This is too good/bad not to share - timely, too. A Hasidic paper based in Brooklyn edited Sec. of State Clinton out a photo where she was sitting in the situation room with Pres. Obama and others, watching the live feed of the mission to kill bin Laden; the only other female in that picture, a counterterrorism analyst, Audrey Thomason, was similarly removed by the magic of Photoshop.
Read the full story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110509/ts_yblog_thecutline/wheres-hillary-hasidic-paper-breaks-the-rules-by-editing-her-out-of-white-house-photo
This is so interesting because I was actually thinking about the subject and composition of this photo the other day. Hillary is the only one not stone-faced, the only one who seems to be emotionally reacting to the scene she’s watching unfold. It reminds of the discussion we had earlier in the quarter about female politicians, including Hillary, having to be more “masculine” if they wanted to succeed in more powerful positions. To me, Hillary’s more “feminine” reaction makes this photo more poignant and, save maybe the intense and intent look on the President’s face, without her there is no indication that what these people are watching is of much significance. The fact that a newspaper would edit her and the other woman out of the picture is absolutely ridiculous for a number of reasons anyway and is another unfortunate example of attempting to erase women from important moments in history.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you write about Sec. Clinton's expression, b/c I also thought that and read about how she has told the press that she thinks she was caught mid-cough, either being modest or downplaying an emotional display, however appropriate. Here's the story where she addresses this:
ReplyDeletehttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CLINTON_WHITE_HOUSE_PHOTO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-05-05-20-0
This disgusts me. I am Jewish, very reformed, thus don’t understand many of Hasidic Jews beliefs.. but really?! I can’t believe this blatant discrimination against women is still happening in 2011. Not to mention, Hillary Clinton’s expression is certainly the most powerful out of all those sitting in the room. Time’s photo director said “You can see 10 years of tension and heartache and anger in Hillary’s face.” Yet this image is too racy for a Hasidic newspaper? It boggles my mind. Rabbi Miller wrote in The Jewish Week that, “The Hasidic newspaper will not intentionally include any images of women in the paper because it could be considered sexually suggestive.” The picture is the least sexually suggestive photograph I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteA few months ago I was in Prague and visited the Jewish quarter. All the temples had a separate section for women. In fact some women were forced to sit in a different room and look through little holes to see the Rabbi. I thought this happened many decades ago, not now! Just shows how naïve I am to stuff that happens in my own religion. It also, however, makes me feel very fortunate that I have never come across such discrimination with my reformed Jewish beliefs.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that a fully clothed woman at her workplace is "too racy" belies the ideology that all women in print are too racy and that when one looks at a woman, she is seen only for her sexuality. Women are being reduced to sexual objects, which not only reduces women, but reduces men to being unable to see a fully clothed woman without being aroused. Is the paradigm here that women are only sexual objects or that men can't control themselves? Either way, it's one worth breaking...
ReplyDelete