{"id":19401,"date":"2014-11-16T12:35:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T16:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=19401"},"modified":"2014-11-18T20:52:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T00:52:54","slug":"shirtstorm-on-forgiving-taylor-but-not-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2014\/11\/16\/shirtstorm-on-forgiving-taylor-but-not-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"#ShirtStorm: On Forgiving Taylor but not The Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Via ESA http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Space_Science\/Rosetta\/The_Rosetta_lande<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Science had a big victory. The Rosetta Project landed their spacecraft, Philae<\/a>, on a comet. \u00a0This was a billion Euro\u00a0and entire careers in the making. This was a huge step in space exploration. The accomplishment is unprecedented and data gleaned from this project are entirely unique. Good job, Science.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile down on earth, a #ShirtStorm broke loose. Rosetta Scientist Dr. Matt Taylor gave a television interview<\/a> about the project. His choice of attire\u2014a naked-lady shirt\u2014was ill conceived. Moreover, he described the project as the \u201csexiest mission,\u201d feminizing and then validating the probe as \u201csexy\u201d but not \u201ceasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank goodness women don\u2019t have a science problem!!<\/a> Oh, wait\u2026<\/p>\n

Quickly, Atlantic writer Rose Eveleth posted this tweet:<\/p>\n

\"shirtgate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And Astrophysicist Katie Mack said this:<\/p>\n

\"shirtgate1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bloggers, columnists, and social media micro-pundits shook their heads and called Matt Taylor on the misogynistic implications of his public presentation. Dr. Taylor, in turn, granted a heartfelt apology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, Dr. Taylor, I accept. That thing you did was sexist. You realize that now. You engaged in humility and public repair work. Let\u2019s hug it out and get back to hoping that Philae shifts its position into the path of enough sunlight to regain power.<\/p>\n

I am a strong proponent of conversation over accusation, and try to avoid extrapolating the actions of one person to the actions of an entire group. Science didn\u2019t wear a naked-lady shirt, Matt Taylor did, and he apologized. All of the other Rosetta scientists were appropriately (if not stylishly) dressed. But Dudes (and yes, I mean Dudes in the \u201cBro\u201d sense of the word), you\u2019re making it difficult this time. The vitriolic response AGAINST TAYLOR\u2019S DETRACTORS on both social and mainstream media shines an unflattering fluorescent light upon the cultural depths of misogyny.<\/p>\n

Tim Stanley at the Telegraph dubbed November 14th<\/sup> , the day of Taylor\u2019s apology, The Day Political Correctness Went Mad<\/a>. Glenn Reynolds at USA Today discredited Taylor\u2019s critics as \u201ccrazy.\u201d<\/a> And James Meikle of the Guardian, while not explicitly taking sides, recounts the incident under a title that places \u201coffensive\u201d in quotes<\/a>. And then there was Twitter:<\/p>\n

\"shirtgate3\"<\/a> \"shirtgate4\"<\/a> \"shirtgate5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some quick themes (each represented above): sexism is bidirectional, and men are at least as <\/em>gender-oppressed as women; there are real<\/em> problems for women from which #shirtStorm distracts (as though the banality of everyday culture is somehow separate from, rather than constitutive of, the material conditions of violence and inequality); feminists are stupid\/whiney\/infantile.<\/p>\n

My question, as always, is what are you defending? This reaction is so clearly compensatory, stemming from a fear of a changing world, and the implications about how particular kinds of people hold disproportionate power and resources. We feminists would like to get back to the science, if only our opinions didn\u2019t lead to literal threats on our lives. <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow Jenny Davis on Twitter @Jenny_L_Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

*Cyborgology maintains a policy of editorial comment moderation<\/a>. We are purposeful in keeping the conversation productive and intellectually relevant. We don’t approve trolling, personal attacks, or off-topic rants. In the case of this post, however, I am approving all comments. Here, they act as data that illustrate the theoretical argument I pose above*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Earlier this month, Science had a big victory. The Rosetta Project landed their spacecraft, Philae, on a comet. \u00a0This was a billion Euro\u00a0and entire careers in the making. This was a huge step in space exploration. The accomplishment is unprecedented and data gleaned from this project are entirely unique. Good job, Science. Meanwhile down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[26687,55,26683,26686,665,1528,26682,19525,26685],"class_list":["post-19401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-esa","tag-gender","tag-matt-taylor","tag-philae","tag-science","tag-sexism","tag-shirtstorm","tag-stem","tag-women-in-stem"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19401"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19422,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19401\/revisions\/19422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}