"I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist"

[sfs1]

Pray tell, how was Taylor a • Edited by a Moderator •?

By wearing that shirt, of course. Is it really news to you that lots (and lots) of women find pictures of half (or fully) naked women in the workplace? Do you really not understand why?

[sfs1]

Here's a thought: try asking some women scientists how they feel about the shirt.

[Sam]

Here's a thought: try asking some women scientists how they feel about the shirt.

Phil Plait provides a helpful collection for this sort of inquiry:

Source: Shirtstorm. Phil Plait. Bad Astronomy. Slate. 2014.11.17

If you think this is just complaining from wannabes who can’t hold a candle to someone who just landed a probe on a comet, you’re wrong. Talk to my friend, the cosmologist Katie Mack. Or the planetary scientist Sarah Horst. Or geologist Mika McKinnon. Or planetary geologist Emily Lakdawalla. Or radio astronomer Nicole Gugliucci. Or professor and science communicator extraordinaire Pamela Gay. Or Carolyn Porco, who worked on the Voyager mission and is the leader of the Cassini imaging team, the space probe that’s been orbiting Saturn for over a decade now.

If you think this is just a bunch of prudes, you’re wrong. It’s not about the prurience. It’s about the atmosphere of denigration.

© Copyright Original Source

[Darth Executor]

Is it really news to you that lots (and lots) of women find pictures of half (or fully) naked women in the workplace?

Sounds like it's great being a woman.

[Tassman]

A tempest in a C cup.

Wicked!

[Darth Executor]

Phil Plait provides a helpful collection for this sort of inquiry:

Source: Shirtstorm. Phil Plait. Bad Astronomy. Slate. 2014.11.17

If you think this is just complaining from wannabes who can’t hold a candle to someone who just landed a probe on a comet, you’re wrong. Talk to my friend, the cosmologist Katie Mack. Or the planetary scientist Sarah Horst. Or geologist Mika McKinnon. Or planetary geologist Emily Lakdawalla. Or radio astronomer Nicole Gugliucci. Or professor and science communicator extraordinaire Pamela Gay. Or Carolyn Porco, who worked on the Voyager mission and is the leader of the Cassini imaging team, the space probe that’s been orbiting Saturn for over a decade now.

If you think this is just a bunch of prudes, you’re wrong. It’s not about the prurience. It’s about the atmosphere of denigration.

© Copyright Original Source

"If space were not a vacuum we'd hear @Philae2014 going "WHEEEEE!""

"You can hate me for sticking up for feminism but you know what? I HAVE AN ADORABLE DOGGIE ASLEEP IN MY LAP I WIN. #HaterLogicBackAtYa"

"<3 Wish you'd come paint #Ferguson with truth RT "

"the shirt was a bad choice. It's an example of microaggression"

I'm sure they are all productive individuals and not braindead progressive parasites.

[rogue06]

What was the initial overreaction?

The overwrought attacking him for wearing what amounts to a slightly tacky shirt -- which was made for him by a female friend -- and trying to turn it into an assault on all women. These folks seem like the sort who spend every waking moment looking for any and every excuse to be offended.

[fm93]

The overwrought attacking him for wearing what amounts to a slightly tacky shirt -- which was made for him by a female friend -- and trying to turn it into an assault on all women. These folks seem like the sort who spend every waking moment looking for any and every excuse to be offended.

First of all, saying that people are considering it "an assault on all women" is way overstated. But merely saying that it's "slightly tacky" is significantly understated.

Second of all, please, for the love of God, kill that inane, stupid line of rhetoric. No one LOOKS for an EXCUSE to be offended. When you break out that line, what you're telling me is that you won't take the time to try to understand WHY people feel offended, and instead address this lack of understanding with some unbelievably cheap, nonsensical excuse that puts the burden of misunderstanding on them instead of yourself.

[Cow Poke]

No one LOOKS for an EXCUSE to be offended.

Yeah, they really do.

[Darth Executor]

So, I finished reading the one actual article Sam posted earlier. Here's a gem I found:

Consider how people from different circumstances and cultures will view the key players. This doesn't mean catering to every cultural conception on how a scientist and a leader should look, but it does mean being aware of who will object to what and why. Schools get upset by unexpected vulgarity, sexuality, nudity, or violence in their educational programming. For Taylor, anything short sleeved to reveal his tattoos would allow him to tweak conservative stereotypes of what a scientist looks like without entering into the realm of inappropriate.

"It's OK to offend those evil conservatives as long as you don't offend me."

Looks like just one more of many instances where feminists demand others (mostly men) fight their battles for them. In exchange you get... nothing. At least Muhammad gives you a bunch of virgins for blowing yourself up in his name.

[Sam]

This really does look like it's becoming GamerGate in spaaaace!, where the legitimate issue of misogyny in a given sub-culture is somehow spun into a problem with feminist sensibilities or an over-reacting PC culture or whatever else works to move the victimization spotlight back to where it's comfortable. It's not OK to wear a shirt of women dressed in pin-up lingerie to your job most anywhere. This seems to be a truth responsible adults can all agree on. Calling someone out for doing so should neither be a Twitter-storm nor should elicit a counter-reaction that attempts to justify the behavior or includes telling someone to kill themselves. People should neither seek out reasons to be offended nor pretend that pointed episodes of discrimination or denigration should be ignored by those who face the background of that discrimination or denigration on a daily or routine basis.

The Internet is an outrage machine. You've got your outrages on the Left and Right, from misandrists and from misogynists. But there's a legitimate issue here about what's acceptable in a workplace, especially in workplace cultures that already have a real problem with discrimination against women. Focusing on the outrage machine is a perpetual treadmill exercise.

[Cow Poke]

So, the woman who made this shirt for him.... will she be dragged through the streets as a traitor to her own kind?

[Meta Knight]

This really does look like it's becoming GamerGate in spaaaace!, where the legitimate issue of misogyny in a given sub-culture

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha you actually think that's what GamerGate is about oh my goodness.

You're a worse dupe than JimL.

[Sam]

So, the woman who made this shirt for him.... will she be dragged through the streets as a traitor to her own kind?

I haven't seen any indication of that. I haven't even seen anyone really arguing that Taylor shouldn't own a shirt like that. But he shouldn't be wearing it in a professional capacity in a professional setting. That's the issue.

[Cow Poke]

I haven't seen any indication of that. I haven't even seen anyone really arguing that Taylor shouldn't own a shirt like that. But he shouldn't be wearing it in a professional capacity in a professional setting. That's the issue.

You really seem all over the map on this, Sam.