When I saw rba’s post Who Got Breasts First and How We Got Them,
I was shocked to see the focus on Sydney Sweeney,
including a photo of her ‘décolletage’.
I saw this as an
(apparently non-consenting)
human subject being gratuitously held up as an example,
in a way that perpetuated well-known gender biases.
I thought there was no way Sweeney would be OK with this,
and I was going to write a rather frustrated comment about it.
But when I actually tried to research the issue,
I found evidence for both sides,
which I didn’t have time to write up properly.
I still think this forum should be more careful about how it chooses human
subjects to use as examples;
every such use sets an example for the way all people are treated.
In this context, by consent you mean she didn’t want to be photographed, or didn’t want her photo to be used in a LessWrong article? My guess would be that she probably agreed to the former and has no idea about the latter.
My objection was not about the photo specifically;
it was about the references to Sweeney as a whole
(but the inclusion of the photo was an aggravating factor).
My objection was not about Sweeney’s information being collected or used
in a LessWrong post;
it was about Sweeney being used as an example in a post about breasts.
When I saw rba’s post Who Got Breasts First and How We Got Them, I was shocked to see the focus on Sydney Sweeney, including a photo of her ‘décolletage’. I saw this as an (apparently non-consenting) human subject being gratuitously held up as an example, in a way that perpetuated well-known gender biases.
I thought there was no way Sweeney would be OK with this, and I was going to write a rather frustrated comment about it. But when I actually tried to research the issue, I found evidence for both sides, which I didn’t have time to write up properly.
I still think this forum should be more careful about how it chooses human subjects to use as examples; every such use sets an example for the way all people are treated.
In this context, by consent you mean she didn’t want to be photographed, or didn’t want her photo to be used in a LessWrong article? My guess would be that she probably agreed to the former and has no idea about the latter.
My objection was not about the photo specifically; it was about the references to Sweeney as a whole (but the inclusion of the photo was an aggravating factor).
My objection was not about Sweeney’s information being collected or used in a LessWrong post; it was about Sweeney being used as an example in a post about breasts.