Religious wackiness
The new Israeli cabinet contains two women. A couple Haredi Orthodox newspapers in Israel don't like publishing pictures of women. So they had them digitally erased, or even replaced by men:
I want to know how they picked the men who would be honorary cabinet members. Do they have a file of photos of men on hand when they need to replace women? How do the men thus used feel about it? Is it an insult to their masculinity? Or are they proud of their role in keeping the newspaper "female free"? Do they use the same men over and over again so that clever readers know that a particular image is a "beard"? (After reading this comment, I learned that they moved men from the outside of the picture into the positions where the women were.)
What did these newspapers do when Golda Meir was prime minister? I would imagine that avoiding publishing her picture would lead to some rather comical situations.
Cultures can be very different from each other. I can almost understand a puritanical desire not to show pictures of women, and thus censoring the women from the photo. But to have women erased and replaced so it looks like they weren't there in the first place is pretty Orwellian and creepy. It moves from puritanism to reality denial. I hope the spiritual benefits from this practice are enormous, because the amount of effort it takes to constantly edit reality in this way must be exhausting.
I want to know how they picked the men who would be honorary cabinet members. Do they have a file of photos of men on hand when they need to replace women? How do the men thus used feel about it? Is it an insult to their masculinity? Or are they proud of their role in keeping the newspaper "female free"? Do they use the same men over and over again so that clever readers know that a particular image is a "beard"? (After reading this comment, I learned that they moved men from the outside of the picture into the positions where the women were.)
What did these newspapers do when Golda Meir was prime minister? I would imagine that avoiding publishing her picture would lead to some rather comical situations.
Cultures can be very different from each other. I can almost understand a puritanical desire not to show pictures of women, and thus censoring the women from the photo. But to have women erased and replaced so it looks like they weren't there in the first place is pretty Orwellian and creepy. It moves from puritanism to reality denial. I hope the spiritual benefits from this practice are enormous, because the amount of effort it takes to constantly edit reality in this way must be exhausting.
Comments
OK, notice, though, that they had to shrink the men down to the size of the women they were replacing. So, still an insult to their masculinity!
(Also, the word verification is ropha, which is Hebrew for "female doctor" ;) )