In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Lady Problems

Jill

I believe that men should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like. So I totally understand a Brooklyn hipster newspaper’s decision to photoshop all the men out of photos of the Situation Room:

Hillary in the Sit Room

(For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to Brooklyn-based Yiddish-language newspapers, one of them photoshopped the women out of a photo of the Situation Room because “The readership of the Tzeitung believes that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women, not the opposite,” said Publisher Albert Friedman. We should definitely start respecting men in the same way: By removing their images from the public sphere, even where it means completely changing the facts of any given event. Now, back to your regularly scheduled news articles about the wonderful President Michelle Obama).

47 thoughts on Lady Problems

  2. Many ultra-Orthodox publications do not allow any images of women – in one book I read on how to tie headscarves (clearly geared towards women!) all the faces were blurred for “modesty” reasons. Hillary Clinton’s position of power is sadly not even relevant.

    However, it’s important to notice the “ultra”: not even normal Orthodox people will tolerate this, at least in part because it is actually baseless. There is nothing in Jewish law which says this. When I say that I don’t mean like “the progressive sources I have deemed authentic disagree with this,” I mean like it is factually without any foundation, in text or tradition, whatsoever.

    But actually that is kind of the point; in Hassidic communities like the one mentioned, women are blocked from learning for the very reason that if they did, they’d call bullshit.

  3. This is my new favorite thing. My new. favorite. thing.

    It’s just fucking *poignant.*

  4. Next: do we get to airbrush depictions of men in the mass media? I’d like to see the Bush years be airbrushed from my brain, but I fear that if I did, I would also not remember all I learned from those years.

  7. Love this. I had no idea that Brooklyn had hipster newspapers, although now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. ^_^

  8. Nymeria:
    Now I want all the people Photoshopped out. Only coffee cups allowed.

    Hey now if we let coffee cups to stay in the picture they’ll think they are special with special rights to be respected and fairly, can’t have that. Take them out to.

  9. This is a big issue in Israel, where there is a large ultra Orthodox (Ashkenazi Haredim) population.

    Speaking of very conservative Judaism, it’ll be interesting to see where Israel goes in the future, because among the ultra Orthodox, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is about 9 and has been steadily rising since 1980, whereas that for other Israelis has been stagnant or falling. It is estimated that about one third of births in Israel are now ultra Orthodox.

  11. Look at that table, people have sex on tables that sturdy, now I’m thinking about wanting to have sex on a table. Damnit, this table money shot offends me and needs to go.

  12. Sarah: Love this. I had no idea that Brooklyn had hipster newspapers, although now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. ^_^

    Yep. And they published–without attribution–a photo I took. Because apparently it’s too much trouble to simply ask someone for permission to publish their photo. (I made sure said photo was removed.)

  14. The presence of laptops in the photo offend me. Laptops are only used for porn, as everyone knows, and a credible newspaper would not depict such heinous reminders of pornography in their publications.

  16. Ugh, chareidim.

    “The readership of the Tzeitung believes that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women, not the opposite,”

    PR whitewash. Di Tzitung, and other chareidi publications don’t airbrush women because “women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like”, but because they believe women tempt men and boys into sin. If the laws of Tzniut (modesty) were about “respect for women” then woman/family magazine like Mispacha would not feature blanked women and the face of female children would not be brushed from advert or catalogue.

    The guy who brought attention to it, Shmarya Rosenberg, would not be called a disgusting traitor anti-semite either.

    They’re angry because they got found out. http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/

  17. For what it’s worth, all the Jews I know who saw this were, like, GOD DAMMIT YOU’RE GIVING US A BAD NAME.

    Of course it sucks that when an extremist group does something fucked, people worry about how it will reflect on all of us. Hooray.

    “in Hassidic communities like the one mentioned, women are blocked from learning for the very reason that if they did, they’d call bullshit.”

    And, this, totally. Communities where women are encouraged to learn Jewish law, are becoming steadily more progressive. It’s so neat to see. If you had asked my mom if she would see an Orthodox woman rabbi in her lifetime, I bet she would have said no. And yet, now there is one. (Well, a rabba, but that’s because of finicky Hebrew gendered language things) I heard her speak once, and she’s awesome.

  18. I love this version of the photo, because Biden and Obama aren’t in it to lead me to sin. Mmmm… Biden.

  20. @Vigee :
    Random OT query – is your name a reference to Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun ? If yes, WIN.

  21. Francois-Xavier, yes!! Is yours a reference to Francois-Xavier Fabre? Because if yes, double win!!

  22. What really strikes me about this photo is that by removing all the men from the photo, it highlights the paucity of women involved with national security situations such as this. I think it would be interesting to see similar editing of photos of Congress and corporate boards.

  23. @Vigée
    Afraid not – that’s just my actual IRL name. I do love Fabre, though, and if it counts for anything, I’m from Montpellier.

  25. Yeah, when I first saw this it made me so angry I was actually a little bit sick for a while. Come over and see me and I’ll erase your fucking face.

  27. What about Osama bin Ladin being removed of the public sphere?

    Please let me remind all readers at Feministe that this picture is about the US administration watching Osama bin Ladin being assassinated, when real justice would have been a proper arrest and a proper trial.

    Militarism is ruining our lives and taking away federal dollars from really needed services such as education and healthcare.

    US militarism and imperialism will never make the world safer for womyn and lesbian, bi, gay, trans people or anyone except the rulers.

    1. What about Osama bin Ladin being removed of the public sphere?

      Please let me remind all readers at Feministe that this picture is about the US administration watching Osama bin Ladin being assassinated, when real justice would have been a proper arrest and a proper trial.

      Militarism is ruining our lives and taking away federal dollars from really needed services such as education and healthcare.

      US militarism and imperialism will never make the world safer for womyn and lesbian, bi, gay, trans people or anyone except the rulers.

      Round 48672 in “We must never let a Feministe thread proceed without de-humorifying it.”

  28. So Hillary was alone in the situation room during the mission?
    That might explain a lot.

  29. No no, coffee cups are offensive because lips touch them and drinking can be a reminder of oral sex.

    (I wish I was being totally ridiculous, but I based this off of the Victorian “cover the piano legs and don’t serve the lady any suggestive piece of chicken meat” thing. Which I guess means you can eat the wing, because ladies don’t have wings. Unless they’re menstruating, but I don’t think Always was in business back then.)

  30. Why stop there? If you really want to have men respected and honored the way we are endlessly told women are in Hasidic society, you should order the men to cover their hair at all times, and ban them from wearing tallit and tefillin, performing prayers and rituals in the synagogue, and becoming rabbis and cantors. Make sure to order the men to sit in the back of the synagogue so the women don’t get distracted by their looks. Discourage the men from having any education or taking any paid work, and emphasize that their job is to be a good husband and father to many many children (never mind how many they actually want); if the men don’t like being denied opportunity to earn money and use their intellectual gifts, clearly they hate fatherhood. Women, of course, shall be entitled to have careers and education as well as being wives and mothers. Rabbis-always female naturally-shall issue rulings on what clothes men may wear, and what if any contraception they may use, and generally make decisions for the Hasidic community, including all Hasidic men, without any male input. Don’t forget to discourage the men from reporting domestic or sexual abuse, and have the rabbis rule against such reports, lest they be a shame on the precious Hasidic community. And there you have the equivalent of the situation women are called self-hating Jews, nasty evil slutty traitors to the precious community and Judaism itself, for daring to protest. I wonder if any man could put up with that for even one day.

  31. Oh, I almost forgot! The men should of course be banned from voting in the synagogue and in any Hasidic organization. And banned from being counted in the minyan, of course. And generally considered subordinate to their wives. So much more harmonious when a couple isn’t always arguing and fighting, you know? So much smoother and more peaceful when the woman is the head of the household and her word is law.

    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/the-key-to-marital-harmony-one-vote-per-couple/

  32. Jill: Round 48672 in “We must never let a Feministe thread proceed without de-humorifying it.”

    Right?! Some commenters assume that Feministe readers are incapable of finding something humorous while also thinking of the serious implications. Hey, those people! We get it! We’re thinking about these things! But sometimes it’s nice to have a laugh for 5 seconds.

    At least for me it is. And then I go back to frowning and grimacing and shaking my fist and writing government official and organization and marching in the streets. But if I don’t have a laugh every now and then I would surely curl up into a little ball from exhaustion.

  33. gretel: And then I go back to frowning and grimacing and shaking my fist and writing government official and organization

    And forgetting subject-verb agreement, apparently. See? Exhausted. Need to laugh.

  34. Citrusse: Please let me remind all readers at Feministe that this picture is about the US administration watching Osama bin Ladin being assassinated, when real justice would have been a proper arrest and a proper trial.

    Which would have ended in his execution. So… color me disinterested.

  35. Love this. I had no idea that Brooklyn had hipster newspapers, although now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. ^_^

  37. Wait, that looks like some very manly hair remaining in the lower left-hand corner. Quickly, photoshop it out or cover it up, before I lose control of myself and start disrespecting men!

  38. Oh man! Today is just full of great laughs; I saw this immediately after receiving hilariously unlikely news from a friend. ^_^ It’s nice to guffaw at the ludicrousness of the world!

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  43. Fantastic! However, I think the link may be to the wrong article. That article that one leads to doesn’t contain the photo above.

  44. @Yonah: However, it’s important to notice the “ultra”: not even normal Orthodox people will tolerate this, at least in part because it is actually baseless. There is nothing in Jewish law which says this. When I say that I don’t mean like “the progressive sources I have deemed authentic disagree with this,” I mean like it is factually without any foundation, in text or tradition, whatsoever.

    But actually that is kind of the point; in Hassidic communities like the one mentioned, women are blocked from learning for the very reason that if they did, they’d call bullshit.

    Absolutely correct – but you can’t tell them that. They’ll just say you’re ignorant of the relevant sources.

    It’s a collective psychosis. There’s no other way to understand it.

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