Opinion: The invisible women
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Long before Photoshop, the Soviet Union was known for airbrushing leaders who were on the outs from published group photographs. But tinkering with photos isn’t just a Communist plot. A Hasidic newspaper in New York removed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a female aide from its version of the now-famous shot of President Obama and his advisors following developments in the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The rationale for the no-women policy is that the images might be too suggestive. If this sounds like the argument for veils in the Islamic world, it’s no coincidence. Paternalist -- some would say patriarchal -- ideas about the need to preserve female virtue aren’t confined to any one faith. There is a also a Christian tradition of forced modesty. Remember the nearly all-enveloping habits Catholic nuns wore before the Second Vatican Council?
So Der Tzitung, the Hasidic newspaper, is part of a long tradition. Still, obliterating Clinton and counter-terrorism official Audrey Tomason wasn’t necessary to preserve their modesty. Superimposed veils or chadors would have done the job just as well.
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-- Michael McGough
Top photo: President Obama and members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room on May 1, 2011. Credit: Pete Souza, White House
Der Tzitung’s photoshopped version of the above photo, via FailedMessiah.com.
