Jeff Rosen (the one who tried to smear Sotomayor out of a Supreme Court appointment) has written a piece for TNR (blech) on net neutrality. The first few paragraphs of the article don’t seem terrible, but I couldn’t read any further because I was too horrified at the companion image/illustration they chose to run with the piece.
Someday, perhaps, one will be able to talk about an esoteric technical policy question without dressing it up with pictures of women in bondage. I mean, someday this will be true, right? Someday, oh someday, women’s bodies will not be exploited and objectified for every goddamn topic in the universe. I had a pretty strong reaction to this image (ya think?).
I think it was the juxtaposition of an issue that’s squarely within the realm of my life as a professional and the fact that I am just too old and have seen too much of this kind of nonsense and am just too tired of women being commoditized in the service of men advancing their ideas. There’s been a lot of discussion lately that I’ve been skimming the surface of about this kind of thing in the open source and other technical communities. And I’m frankly appalled to see it enter the technology policy space.
Yes, it’s just one image – but after a lifetime of seeing this sort of crap coupled with the constant barrage of micro-insults and demeaning and belittling slings and arrows (that only gets worse once you’re no longer the precocious young girl) my tolerance is just gone.
You’re right, that picture is terrible.