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When Did the Left Turn into Rick Santorum?
Seemingly everyone on Earth watched in astonishment as humanity landed a research probe on a small comet speeding 84,000 miles per hour towards the sun. Well, everyone on Earth except Ms. Rose Eveleth of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The acting technology editor for The Atlantic couldn’t pay attention to the history being made right in front of her eyes. She was too busy screen-capping and zooming-in on a scientist’s shirt to see if it offended her. And, boy, did it ever.
No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. https://t.co/r88QRzsqAm pic.twitter.com/XmhHKrNaq5
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 12, 2014
“The dude” is Rosetta Project astrophysicist Matt Taylor, who wore an intentionally kitschy bowling shirt covered with cartoons of ’80s-era pin-up girls holding sci-fi guns. It’s basically a parody of the tacky artwork that adorned everything from Duran Duran cassette covers to Trans Am hoods. Taylor is also covered shoulder-to-ankle in garish tattoos, has the requisite ironic hipster beard and holds international press conferences in surf shorts, purple socks and skater shoes.
Granted, I prefer my rocket scientists with crewcuts, skinny black ties and thick-rimmed glasses, but culture has devolved in the decades since the Mercury missions. That being said, what kind of a buzzkill would deny a brilliant physicist a silly, celebratory wardrobe on the greatest day of his professional life?
Oh I’m going to be on camera talking about the comet? I’ll to wear a shirt half naked women on it! http://t.co/4X1E4oz39F h/t @edyong209
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 12, 2014
Several miserable harpies joined Ms. Eveleth on the public shaming, turning a staggering scientific achievement into a colloquy on restoring Victorian dress codes. For the record, the shirt was made by a woman named Elly Prizeman as a fun gift for her physicist friend. No doubt, she shall be placed in the village stockade for her grievous sin of consorting with a male and having her cartoon ladies show too much ankle. Her repentance will only be accepted when she covers them up in burkas.
Mr. Taylor then made the bad situation worse. Instead of telling these progressive puritans to go pound silicon dioxide, he issued a sobbing public confession straight out of a Maoist show trial. This guy just dropped a dishwasher on an ice cube 300 million miles from home and he’s groveling to a coven of D-list bloggers?
For years the left has characterized conservatives as joyless scolds forcing their morality on a resentful public. But they’ve upended this paradigm by becoming far more judgmental and censorious than so-called social conservatives like Rick Santorum ever conceived of being. The left is demanding so many recantations, the ghost of Torquemada is rolling his eyes and muttering awk-wrrrd.
Following the successful inquisition of the heretical scientist, the shirt’s creator shared a final thought on Facebook:
As long as people keep caving to the progressive puritans, the cruelty will only get worse.
Published in General
“This press conference isn’t about you; it’s about me.”
And on my way home tonight, car radio tuned to NPR–I know, I know–what ever comes next I deserve–their coverage of ROSETTA was TA DAH: the naked lady shirt and how it offended and hurt and set back women in science. I’d yell “get a grip” but how can you get a grip on squish?
Of course he apologized. He’s got two kids to care for, he doesn’t want to lose his livelihood to this mob.
As several folks have pointed out, it’s standard bullying. The geek just did something awesome? And he looks kind of cool? ATTACK!
The guy takes a leading role in the accomplishment of an astonishingly difficult scientific/engineering achievement and we focus on his cultural sensitivity? What is wrong with us?
I think they are just jealous that they don’t have awesome shirts.
I once got a date because a young lady liked my Betty Paige shirt. So…..
Point of order: Not a naked lady shirt.
Darn it.
For the record, in science, we have to tolerate all sorts of personalities and strange quirks because the work is important and the work matters.
I guess feminism doesn’t have that problem.
But, Jon, this isn’t so surprising. The first great victory of American feminism was…prohibition.
Someone should point out that Rick Santorum would have just told the man to straighten up and wear a tie -observe the dignities, man, and show the proper decorum, er -rather like Jon did in the fourth paragraph. People may have complained that he had a bullying tone, but no one ever accused him of being a bully.
QFT.
The guys on Project Mercury with the skinny black ties were engineers. Nothing against Matt Taylor or astrophysics, but it’s highly unlikely he is a rocket scientist by the true definition: aerospace engineer. Those would be the guys making the space travel part of the mission work, whereas Matt Taylor seems to be the head of the science part of the mission.
The problem is we didn’t clean out the Comsymps out of academia, journalism, and business after the fall of the Soviets. The American left needs to be de-Nazified.
If a Man can’t wear
then the terrorists win.
I guess Taylor should be grateful he wasn’t made to don a dunce cap, write a self-critcal placard, then run the gauntlet of a baying mob. #NewCulturalRevolution
True. I guess “WWII style illustrated cheesecake Hawaiian shirt” didn’t fit the twitter mob’s character limit.
@Jimmy Carter: The terrorists wear shirts with pin-up goats in burkas.
If he worked with NASA in the US he would have a lawsuit on his hands for sexual harassment and providing a hostile work environment. Internet disapproval would be the least of his worries.
As a personal preference, I would dress more professional, especially when representing my organization to the public.
But that’s a minor quibble next to his incredible achievement. Certainly nothing offensive about it.
He’s got a doctor’s in physics and focuses on solar wind type things.
Should women be free to wear what they want and shoot guns? Should men be free to wear what they want depicting women wearing what they want and shooting guns?
I am offended by his tattoos. He must have them removed NOW, live on C-Span.
The first thing I noticed about his appearance were the tatts. Seriously, I couldn’t have told you what was on his shirt. If asked, I would’ve guessed generic “Hawaiian.”
These unhappy women must be incredibly bored.
I really don’t appreciate the cheap shot at Rick Santorum. He’s not judgmental or censorious. But he is brave enough – unlike most of us – to speak publicly in favor of traditions and morals compliance with (or at least the appearance of compliance with) supported a far superior society than the one we now inhabit.
But the really important thing is to find a way to use this as a way to take a swipe at a social conservative.
Do you really believe that is Jon’s agenda?
Is that his standard operating procedure?
Jon has been here for awhile and he doesn’t spend his time taunting/trolling SoCons.
If he did, I’d have a different attitude toward this post.
Frankly, I didn’t care for the headline either. Still, if you were a progressive feminist shirt nazi would you like to be described as a Santorum clone?
You know what? I’ve changed my mind.
Jon, if you could make a tearful apology on camera, I think we’d all feel better about this.
He decided to claim that this sort of vicious bullying is so closely tied to Santorum that a whiny, entitled, self-centered idiot displaying it was an example of the left “turning into Rick Santorum.”
Over in reality, it’s pretty obvious this behavior is rooted in the removal of traditional SoCon supported things like “manners,” and people discovering they weren’t just meaningless rules.
I frankly don’t give a fig what his “agenda” was, he decided to attack a totally unrelated party because a liberal journalist behaved like a standard issue Social Justice Warrior.
Pointing out that someone’s article is built on a false assumption that takes a needless swipe against at least half of the audience does not even come into the same solar system as going “yeah, yeah, you landed on a comet with a probe launched a decade ago– but your short is horrible, you’re evil!”
What is it with feminists policing men’s clothing for sexism?
Check this out:
Mark Zuckerberg’s simple defense of his clothes reinforces a sexist double standard.
and
Zuckerberg explains his grey t-shirt, sounds pretty sexist.
Will Michelle Obama hold up a sign with sad, confused look on her face that says “Save Our Dorks”?
Progressivism. It means whatever we say it means, whenever we happen to say it. Oh, and ignore what we said it meant 3 seconds ago.
If a lesbian wore the shirt and ink, would it still be an outrage?
But we want a lot of tears, Jon. Squirt ’em.