Robyn Urback tackles the same issue I addressed yesterday:

It’s quite reasonable to suggest that Taylor’s shirt wasn’t exactly the most professional choice of clothing for an interview, but I’ll let his employer reprimand him for that. It’s less reasonable to suggest that a shirt — a shirt — can drive women away from pursuing careers in science and technology… Taylor’s critics have also claimed that his clothing creates a toxic work environment for women. That may be true; again, I have no idea. But I’d wager it’s more toxic to suggest that women are so frail, of such feeble resolve, that they can be derailed from scientific careers by a printed T-shirt. […]

Whatever point Taylor’s critics are trying to make about workplace social climate is being overshadowed by how ridiculous the whole thing seems: man achieves remarkable scientific feat, social justice warriors complain about his T-shirt. The unintended consequence is that it reinforces all the negative stereotypes about privileged Western feminists; that they are humourless, hysterical and forever sweating the small stuff, with few “real” issues of equality left to worry about.

The outrage over Matt Taylor’s wardrobe will certainly change people’s actions; I assume most scientists will stick to a jacket and tie from now on. But will it change perceptions of feminists; this fury over Taylor’s error — ill-timed, and ill-delivered as it was? I’d say certainly not. Indeed, I suspect it will do just the opposite.

Oh, Western feminism. Find your way home again. There are some battles – real battles – for you to fight.

In May, I released a long sigh of frustration over “feminist” fights against “sexist” dress code policies which prevent girls from showing their black bra straps at school. I should also note that dramatic eye rolling accompanied the sighing. I’m not going to re-hash how much of the “feminist” debate over dress codes is rather ridiculous. There’s a good article by Trent Horn which examines the fallacies involved in the “dress code debates.” I’ll let Horn do the talking.

Rather than telling society that women need to kill their children in order to be equal, or arguing that high school girls must be allowed to show their bra straps in order to experience equality, perhaps as feminists we could chose to fight other battles. And perhaps we could teach our daughters, those who are organizing rallies and talking to the press about their ‘right’ to wear short shorts at school, about real human rights violations and sexism being experienced by women. We could help them focus their energies on calling for change that would save women’s lives and protect them from abuse. What a thought.

The following articles raise practices or trends that feminists could call out, and encourage others to join their fight. Some feminists are already raising their voices in support of women and girls affected by the atrocities and practices mentioned in the articles below. I hope that those women fighting for the right to wear short shorts in Western high schools feel compelled to refocus their energies.

These three stories were published in the last few days:

Child marriages draw scrutiny from Ottawa: “The most recent report by New York-based Human Rights Watch interviewed 135 girls and women across Tanzania and concluded that the practice of forced marriage – involving girls as young as seven in some cases – was causing serious harm because of gaps in the country’s child protection system.”

Fighting Female Genital Mutilation: “Egyptian government figures put the rate of female genital mutilation among women ages 15 to 49 at 91 percent. Among teenagers 15 to 17, it is 74 percent.”

Winnipeg conference to examine ‘pornification’ of kids: “The message to girls is that the way to show they’re liberated is to just take it. Whether someone feels any pleasure is irrelevant in a pornified context.”

These stories make the black bra strap fights look rather silly, don’t they?

photo credit: Tamara Álvarez via photopin cc