There's room for more

December 15, 2015 5:12 PM

This is what happens when you photoshop all the men out of politics, media, music. (SLYT)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering (23 comments total)

I was kind of surprised they included no photos with literally zero women in them. I'm sure they can't be hard to come by, so that must be some kind of conscious choice, but I'd expect at least one such photo.
posted by axiom at 5:44 PM on December 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

what happens when you photoshop all the men out of politics

You get really really good at using Photoshop?
posted by anonymisc at 5:55 PM on December 15, 2015 [22 favorites]

Alternatively, one notices how few women are at the top, which is kind of a serious problem.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 5:59 PM on December 15, 2015 [11 favorites]

I think the #ELLEFeminism hashtag is kind of interesting. Elle, or at least American Elle, has been implicitly feminist, at least in some ways, for as long as I've been aware of it, and they've always published a lot of really socially and politically astute writers. But I can't remember them explicitly embracing the label "feminist" in the past.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:20 PM on December 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

But the Queen is the only member of the British Royal family with any sort of power, so who cares--she's not hired or elected. Elle's published by Hearst--notice no photos of the Hearst board of directors or executives.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:06 PM on December 15, 2015

Hearst UK executive team. I'm not sure a photo of them would make the point very well.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:15 PM on December 15, 2015 [31 favorites]

I want one of those t-shirts that (was it M.C. Eyebrows who suggested it?) says "feminist." I think I'm graduating into of those crones who doesn't have a fuck left and want to just declare myself. I'm never going to be in a picture of powerful people anywhere, but I want declare my support for the team.
posted by eggkeeper at 8:09 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Justin Trudeau gets it right.

Our new 29th Canadian Cabinet.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:27 PM on December 15, 2015 [6 favorites]

Because it's 2015.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:57 PM on December 15, 2015 [10 favorites]

#notanymen
posted by Slinga at 9:15 PM on December 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

I too would have been happier without Ms. Clinton in the showcase position there. there. Hard not to see it as a push for her, particularly since her gender has been such a central part of her platform. Spoils it for me...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:21 PM on December 15, 2015

It's a British site. I think it's a tad bizarre to see it as a push for Clinton.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:24 PM on December 15, 2015 [14 favorites]

I was kind of surprised they included no photos with literally zero women in them.

I can help out with the music side of things. I've got the promo shots that should cover the vast majority of all-male rock bands, big and small, between about 1970 and 2000, with the men removed, right here.

Ah, the brick wall. Once you start seeing it, you realize it's in almost every band's promo shot collection at least once, and you can't avoid noticing it every time. IIRC, this site (site down, wayback link used instead) used to have a gallery specifically for cliche brick wall band promo photos, but it seems to have been merged into their general "gallery of douchebags."
posted by chambers at 9:27 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I want one of those t-shirts that (was it M.C. Eyebrows who suggested it?) says "feminist."

I have a shirt that says 'Feminist' and let me tell you about the weirdo conversations it has gotten me.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:29 PM on December 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

Because it's 2015.

Hah. I missed that Justin responded that way, fffm. He's got his dad's quit wit, for sure.

It's very encouraging that he has also moved so quickly on the missing women tragedy, and that our new Justice Minister he appointed is both female and First Nations.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 9:46 PM on December 15, 2015

Good concept.

But . . . Before I could truly see how many dudes were missing it was off to the next 1.5 second screenshot.

Can I please get this at a slower frame rate to share?
posted by ITravelMontana at 10:26 PM on December 15, 2015

I too would have been happier without Ms. Clinton in the showcase position there. there. Hard not to see it as a push for her, particularly since her gender has been such a central part of her platform.

Yes, the two-second Clinton photo in a 45-second video full of such photos with other women is further proof of the Clinton Media Conspiracy. It's certainly not due to her being one of the most recognizable female politicians in the Western world and frequently the only high-ranking women in rooms of men.
posted by Anonymous at 1:34 AM on December 16, 2015

There was a BBC news story here in Scotland a couple of months back, concerning an MP from the party currently in power (SNP) who was being investigated by the police over allegations of some improper behaviour. This came up in First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament, and the story was reporting on the First Minister being questioned by the Labour leader and the Conservative leader about who knew what when, basically.

The story itself probably isn't that interesting if you're outside Scotland, but what struck me reading the BBC recap was a) that all of the significant people here - the MP, the First Minister, the Conservative leader and the Labour leader - were women, and b) this wasn't the story! It wasn't 'look at this Woman Politician doing politician things while being a woman, didn't she do well/poorly' - it was just a report on some party political wranglings, business as usual. So refreshing.

Also, our Cabinet is 50/50 male and female. I like this.
posted by Catseye at 3:35 AM on December 16, 2015 [5 favorites]

Catseye, the many many women in Scottish politics is great, though for at least some of the parties, there is definitely an air of 'letting' women do Holyrood while the real men do Westminster.

shakespeherian, I have a tshirt that says FEMINIST (in all caps) and many many people seem to find me wearing it an aggressive act. I also have one that says 'Feminism is Freedom' surrounded by flowers and that seem less hackle raising. I don't think an Irish women in her 40s id'ing as feminist should be see as anything other than a turkey not voting for Christmas but apparently some people struggle with it.
posted by hfnuala at 4:35 AM on December 16, 2015 [9 favorites]

Can I please get this at a slower frame rate to share?

The gear-shaped settings icon on the bottom-right of the youtube player lets you adjust playback speed.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 5:21 AM on December 16, 2015

Seems to me that if you remove the men, what remains is 100% women, which seems quite progressive, no?
posted by blue_beetle at 5:44 AM on December 16, 2015

Can I please get this at a slower frame rate to share?

I've seen most of these images all over tumblr, taken from the PolicyMic story. They are more effective there, both because they are individual images, flashing between full of people (almost all men) and lone women in a room. The Elle thing of finishing each fade with the woman alone surrounded by color--to my mind--undermines the impact of each image by removing the women from the context. You're left with a picture of the woman, not the idea of how alienating and lonely the spaces are.

Angelina Jolie, or for that matter--Angela Merkel, silhouetted against some bright colors is just a typical presentation of a woman in the media.
posted by crush-onastick at 6:34 AM on December 16, 2015

Yeah hfnuala, I'm a dude and more than one person has assumed that my 'Feminist' shirt must be some kind of joke because of that.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:35 AM on December 16, 2015