[LeatherTrumpet]

Rosetta Project scientist Matt Taylor caused a firestorm with his choice of fashion during the European Space Agency's live stream of Wednesday's Philae landing. Taylor initially sported a shirt featuring women in lingerie, possibly not the wisest choice of attire given all of the discussion surrounding the challenges for women in the tech and science fields.

"The fact that a scientist of any gender, but especially a man, would think it's a good idea to wear a shirt covered in naked women while representing a major space agency and a significant research project is appalling; and clearly, he had no idea that he was engaging in exactly the kind of casual sexism that drives women away from STEM," S.E. Smith wrote in an article on XOJane.

STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and women in those disciplines have long complained of sexism and other difficulties in their male-dominated fields.

The shirt quickly spawned its own hashtag on Twitter -- #shirtstorm -- as both sexes took Taylor to task.

"No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt," tweeted The Atlantic tech writer Rose Eveleth.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/13/li...setta-project/






But thankfully soon to be Tory Leader Boris J talked some sense about it:

“What are we all – a bunch of Islamist maniacs who think any representation of the human form is an offence against God? This is the 21st century, for goodness sake. And if you ask yourself why so few have come to the defence of the scientist, the answer is that no one dares.

“No one wants to take on the rage of the web – by which people use social media to externalise their own resentments and anxieties, often anonymously and with far more vehemence than they really intend. No one wants to dissent – and no wonder our politics sometimes feels so sterilised and homogenised.”


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what do you think?

[Northern Monkey]

They're not even naked.I mean the shirt looks terrible anyway but i can't see how it would be taken offensively.The women are dressed.

[Tom4784]

That shirt is a shirt, I doubt very much that it's a political statement. It's a storm in a teacup and another example of people looking for reasons to be offended.

[arista]

Yes On FoxNewsHD Red Eye
they said Boris is so right.

[MTVN]

Bit of a disgrace really the hounding and the witch hunt he's been subjected to over it, he actually felt forced to do a tearful apology about it because instead of focusing on what an amazing scientific achievement he had made people decided to get worked up over a shirt..

[Kyle]

Originally Posted by MTVN

Bit of a disgrace really the hounding and the witch hunt he's been subjected to over it, he actually felt forced to do a tearful apology about it because instead of focusing on what an amazing scientific achievement he had made people decided to get worked up over a shirt..

Wish he never apologised and told them to go and take a running jump instead, now by 'apologising' it looks like he is acknowledging he did something wrong when the only thing he is guilty of is having bad taste in t-shirts.

[Livia]

I'm all for equal rights but bloody hell, give the guy a break. It's a shirt! I'm not at all offended by it. They should be congratulating this bloke, not looking for ridiculous reasons to nit-pick.

[kirklancaster]

This is so infuriating. It's just mind numbing. What the feck does it matter what clothes he wears as long as he isn't bollock naked.

Again - the mindless minority are dictating to the majority. I agree with Kyle - he should not have apologised when he hasn't done anything wrong, and should have told them to feck off - or if he didn't want to swear; 'depart rapidly in jerky movements whilst breathing heavy'.

By 'design', a male appreciation of the female form is the most natural thing in the world, whether you're a person of 'faith' or a 'secular humanist', and it is only in the sick minds of anally retentive, intolerant cretins who have their own agenda, where non-pornographic images of beautiful women - or men - skimpily clad or butt naked, become less than 'natural'.

As for no one speaking up in this poor guy's defense because they fear a backlash by these 'moralistic' morons, then that is an indictment of how fecking sad this world's become. It's why some parents no longer dare to take holiday photos of their own kids on the beach .

Slippery slope to fascism? No. Simply tell them to go feck themselves - or go have a shirt printed with photos of Baboons red arses or donkey's erect penis's interlaced with love hearts, and wear that - now that will justify all the intolerable pricks protestations.

[Livia]

I totally agree he should not have felt it necessary to apologise because a bunch of self-righteous knuckleheads got outraged on someone else's behalf.

[Kizzy]

What is bonehead boris on about attempting to make it a cultural/religious issue?