikinis once all the feminists rail and condemn all the teenage schoolgirls who have pictures like this stuck to the front of their class notebooks:



*Crickets chirping, no feminists to be found railing against this.*

They honestly couldn't be trumpeting a bigger and more hypocritical double standard when it comes to sexuality. It merely makes them look like idiots who don't really believe in equality, but female supremacy. And we all know the latter is only cool when used sparingly as a BDSM kink in the bedroom.

[Stavroforos]

Just more proof that extreme feminism is one of those things that come about in societies that have no bigger problems or choose to ignore those problems and instead create their own new ones.

[Abdülmecid I]

Many feminists have to realize that sexualization has the worst effects on girls themselves, not men. Just think of all these Barbies and what messages are promoting to little girls. That they should focus exclusively on how they can attract the opposite sex and not on how to develop their character.

[Heathen Hammer]

Just more proof that extreme feminism is one of those things that come about in societies that have no bigger problems or choose to ignore those problems and instead create their own new ones.

Pretty much. Plus what is wrong with "sexualization"? How is it sexist to portray women as sexually attractive, and how is it different from same depiction of men?

[snuggans]

it's tragic that this otherwise trivial incident piggybacked off the achievement of landing a spacecraft on a speeding comet, robbing the event of some of the attention it deserved. however it does serve to bring into light how off-track the feminist movement is currently swerving, or at the very least some of its most vocal, rabid denominations who think harassing the guy to the point of tears is OK when the worst thing he did was have a goofy sense of style.

my theory is that the shirt, or the sexualized women depicted on it, was never the real problem but rather that humanity had achieved a scientific milestone and the lead scientist being interviewed was male. there are feminist-centric sites who write articles about comics, movies, TV, basically pop culture with a feminist gaze. when you googled the shirt incident, one of these sites appeared at the very top of the results because they had dedicated a few highly-critical articles about the shirt and their commenter base was largely agreeing.

i started looking at some of their other articles, which were mostly centered around comics which featured superheroines and i noticed something that was missing from these articles and its comments: the sort of rage and drama that was directed at Matt Taylor and his shirt. on the cover of these comics the same sexualization of cartoon women are frequently found, but the writers mostly presented them in a positive light, even if some of these superheroines had less clothes on than the women on Matt Taylor's shirt. i started noticing a massive double standard in that community.

examples:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

the articles i took all of these pictures from presented them in a positive light, sometimes the [female] writers were even excited about new comic releases which featured these sexualized women, including Red Sonja (whose appearance has also drawn criticism but not to the level of an ESA scientist's shirt apparently).

even the site's logo itself contains minor sexualization of cartoon women:



so it seems that at least a certain percentage of those who were criticizing Matt Taylor are at least at some level okay with sexualization of cartoon women, to the point where it makes it to their site logo and their frequently written articles about comic books, but it has to be on their own super-inclusive terms apparently.

what's even more hilarious than that strange double standard is that they started using Dr. Taylor and his shirt as a scapegoat for the problems women face in STEM fields, that the shirt was symptomatic of the supposedly harsh sexism that edges out women out of these fields. yes, it is because of a shirt somewhere that you weren't able to get into a good university or failed an exam, or your job application was rejected. talk about a huge lack of taking responsibility for your own actions and your own gender's situation and directing all that anger and hate towards a male figure in a spotlight who is wearing a shirt not at all different from the same comic-books that you love.

there is a certain level of misandry running through some of these feminist denominations (not indicative of the entire movement thankfully) which i believe to be hijacking the wider goal of equality that the movement represents. yet some of these people i've talked to have refused the existence itself of any misandry while ironically indicating misogyny is everywhere. one of the most common responses has been "well he has apologized, he acknowledged he did something wrong, has moved on and so should you" which sounds like the answer a bully would give to somebody who has found him standing next to a beaten victim who is sprawled on the floor crying and apologizing for existing.

[Roma_Victrix]

That's one of your finest posts right there, snuggans. So many good points.

[trance]

The person who made the design is a woman named Elly Prizeman. https://www.facebook.com/ellyprizema...54820845765191

Hilarious, so when he wore the shirt, he was supporting through practically advertising for a female entrepeneur and artist in a scientific prolific context, an association rarely made in that sector.

GG feminazis, you've done it again.

[conon394]

Well the backlash thing is kinda weird and overwrought, and I don't see why it produced an apology...

I mean does twitter fund his project - who really cares about twitter or internet chat rooms? Did he get meaningful flack from actual female colleges?

The real issue even as a sort of apparently not very socially adept Scientist type one really should pick something besides a bad beach shirt to give interviews in. Or let the PR person do the talking.

The Guardian had a reasoned look at the issue:

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2...nstead-rosetta

I mean I worked a lot of relaxed University and small biotech jobs but really that is a going to the bar shirt not even a casual shirt on casual day at a casual workplace no matter if it had scantly clad men or women. My wife hates to even give phone interviews to media since they often twist words or get the science wrong, but my god does man not have girlfriend or wife or friends to say dude that's not look you want today. I don't find it offensive - just bad for the moment. Or if it was a spur of the moment interview he should just say they yanked me out the control room after X hours and we have a intensely relaxed dress code - so deal.

[UselessPoster]

Feminists...

First world problems.

[UselessPoster]

I am deliberately wearing nude woman shirts just to annoy feminists now.

[Copperknickers II]

I don't think he deserves to be harassed like this, but in fairness, women do not wear T shirts on live TV showing half naked men, and the shirt was a grossly sexualised design that belongs in a GTA game, not daytime television. He should be allowed to wear what he wants and I don't think it's particularly sexist, but there's a time and a place.

[snuggans]

I don't think he deserves to be harassed like this, but in fairness, women do not wear T shirts on live TV showing half naked men, and the shirt was a grossly sexualised design that belongs in a GTA game, not daytime television. He should be allowed to wear what he wants and I don't think it's particularly sexist, but there's a time and a place.

none of the main talking points coming from the feminist corner were that his clothing was too casual for the occasion. he's been previously seen wearing those same types of bowling shirts before and nothing happened. i think you're equating daytime television with a children's program, because daytime television has seen far worse than that.

[Astaroth]

I don't think he deserves to be harassed like this, but in fairness, women do not wear T shirts on live TV showing half naked men, and the shirt was a grossly sexualised design that belongs in a GTA game, not daytime television. He should be allowed to wear what he wants and I don't think it's particularly sexist, but there's a time and a place.

This.

I think it's interesting that most of the "feminist complaints" that I hear about are not coming from actual feminists, but from people who rage about "da evil deminazis taking over".

[Heathen Hammer]

This.

I think it's interesting that most of the "feminist complaints" that I hear about are not coming from actual feminists, but from people who rage about "da evil deminazis taking over".

You find it interesting that feminazis do not complain about their own stupidity? In any case, "western" feminism is a joke. It is mostly a fad for bored middle class college students who keep finding new ways in which they get "oppressed".

[Surgeon]

He brought it on himself. That's what he gets for wearing a short skirt.

[Caelifer_1991]

I feel like we should all start wearing shirts with naked women on it just to annoy as many feminists as possible. I was brought up by a single mum who is essentially an ultra-feminist, and I can tell you from first hand experience that many of their views are quite well suited to the term 'feminazi', and that their preferred method of putting their point across is deliberate and continuous indoctrination. It took all the effort I could muster not to rebel completely and become a hardcore misogynist, in the case of feminists of the new kind though, they frankly deserve as much misogyny as possible... even if only to make them shut the up and leave the sensible part of mankind alone. Here's hoping that the entirety of ESA marches in in solidarity wearing nothing but pictures of naked women on their clothing. Hell, they could take a Freudian approach to it: paint the next Ariane launcher as a penis and put naked women all over it, I think it would be quite humourous.

[Sphere]

There are women on the front line of feminism. They look like this.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This fashion incident is little more than internet chatter and shouldn't be confused with fighting for the rights and well-being of women.

[Hobbes]

So, modern feminism in the west is a joke, what else is new?