Today's dose of feminist rage
May. 11th, 2011 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakFrom Feminist Law Professors.
Apparently, when prominent Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung did a story on the death of bin Laden, they took the photo issued by the White House of the staff room full of people and photoshopped out Sec. Clinton and Ms. Audrey Tomason, the only women present. They have stated that this is in keeping with their long-running policy of not running photos of women, which is their interpretation of Hasidic law regarding modesty.
http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2011/05/erasing-women-or-where-are-the-women-der-tzitung-edition/
I am not going to comment on the ramifications of Hasidic law deeming it immodest to show photos of women - although I'm certainly giving this paper's interpretation of it the side-eye, and HARD. I don't know enough about their practices.
I am going to say that it is outrageous that the paper felt the need to photoshop out people who were present at this moment in history in order to comply with their policy. If they can't run photos of women, crop it to just Pres. Obama's face. Or, as suggested by Feminist Law Professors, blur the women's faces. And, for the love of journalistic ethics, note that you've done so in the caption.
You don't distort the photo. Ever. I'm married to a military journalist, and that's one of the very basic tenets of the profession. Crop it to fit space. Zoom in on a small segment. Don't distort it. Tom once had to come down on an intern like the wrath of God for trying to use Photoshop to stretch a photo until it looked like a funhouse mirror in order to fit the page layout. That's just not acceptable behavior.
Apparently, when prominent Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung did a story on the death of bin Laden, they took the photo issued by the White House of the staff room full of people and photoshopped out Sec. Clinton and Ms. Audrey Tomason, the only women present. They have stated that this is in keeping with their long-running policy of not running photos of women, which is their interpretation of Hasidic law regarding modesty.
http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2011/05/erasing-women-or-where-are-the-women-der-tzitung-edition/
I am not going to comment on the ramifications of Hasidic law deeming it immodest to show photos of women - although I'm certainly giving this paper's interpretation of it the side-eye, and HARD. I don't know enough about their practices.
I am going to say that it is outrageous that the paper felt the need to photoshop out people who were present at this moment in history in order to comply with their policy. If they can't run photos of women, crop it to just Pres. Obama's face. Or, as suggested by Feminist Law Professors, blur the women's faces. And, for the love of journalistic ethics, note that you've done so in the caption.
You don't distort the photo. Ever. I'm married to a military journalist, and that's one of the very basic tenets of the profession. Crop it to fit space. Zoom in on a small segment. Don't distort it. Tom once had to come down on an intern like the wrath of God for trying to use Photoshop to stretch a photo until it looked like a funhouse mirror in order to fit the page layout. That's just not acceptable behavior.
