A Brooklyn based Hasidic Newspaper Der Zeitung published the now iconic photo by Pete Souza of President Obama and his national security team with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and national security team member, Audrey Tomason photoshopped out. Why would they do that you ask? They did it because that magazine does not publish any photos of women. It is against their religious beliefs. The image of a woman is just too tempting and too sexy and it’s too distracting for all the mens who might want to, you know, just read the paper to get their news without getting all that Hillary Clinton sexiness in their eyes.
It’s better to totally deny historical facts than to print a photo of a woman.
Original photo:
Photo that was published in Der Zeitung via Jezebel:
The magazine released the following statement:
In accord with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photos of women, which in no way relegates them to a lower status. Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board. Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention. We apologize if this was seen as offensive.
Sorry, fellas. Not good enough. It is offensive. You can’t just remove women from a major moment in history with a click of the mouse and then attempt to justify it with a some BS about modesty. We are proud of powerful women in positions of leadership. We are proud of the hard work they do and we are proud that some women have managed, despite misogyny and discrimination in the name of religion, to reach positions of power and respect. We understand that women are more than merely tempting, baby-making sex objects. We also realize that women might actually want to read newspapers and news sources and look at photos with other women in them and if young women see other women making history, those young women might follow the same path. And we also understand that the majority of men aren’t idiots who are overwhelmed by photos of ladies in business suits. Give the people a little credit.
And bottom line: Those women were there.
So the Skepchick Network has decided to even out the score. We have played our own photoshop game and have welcomed Hillary with open arms into multiple facets of the historical record. Enjoy!
*Special thanks to all Skepchick Network participants who helped in the add Hillary to history project! Steve D, Brian George, Maki Naro, Ashley Hamer, Mindy Townsend, Christopher Tucker, Felicia Gilljam and me, Amy Davis Roth.
*Apologies to Audrey Tomason. We would have added you too if we had more time and more images of you but we definitely photoshopped you into our hearts!
This is certainly not isolated:
Second Hasidic Publication Edits Hillary Clinton Out Of Photo
http://gothamist.com/2011/05/10/hasidic_newspaper_apologizes_for_ed.php
“The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. That has precedence even to our cherished freedom of the press! In accord with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photos of women, which in no way relegates them to a lower status.” — I’d say that’s some cognitive dissonance there.
Ugh. Feeling a little embarrassed to be a Brooklyn boy right now. At least my religious beliefs don’t tell me to lie about history. (How could they, when they don’t tell me anything at all?)
What about Audrey Tomason?!
@jenea So what you are telling me is you just looked at the photos but didn’t read the post.
Lol @ Amy. Love the idea and execution.
@Amy I too was wondering about Audrey Tomason. It was less a case of not reading the post and more one of not noticing that there was further text after all the photos. Easy mistake to make.
Good bit of fun to make a serious point in any case.
Free Williamsburg did a slightly different take on it.