“While the world watched the historic landing of a space probe on a comet 310 million miles from Earth, many were distracted by what was happening closer to home.
Rosetta Project scientist Matt Taylor caused a firestorm with his choice of fashion during the European Space Agency’s live stream of Wednesday’s Philae landing. Taylor initially sported a shirt featuring women in lingerie, possibly not the wisest choice of attire given all of the discussion surrounding the challenges for women in the tech and science fields.
“The fact that a scientist of any gender, but especially a man, would think it’s a good idea to wear a shirt covered in naked women while representing a major space agency and a significant research project is appalling; and clearly, he had no idea that he was engaging in exactly the kind of casual sexism that drives women away from STEM,” S.E. Smith wrote in an article on XOJane.”
Read more here:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/13/living/matt-taylor-shirt-philae-rosetta-project/
Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola, and Jimmy Dore of The Young Turks discuss. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
Comments
Ana, your analysis of the issue is misguided. Sure, it’s a lesser offense on the spectrum of sexism, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of criticism and comment. This was your opportunity to point out to the men sitting next to you why the issue matters, and instead, you belittled feminists. It’s extremely disappointing behavior on your part, especially given that you’ve been the target of misogynist taunts yourself. I recommend reading Phil Plait’s commentary on the issue, and I sincerely hope you will have the presence of mind to change your opinion: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/11/17/casual_sexism_when_a_shirt_is_more_than_a_shirt.html
Ya know in all the up roar about the ever first landing of a space craft on a comet, asteroid, or other planet, which all three give me shivers of excitement, this Feminist never even looked at the man’s shirt. I don’t go out of my way to find offensive sexist things. I look at the whole picture, and the whole picture was this achievement that I seriously thought we’d have done years ago. All those women out there now that say they are fem’s are not they are just spoiled by being able to get a way with saying things. Me I can’t wait for the next big leap in science not some guys crazy a** shirt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQPygz-lsZw&list=UUjNxszyFPasDdRoD9J6X-sw
I think treating girls from an early age as if they are too dumb to learn math and science is what keeps women from STEM most of the time, not the lone guy who wears a shirt that you would find on any number of music videos. Women SHOULD be taken very seriously in STEM and should start suing the fuck out of any company that discriminates against them based on their gender. We all know discrimination is wrong, especially when someone is trying to earn a living while contributing a great deal to society such as workers in the STEM fields do.
Ana, I found your interpretation of these women as being deterred from a career in STEM simply because of a shirt actually very offensive and belittling to the feminist cause. That is clearly not what the tweets represented in your segment were saying. They were saying it’s a SYMPTOM of the casual sexism that exists in the industry – not something that by itself, is going to CAUSE a lot of damage. I find your interpretation very flawed. I only got to see the tweets that were showed in this clip, which sounded very sensible. By painting them as crazy extremists and smearing them based on your interpretation, I feel that you are doing a disservice to feminism.